Half move -- "you move your AB"

Full move -- "you move twice your AB"

Charge -- "you move three times your AB, and a tack"

Run -- "you move 6 times your AB, it there is a -20/+20 to hit you"

There is no "up to your AB," just "your AB." There is no Charge without an attack. Does this mean if I mave a movement rate of 3/6/9/18, I cannot move 9 meters without making an attack? If I can, does it count as a Run, and do I get the -20/+20 effect, or not? If not, isn't it just a Full Move that has to be made in a straight line for the last 4 meters? Do I have to move my full 18 to get the -20/+20? Can Mega Nobs only move 12 meters if they attack? Otherwise they're magically crippled?

This is atrociously explained.

bogi_khaosa said:

It makes sense to me.

Half a move: you move your AB

Example: Bob the weapons specialist has an agility score of 32. Therefore his agility bonus is 3. Bob decides he wants to move to the cover 3 meters in front of him (3 squares if your using a tactical map). Therefor Bob utilizes his half move and moves 3 squares, using up one half action. This leaves him a half an action to take a shot at the cultist who is shooting at his friend.

Full Move: Move Twice your AB. Using Bob again, with his AB of 3, this means 6 meters.

Example: Bob the weapons specialist realizes that the Ork grunt has flanked his current position and wants to fall back to the cover 6 meters (squares) to his rear. Thus Bob uses his full move (or two half actions), keeping his head down, to move to this new position.

Charge: You move 3x your AB and attack. So Bob with an AB of 3 can move 9 meters (squares) then attack with his Melee weapon.

Example: Bob the weapon specialist uses the last of his charge for his lascarbine. Bob sees that a secessionist soldier is engaged in a Melee with his squad ate about 9 meters away. Bob uses the charge action to move 9 meters and attempts to stab his enemy with the bayonet attached to his lascarbine. He'd get a couple bonuses for doing this, +10 for the charge and +10 because his target is already engaged with his squadmate.

Run: Move 6 times your AB. Bob with an AB of 3 can run 18 meters (squares).

Example: Realizng the horror of what is before him, Bob wants to get as far away from the force of Chaos Marrines approaching his position. Utilizing his full turn to run as fast as possible, bob sprints 18 meters in the other direction.

So what's the problem? Do you really need to be "told" that "move x times your AB" actually means "up to?" Just using your common sense should tell you this. If it wasn't the case you'd literally have a game where it was impossible to move a single meter / you'd only be able to move multiples of your AB. So, to answer your question: if you have Bob and he wants to move 9 meters, but is not purposefully charging a target, he'd have to "run," giving him a total available move of 18, of which he'd use 9.

Why does he have to get the "run" bonus and penalty when he does this? Keep in mind that these rules are highly abstracted. For example, a full move of "6" for Bob represents Bob moving purposefully from point x to point z--just fast enough to keep his head down and to stay totally "combat aware" of his surroundings. A charge (which can be any distance from 3 to 9) represents Bob screaming and running headlong at an enemy with the intent to stab/chop him in the face. This is causes a totally different set of reactions for his enemies than him simply "running" 9 meters.

Which leaves running. For Bob to move 7 or more meters, and not be running straight at the enemy with bayonet down, requires him to move faster and thus be less in control of his movements and less combat aware, thus inducing certain penalties and giving certain bonuses (e.g it's harder for his enemies to lead him).

Really it is similar in almost every other game to some extent. For example in dnd 4e you can "charge" and get +2 move and a +2 to attack. So a character with the speed (move) of 6 gets that bumped up to 8 AND he gets a bonus. Now say the same character with a speed of 6 wants to move 8, but isn't charging at an enemy… Now he has to "run" instead, which means he gets to move, but now he grants combat advantage (his enemies and not him will get the +2 attack) AND he takes a -5 to any attacks he makes until his next turn starts

So what happens if you Charge and nobody is there? Is this actually a Run, except that there are no penalties to attack you? And if so, what makes it different from a Full Move?

Mega armouerd nobs can't Run, but they can Charge. Does this mean they are limited to a Full Move until somebody gets in Charge range (since Charge is listed as an Attack subtype, not a form of movement)?

bogi_khaosa said:

Let me say this at the outset:

1. The Golden rule of GMing is that you do not have to follow the game mechanics as written. If something feels broken to you, or just doesn't make sense, the it is perfectly fine for you to "homebrew" a rule change.

2. I have not ran a game using the Only War rules as of yet, but I am "in process" of getting ready to.

Now with those two things out of the way, here is my take on the answer to your question. First, being new to the system myself, where did you find rules (and what type of armor) that say your mega armored noobs can't use the run action? I don't remember seeing this anywhere, but its totally possible I missed it.

If however, there was a rule for some armor type that said "characters wearing x cannot use the run action," I would look for whether or not it mentioned charge. Assuming it says nothing on charge, I would personally rule players can still charge, and thus move 9 (in our 3 AB example); However, I would treat any attempt to move 9 meters/squares (any movement over 6 actually) that was not a charge attack as a run--giving the penalties and bonuses.

So I would say that, in this limited case, you would be right about the clarity issue, and I would interpret the rule as "characters wearing x armor cannot run more than their charge speed."

Hey DM! :-p

Two things: I think any move action is available on an "up to" the listed amount. It might not be explicitly stated (oh FFG), but I think the intent is clear.

#2: Charging is a full action. Running is a full action. The charge action basically exists to allow people to attack and move at "run speed" but only for a half action. i.e. it's Half action run + half action attack.

You can't charge without a target, but the point is mostly moot, because it's a full action, so running would get you further. (The only trade off being the +20 from melee attacks).

If you know much about orks, yes, the only thing to motivate a heavily armored ork to move that quickly is the prospect of krushing skullz.

ZombieLenin said:

It's in the adventure Final Testament, as well as other places in the 40KRPG line where mega armour has been written up (Creatures Anathema, for instance).

Terminators can't do it either. They can Charge, but not Run.

Which leaves me in a quandary as to what to do with my meganobs. Do they just Full Move until an enemy gets in Charge range, then get a burst of speed, or what?

This is especially perplexing when the meganobs are refered to as "dangerous because of their speed."

bogi_khaosa said:

If I were running this, like I said, I'd rule:

They can run up to their charge speed. So if their AB were 3, this would be 9. In other words, if they wanted to move 7, 8 or 9 meters without attacking, they'd be running giving them the penalties and bonuses.

You could also rule that they can only charge up to their full move. The difference the between their full move and a charge would only be the fact that a charge gives them a +20 to attack and, iirc, completely ends their turn.

bogi_khaosa said:

Do the samething as I. In open ground, Ork Trukk or Battlewagon for transportation, problem solved. Inside buildings it doesn't matter as distances are short. My meganobs have many times while inside used "Shortcuts" (read charged through walls) to get in melee. Few of those have ended up them bashing their head on reinforced concreat. But that hasn't stopped them trying.