Most of the RTWP games I've played included in the settings page instances when the game would automatically pause. It is during these paused times that a reaction could be done. These instances included: - At the start of each character's turn, - When a character was hit, (By changing this slightly, i.e. When an enemy attacks a character (rather than when hit), you could include reactions like "cast Shield".) - When an enemy was hit, (This could work for things like Sneak Attack that only happen once per round) - When a character critically hits, - When an enemy critically hits, - When a character is reduced to 0 hit points, - When an enemy is reduced to 0 hit points, - At the end of every round.
Other instances of pause could also be added like: - When a character rolls an ability check - When an enemy rolls an ability check - When a character begins to cast a spell - When an enemy begins to cast a spell (This could work for things like counterspell) - When a character provokes an opportunity attack - When an enemy provokes an opportunity attack
I remember playing Icewind Dale 2 and more recently Pillars of Eternity and setting the Pause setting to trigger on pretty much every instance. So that it played sort of like a Turn Based game, but that I did not have to control or micromanage EVERY single party member's actions EVERY single round. This was due to the fact that these games had decent AI settings that meant that they already had default actions every round based upon their own positioning, other party member positioning, their own own health, other party member health, and the enemy's health.
So Blindhamster, you asked how would RTWP work with Reaction abilities? In my mind, its simple. Give each individual character a single reaction each round (per the rules). Then include settings that pause the game for the most common triggers of reactions, namely those listed above. Its not that complicated, although in my opinion RTWP is only really worth it if you include decent AI settings for each class that automatically know when to use their reactions (spellcasters using counterspell or shield, rogues using sneak attack, etc).
This is the most detailed and comprehensive plan for implementing RTwP into the game... and you have listed 14 pause conditions, with the possibility for more. As Swen noted, a 5e RTwP system means that combat would be a series of constant pauses anyway. (See 29:24)
This is not part of this thread's issue, but yes I completely agree. Larian seems to have this pig-headed stubbornness about including pause during exploration that I find completely baffling. It's very annoying, and is something on my now very long list of essential mods I am hoping for.
It's because of the free-roaming drop-in, drop-out co-op. But exploration mode pause is already in. Press space to enter turn-based mode at any time.
