Initiative (Savage)

Context: HL Kit … Authoring Examples … Savage Worlds Walk-Through 

Overview

As mentioned in the previous section on the Tactical Console, initiative is usually pretty simple to implement. However, Savage Worlds uses a deck of playing cards for initiative. That requires a bit more work, so this topic works through the various steps involved in setting up such an initiative mechanism within HL.

Orientation

Before we launch into the changes that need to be made, we'll start with a quick orientation to how initiative is managed within the Kit.

Every game system possesses some sort of mechanic for determining the order in which characters act during conflicts. Consequently, the Kit provides a built-in framework for handling the process. The most common term used for the game mechanic is "initiative", so the Kit uses the same terminology.

The specifics of initiative range from the simple to the complex. To handle the full spectrum of games, the initiative framework within the Kit provide a fair amount of sophistication. Game systems that don't require all that sophistication can simply ignore what they don't need.

Internally, every character possesses an assortment of fields that are specific to initiative management. However, only two of these fields are exposed to you, as the author, for control. These fields track the primary initiative score for the character and a secondary tie-breaker score. As its name suggests, the tie-breaker is used to resolve situations where two characters possess the same primary initiative score. In many game systems, it's usual for ties to arise, so a mechanic is introduce to decide which character goes first.

The HL engine maintains the initiative for all characters. It automatically sorts characters into appropriate order based on the established rules for the game system. It also will automatically assign initiative values to characters, including the use of random die rolls when the game system calls for it. Provisions are made to allow users to either accept the assigned values or assign their own values. All of this is orchestrated via the Tactical Console, which is described in the User Manual for the product.

The data files are responsible for defining how the initiative score is determined for each character, as well as the tie-breaker. This is achieved via the Initiative script, which is defined within the file "definition.def". The script is invoked whenever an initiative score is needed for a character.

Two additional scripts can be defined for a game system. The "NewCombat" script is invoked for each character at the start of each new combat, while the "NewTurn" script is invoked for each character at the start of each combat turn. Both of these scripts provide the author with the opportunity to control state information for the characters. For example, many game systems have the concept of "holding" an action (although it may be called "delaying", "waiting", or something else). This state must be reset either at the start of a new combat or at the start of a new turn, and the two scripts make it easy to accomplish this.

You can dictate various characteristics of initiative for the game system. This is done via a number of attributes on the "behavior" element within the definition file. For example, you can control whether the game system generates new initiative values at the start of each turn or once at the start of the combat.

Lastly, there is a fourth script that can be defined for initiative. The vast majority of game systems use a simple numeric value to indicate the initiative score. Sometimes the score is generated randomly via a die roll, while other times it is calculated, but it is usually a number. In the few cases where the initiative score is not a number, you can define an "InitFinalize" script. This script behaves as a standard Finalize script that is applied to the initiative score for the character. This makes it possible to display the initiative to the user in whatever fashion is most appropriate for the game system.

Issuing an Initiative

@initiative @tiebreaker

Configuring the Initiative Behavior

per-turn bounds