Dungeons & Delvers 2nd Edition: Everyone Gets (Mostly) One (Action)

Back when we played 3rd or perhaps even 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, more than one player griped about the inability to—at 1st level, whilst wielding a single weapon—make two attacks per round, arguing that one could easily swing a weapon or loose an arrow in the time it would take to walk or even run 30 feet.

I agree, and this is the primary reason we tried dividing up Speed into two values during an  early Dungeons & Delvers playtest. For example, instead of having a Speed of 30 feet, it would be noted as 10 feet/30 feet. During combat, you could move up to the first value and still do something, but if you exceeded it then you could do nothing else that turn.

None of the players liked it (probably too much effort for minimal-if-any perceived payoff), so it was abandoned after just one session.

For Duneons & Delvers 2nd Edition I briefly revisited the idea, but after a variety of other mechanics and procedures such as Fallout style Action Points, Phased Combat, and a sort of floating bonus to weapon attacks or Defense if you remain still, we're instead going to try out something that's considerably simpler, which is that barring certain effects and abilities moving at all will severely limit what else you can do.

This is because of instead of saying that you can move and do something, or move twice and doing nothing, Move is a Standard Action like Attack, Defend, and Disengage. It lets you move up to twice your Speed, because your Speed value assumes a typical walking distance over six seconds and we figure during combat you're going a lot faster. Since you only get one Standard Action per round, if you move you can't normally do anything else.

We were already going to set it up so that if you want to cast a spell you can't move at all, so clerics and wizards really aren't any worse off than they were going to be in the first place (and we don't have to state in the Cast a Spell Action that you can't move). Ditto for characters that rely on missile weapons, though if range is a problem you can always use a weapon with a greater range and/or take the Far Shot Talent. 

Melee combatants will be most affected, but that's where the Charge Action comes in: you can move up to half your Speed and make a single melee attack. There are still bonuses and penalties associated with this, but by removing the ability to move 30 feet and then Charge (or run up and make all of your attacks), that'll make the Charger Talent more useful (as well as Talents that build on it).

It'll also alleviate my issues with essentially wasting half a turn if you don't want or need to move, and without overly complicated things to boot!