Structured Time, Combat, and Character Advancement

We have yet to run into this but I figured I would draft something up ahead of time. As with most combat systems battle happens in a structured time. Though this isn't the only reason you can get into structured time. If we are trying to run a gauntlet for example. Give the challenge I may want you to do it in structured time.

Structured time is just a fancy way of saying turn order. The way it works in this game is a little looser than D&D. When we enter structured time you are generally working against another side. Your team vs another team, you against another player, you guys against a zombie horde. The DM will decide initiative between the sides.

Initiative:
Generally the side that goes first should be fairly apparent. If you get the drop on the enemy you get first turn. If you have them at gunpoint and they decide to move first, they may get the drop on you. If it is hard to determine then one member from each group may be nominated to make a Dexterity test, the winner's group goes first. Once one side has been determined to go first turns begin.

Taking Turns:
Turns are also more fluid. There is no big list of initiative orders, instead when it comes to a groups turn each member of that group gets to take a combat turn in the order that team determines.

So when it comes to the players turn you can each take a turn (roughly 10 seconds in game time) to complete some task (usually something requiring a test) and do some sort of minor movement. Once each group member has taken their turn in the groups turn it passes on to the next group.

Movement:
In general you can do free movements of about 20 meters as your movement portion for a turn. I will inform you if there are any environmental hazards that may impede that.

Minor Task:
You can also do simple minor tasks like duck into cover, take out a piece of gear, open and close doors, going prone or getting up, and speaking to things. These are small incidental things that you could do on your turn. If the task seems to complex or focused, then they are considered Major Tasks instead. Shouting a line while you draw a weapon could be a minor task, if you want to convince someone of something with your turn though, then you will need to do a Charisma Test as your major task.

Major Task:
This most often can be fighting, but if you want to devote more time to minor actions or movement they may become your major task for the turn. Swinging at an undead is a major task, but so may be trying to talk down someone firing at you, trying to sprint a further distance through the situation, or anything that could take up the good part of your 10 seconds.

Some major sample tasks are: Climbing, Hiding from enemies, sprinting (more than 20 meters), picking locks, intimidating enemies. They will all require a test of something.

Advancing Characters:
End of the World does't use a set XP system, and generally advancement in a normal game is after each session if a game is an ongoing game. I will simply announce times, kind of like a milestone system in other RPGs to advance our characters.

To advance a character they gain a new positive and negative feature. These can be in any categories you wish but should be based on your performance since the last advancement. If you have shown group leadership you may give yourself the Great Leader feature. If you collapsed during a tense situation maybe you get the Buckles Under Pressure negative feature.

If you feel like you did particularly well with a certain feature that you already have. Maybe you have a crack shot feature, and have since downed 10 undead with a gun. You may instead add one point into one of the two stats in whatever category that feature is under. Or if you have consistantly buckled under pressure and you have the feature, you can instead choose to lower one of the two stats by one point. This will hinder your scores, but will help you avoid having more chance to add negative, or consequently positive, dice to your tests.

As usual, let me know if you have any questions on anything. I'll do my best to clarify.

Clarifying question: does all talking count as a minor task that excludes other minor tasks, or just communications where we're trying to get a specific reaction from another character? For instance, can I provide information verbally while performing some other minor task? For example, if I'm trying to charm Annette the snake woman, it would be at least a minor task to keep her attention on me while someone else sneaks behind her, preparing to grab her tail. But yelling "Look out! She's seen you!" would still allow me to draw a gun (as a minor task), right?

Shouting minor lines while doing something is free. So you could pull the gun, shout something, and move a distance all kind of simultaneously. Then your action could be to shoot.

If you wanted to complete a more complex social check like trying to distract someone to you instead of others, intimidate them, or something similar that is your test for the round.

Now in the example if you want to seduce whomever, and you are the only person visible at the time (like if everyone else has successfully hidden), you probably won't even need to make a check as an action to seduce her because you are the only person around for her to see. Then if someone wanted to sneak up behind her to get her they would need to pass a dexterity test, but they would probably get a bonus white dice since she is focused on you at the moment and they are coming out of hiding.

Now is she see's everyone and you want to really draw her attention so much that one of the others can try and get the upperhand then you would need to make a charisma test successfully to distract her attention away from them. Otherwise when their turn comes around they will probably get another negative dice (possibly two because it's hard to sneak up on someone looking at you) if they attempt to sneak up on someone that isn't distracted.

EDIT: Updated the first post to try and clarify this too.