Delayed Action

From Edge of Darkness Wiki

Your character doesn't have to act in the order of his Initiative standing in any given turn. He could refrain from acting until something happens in his environment. Maybe he waits till an opponent shows his face, or wants to sprint across an open street during a lull in the shooting. In this case, your character delays his position in the Initiative roster, activating it when you choose. His Initiative rank resets to one that best reflects the time of his action^[1].

• If two or more characters delay their actions till the same moment in a turn, resolve their order as if their Initiative totals are tied.
• A delayed action can be held over into the next turn for a temporary benefit. The delaying character sacrifices his action in the first turn (he can do nothing except move up to his Speed) in order to act any time he chooses in the next turn. Afterward, the character's Initiative ranking returns to normal.

A Delayed Action must be declared in advance to "interrupt". The player must declare the contingency and Action when they declare their delay^[2].

• Example: If Mitch's character originally had an Initiative rank of 10, but he holds his action, the Storyteller slots him into the sequence at a rank closest to when an action is taken. If Larry's character has an Initiative rank of 6 and Mitch acts immediately after him, the Storyteller slots Mitch in at 5. If Mitch had prepared an action and said, "My character hits Larry's if he attacks," then Mitch's character goes on 7, right before Larry's character.
• A delayed Action without a "prepared" Action declaration cannot "interrupt" another character's Action, and is simply delayed until a declared valued in the Initiative roster.

In practice, the three options for declaring a Delayed Action are:

• Change Initiative within the current Turn: Declaring "I'm delaying my action until Initiave X" or "I'm delaying my action until right before (another character)".
• Change Initiative for the next Turn: Declaring "I'm delaying my action to go first (or any other value) next turn".
• "Prepared" Action: Declaring "I'm delaying my action until (above), but will (declared action) if (declared contingency/trigger)".