Hello all ICRPG enthusiasts, I had a question that didn’t seem to be answered to me in the ICRPG book that I just picked up.
What is the the actual difference between close and near distances. It says that you can take an action for close or that if it’s near you can take a short move and then action. It doesn’t say to do any deductions of effort or seems to change anything at all so I’m just a smidge confused there.
Hope you all are doing splendid!
Cheers,
May.
Without consulting the book right now, I know it’s typically like this: CLOSE is what’s within immediate reach of you so you could move close and attack (take a step), NEAR is within a few steps so there’s still time in one turn to MOVE up to NEAR and attack. So they have the same choice to move and then take an action. But usually CLOSE means you don’t have to move because it’s right there next to you!
So this wouldn’t affect efforts and such usually. Unless you play your game with like a spear which some people say has NEAR range instead of CLOSE range like most melee weapons. Or perhaps you give a penalty to a gun because you’re too CLOSE instead of NEAR.
I think I understand. So it’s pretty per situation to determine the consequences of being near vs close. Thank you!
When people are immobilized, the difference between CLOSE and NEAR becomes critical.
In traditional gaming or tactical gaming, close would be two minis touching — intimate, combat range. Near would be about 5 or 6 inches apart, say 30 feet (not close enough to swing swords), and far would be twice that far … 10 to 12 inches … say 60 feet, definitely ranged combat distance. Another way to “scale” it would be close is equal to two minis touching, near is roughly five or six mini bases apart, and far is double that … 10 to 12 mini bases apart.
We don’t get too wrapped up in it. At the table, close might be the pad of your thumb, near is thumb tip to index finger tip spread out, and far is thumb tip to pinky tip spread out wide. Or just use a banana. lol
For your turn, you can choose not to move and take your action, or you can make a near move and take your action (or take your action and then make your near move, or some combination of the two … move a bit, take an action, and then finish your near move), or finally, you could forgo and action and just spend your whole turn making a far move.
Hope that is clear as mud.
FWIW, in practical application using tabletop miniatures on gridless terrain for ICRPG, I consider close to include both minis with base contact and minis within one base diameter of one another, which helps when a party is in a scrum with a bunch of mooks. If it were real, everyone would be crunched together stabbing everyone else anyway.
The implication is that something CLOSE is already at your reach usually, while something NEAR requires you to move up there. The way I always interpreted is that something CLOSE is basically adyacent to your character.
So a character might want to shove the orc CLOSE to himself and then move up to the NEAR troll to blockade between him and the wizard i.e
Remember 1 action and 1 move UP TO NEAR distance.