Tutorial #1: Movement & Action Points
In Allies of Majesty, a character’s Swiftness determines how quickly they act. Characters with higher Swiftness will act before characters with lower Swiftness.
Elohim can be incredibly fast and will usually act multiple times within a single Cycle. Cycles in Allies of Majesty represent approximately 5 seconds of time passing in the game.
This is important when the game is in what is called Cycle Mode. Cycle Mode is usually only applied during times of War. Outside of War, time can pass more fluidly. During War, however, the passage of time will slow down because there is so much going on that is important to track.
Action is dealt with in terms of Action Points. Action Points are used to Move, Strike, use Spiritual Effects, and several other possibilities. Activities that require Action Points will have a specific number of Action Points they require to perform. For example, making a standard Strike on an enemy requires 3 Action Points whereas initiating a Spiritual Effect only requires 2 Action Points.
In each Cycle an elohim gets to act for a number of total Action Points equal to their Speed. So, a character with 12 Speed would act for a total of 12 Action Points during the Cycle.
These Action Points won’t happen all at once. In order to provide a more realistic intermixing of activity, each Cycle is divided into 7 Segments. How Action Points are allocated into which Segments will be described in a later Tutorial for Hosts and interested Players.
When the Host tells you it is your character’s chance to act, this is called your character’s Activation. You can perform actions during that Activation until you have used all the Action Points you have available or otherwise decide you are done.
It costs 1 Action Point to Move, repositioning your character one inch in any direction on the tabletop. Remember that any direction truly means any. You can Move up into the air, through physical objects, or even under the ground. You are a spirit being and are not bound by the physics of the material creation.
This concludes Tutorial #1: Movement & Action Points. In the next Tutorial we will cover Falter.