u/kayak777

Maybe, this is an oversight on my part, but I'm not finding the timing in which players declare their combat actions in the book. All it says is that characters who rolled a higher Initiative go first. If I'm not mistaken, however, this only specifies when the action is resolved (when the dice is rolled), not when each action should be declared.

I thought maybe players declare their actions at the beginning of their turn in initiative order, but this doesn't make sense with the rule that states a character can change his action (if he hasn't performed an action yet) to a Defensive Maneuver by spending a Willpower point/succeeding a Willpower check. If declaration really happened just prior to execution, then this rule would be completely unnecessary.

So that leaves me with the idea that characters declare their actions right after initiative is rolled, in initiative order. I know that in other X20 games, the order of declaration is opposite of the initiative order, but I'm not sure if this applies to M20.

So my first question is 1) What exactly are the RAW? and 2) What rules do you personally prefer/recommend?

Another question of mine is about the 3 phases of combat (Attack, Defense and Damage). Does the Defense Phase start only after every attacked is rolled, or does each attack roll result in a different Defense Phase which then results in a Damage Phase (if the attack hits)?

In other words: 3) Are there multiple attack/defense/damage phases per turn, or only one instance of each phase per turn, in which all attacks, all defenses and all damages are calculated within a single phase?

So, M20 specifically says that magical effects which qualify as attacks still need an attack roll in order to hit. This is also repeated in the "Violence as Focus Section".

Chapter Nine gives some examples of Abilities for different types of attacks, like firearms, martial arts, melee, brawl etc. For some magical attacks, however, I'm having trouble imagining what the ability for its attack roll would be. What ability would a mage roll in order to hit a classic fireball, for example?

Would he still have to roll if said fireball covers an area (like a forces 3 effect) instead of a single target? I used to think such effects didn't require a separate attack roll, but this section specifically uses a fireball as an example of a type of effect which requires one (even though it doesn't specify what roll that would be).

Questions Concerning M20 Combat.

Abilities for Magical Attack Rolls