So, GMs won't have to keep track of wound effects for Mooks, since they don't use the Wounds table, and that's a big help. There's still a lot to keep track of, though: Number of wounds, wound effects on elites/masters, general conditions players might've caused... and AP.

I'm worried about that last one. Running a simple one-on-one battle had me constantly screwing up how many AP each side had - and I even had a tool (Roll20) helping me.

In a battle with, let's say, 3 mooks and 2 elites, each of whom might be saving a couple AP for reactions each round is going to get confusing fast.

I imagine making a ton of custom tokens pretty quick for tracking everything, but it's not exactly ideal. Is anyone else worried about this?

Not at all. I use word docs for all the combat tests I run, and so I just note it next to their initiative. Sometimes if I'm not paying attention I forget to update it, but that's cause in the tests I'm writing down what's going on. In an actual game as GM, I'd have much more time to update it, and the players' too in case they tried to sneak an AP past me.

I'd say it's as much of an issue to track as HP is in any system. A bit of a pain, but a necessary evil. But I play using Roll20, which makes things a lot easier, so I may be biased.

Simple answer - don't let mooks your take the Delay action.

Actually, since you raise it, has anyone found an issue with Delay? Won't it prompt a cascade of delayed actions all going off later in the turn?

Sadly, I have not had a chance to actually play the game, but I very much like how Delay is currently written. I don't really see it causing anything outside what is normally seen with such actions. Characters must act before their next turn. It eats into AP, so its far more optimal to act on your own turn/hold onto AP to evade.

Personally I will probably house rule that a player can shift position in the initative track as long as they end up giving up a whole turn (in which case the end of turn maintainence stuff kicks in), as long as they can pinpoint where they want to end up.

Whats nice is that you can only pop off a delay after someones turn. Its broad enough to not require some ambiguous trigger condition, and specific enough to not cause what used to be very odd rules issues (I delay and attack them during their turn, since you can't spend reactions on your own turn it can't be dodged - trigger rules argument)

Simple answer - don't let mooks your take the Delay action.

Actually, since you raise it, has anyone found an issue with Delay? Won't it prompt a cascade of delayed actions all going off later in the turn?

Even with a delay, you still have mooks potentially saving AP to evade incoming attacks. Not every person will spend all 4 AP to all-out attack every round.

Though for those without using Word/Roll20, no need for any kind of custom anything. Just a few coins or poker chips. Everyone can have 4, and you can get 4 per mook to label next to a sheet that you're probably using for it anyways.

I'm expecting at least a few "so how many AP have I used so far? Let's see, I moved, I aimed, etc. etc." conversations.

Novices having only 3 AP helps, but it's still a lot to keep track of.

A piece of paper and a pencil works pretty well to keep track of these things. When did people start wanting games so simplified that they lose their feel?

A piece of paper and a pencil works pretty well to keep track of these things. When did people start wanting games so simplified that they lose their feel?

Since the fifth time I was about to parry with one of my 5 NPCs only to realize I'd forgotten to update his AP on my piece of paper.

I'm fine with keeping track of things. Status effects ramp up, Wounds go down (or up in 2E, I guess), things die - but AP keeps fluctuating. That's a hell of a lot of note-taking if you have just a few people running around.

It's fine for players. Everyone can keep track of one dude. I'm only worried about this as a GM.

No need for the barb, by the way.

Another option is using dice to track AP. Just put down some differently colored d4s and switch their facing as needed. Also, I want to make a preliminary response to any comments that "I can't be expected to buy extra dice for this game!" by saying this is a book-keeping suggestion, not a defense of the game'a level of bookkeeping. I also like to use dice as quick NPC tokens on a white board map with the facing showing their initiative. You could color match with the AP dice, too.

I'd just keep a tally on the sheet I'm using to track NPCs. No big deal.

Sorry, it was less a barb at you and more a barb at the game companies simplifying games so much that they lose their appeal.

DH 2.0: AP is a single number to keep track of.

DH1.5: You have to keep track of reactions that could be used for anything, parry only reactions, dodge only reactions.

If anything, AP seems eaiser to track.

DH 2.0: AP is a single number to keep track of.

DH1.5: You have to keep track of reactions that could be used for anything, parry only reactions, dodge only reactions.

If anything, AP seems eaiser to track.

Uh.

DH2: AP is a single number to keep track of - for every NPC, varying from round to round. Sometimes an NPC will use all its AP to attack. Sometimes it'll save all of it to make reactions. Sometimes it'll be a mix. AP could be anywhere from 0-4 for any NPC at any time. The more NPCs you have, the more complicated it gets.

DH1.5: If you didn't spend actions during your turn, tough luck. They were gone. You always had one Reaction to dodge/parry per round. All you had to remember was whether or not that particular NPC had already attempted to evade this round - you didn't have to bother with how many times (or with which weapon) they had attacked, or how many times they had already evaded. Multiple reactions, dodge-only and parry-only reactions, and attack reactions (mechadendrites, all-out) were rare enough that it wasn't a big issue.

The long and the short of it is that I'll need to do more book-keeping than I used to have to.

I'm in favour of the AP system in general, I just foresee myself messing up on this in the future. It'll probably be fine.