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If you start your round knocked down, you subtract your KD penalty (-3) to your initiative rating ?
and if you start harried for some reason ?
i know is a lol question, but tonight i was raped by doubts, after 2 years of playing

Initiative is described as an effect test. The penalties for knockdown (-3) and harried (-2) apply to all action tests and so shouldnt effect initiative. We do it like this at our table.

A good question though, as it would make some sence to apply the penelty to initiative.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=112

According to this thread, Effect Tests are considered a subset of Action Tests (thus, all bonuses/ penalties apply). It's not exactly "spelled out" completely in the Player's Guide, unfortunately.

So anything that effects an Action Test also effects an Effect Test?

That's interesting.

Is that across the board? E.g Spell effects, damage effects, questor power effects, etc.

The real difference between action tests and effect tests is that action tests are tied to the rule of one and effect tests are not. Action Tests are those that are made against a difficulty number with success/failure and on a roll of all 1s often have bad consequences for critical failures. Effect Tests are not rolled against a difficulty number, and generate a value such as Initiative, Damage, Effect, Recovery Tests etc. They cannot be failed if all 1s is rolled, as they just generate a number. Both types of tests are subject to bonuses and penalties from effects such as Knockdown or Harried.