Forgive me if this has been asked before but how does Delay work?

It is listed as a Half action, in the description in the text 192 it says it immediately ends your turn but you reserve a Half Action for later use.

Can you Move (half action) then Delay (half action) and then have the delay give you a half action later.

Or does the mere act of Delaying use a half action and you still need a half action left to use later?

We play the latter (ie. you can half-action move, then delay, then use the other half-action later), but I've never thought it it right. The wording in the DH rulebook tends to support both interpretations.

BYE

My groups have always used the Delay action takes a half action and leaves you with a half action to use any time until your next turn comes up.

ItsUncertainWho said:

Same here. We've house ruled that you can to a lower initiative as a Free Action, but this is your new initiative for the rest of the encounter. Sometimes it's a penalty to go first, which seems against the spirit of winning an initiative.

We allways play with the "You can delay allways your initiative", so if you are at 14, and decide just to act after the one with initiative 9, you can do that. Delay your ini to 8 and do your turn then.

Tubben said:

This is what we also do. IE: Delay is houseruled a free action, leaving your full actions to be used when you want to.

I think the intent is that Delay is a half-action in itself, so you need another half-action to actually act with after the delay. So you can't move and then delay an attack since move and delay will have used up both your half-actions, so you have nothing to attack with.

Think of Overwatch. With Overwatch you can delay a full-auto attack, but you get a penalty for doing so. This is the same, you can delay a half-action, but you have to pay a price. And that is that you loose your other half-action to do the actual Delay.

Honn said:

May it be, but i dont like if you be punished for having a high initiative. Thats why we do it like i said ;-) Delay your ini without beeing punished.

NTLBagpuss said:

As far as I remember it costs you a Full Action, but gives you a Half Action at any possible time later on. So you sacrifice a Half Action for being able to react just at the moment you want. At least that is how we do it...

Luthor Harkon said:

Pretty sure that's how that works. At least, that's also how we do it. Doing it this way means you don't have to give up your place in the initiative sequence. I suppose if a player really wanted to change their initiative to act later, I might allow it but it seems better to have that half action whenever you want it and then your full action at your initiative.

Luthor Harkon said:

Except on the table and in its description it is listed as a Half Action not a full action, and it is not mentioned in the Errata at all. It seems some people are reading it one way and others another. If they had described it as a Full Action then there wouldn't have been two equally valid interpretations.

NTLBagpuss said:

Actually, I just reread the description of the action and my group's interpretation seems to me the correct one. (It is not, in fact, a Full Action, but a special half action which ends your turn but gives you a Half action available at any time before your next turn.)

From p. 192: "Delay" (Half Action): You watch and wait for an opportunity. When you use the dely Action, your Turn ends immediately, but you reserve a Half Action for later use. Any time before your next Turn, you can take your reserved Half action. [...] If the prepared Action is not taken before your next Turn, it is lost."

Because the rules state that your turn "ends immediately, but you reserve a Half action" for later use, I would not allow anyone to attack first then delay, or move first then delay. In effect, as the rules state in the description, the Delay action ITSELF is a half-action (otherwise it would have to be tagged as a Free action) which only leaves the possibility of another half action, which must be held in reserve in order to be used later. If you move/attack first, you have nothing left of your turn to delay and taking the Delay action would grant you no benefit whatsoever.

Nihilius said:

Me too. Delay is essentially a "I want to act anytime I choose even interrupting others", which is something else than just (I'll wait and see what happens), which means you can't interrupt anything but just act later in iniative.

I suppose the easiest way of thinking about this is that you are not gaining a free half action in between rounds, you are literally delaying your second half action until a opportune moment.

Friend of the Dork said:

I might try that myself as it has come up.

I've also started to always roll off on delay actions rather than automatically going in agility order, Mostly this will affect a guy with good a awesome agility so he's going to win most rolls but it seems a bit more dramatic when he has to roll to beat someone to the shot.

Actually Macharias, when I re-read the rules I am almost starting to swing the other way. It clearly states that when you use Delay your turn ends and you get a half action to use later. It says nothing about actually having to have a half action left in order to do this, save for the half action you use for Delay. In fact, why would you need to? Your turn will end so any actions not used would be lost.

I still think that the intent is for you to loose a half action by using delay, but I am not so sure anymore.

In RT you have to delay as your first half action, so it's essentially a full action that gives a half action later. I've always played it the other way, but now that I have RT and it is clear about a lot of the actions I use those rules for DH now.