Prepare

When you Prepare, you get ready to take an action at a specific time or when a specific condition is met (a more advantageous shot, for example).

As a quick action, you can Prepare any other quick action and specify a trigger. Until the start of your next turn, when it is triggered, you can take this action as a reaction.

The trigger for your Prepared action must be phrased as “When X, then Y,” where X is a Reaction, action or move taken by a hostile or allied character and Y is your action. For example, “when an allied character moves adjacent to me, I want to throw a smoke grenade,” or “when a hostile character moves adjacent to me, I want to ram them”.

Your Preparation counts as taking the action, so it follows all usual restrictions on that action and on taking multiple actions. You can’t, for example, Skirmish and then Prepare to Skirmish again; you also can’t move and then Prepare to Skirmish with an ordinance weapon, which normally needs to be fired before moving or doing anything else on your turn. Additionally, after you Prepare an action, you can’t move or take any other actions or Reactions until the start of your next turn or until your action has been triggered, whichever comes first.

Although you can’t take Reactions while holding a Prepared action, you can take them normally after it has been triggered. You can also drop your Prepared action, allowing you to take Reactions as usual. If the trigger condition isn’t met, you lose your Prepared action.

When you Prepare, it is visible to casual observers (e.g., you clearly take aim or cycle up systems).