This is a houserule for the combat round that I have been using with my Cthulhu Rising campaign. It's sort of a hybrid btw the CoC round and the RQ3 round, attempting to speed up combat without removing the RQ flavour. Comment and criticism is wanted! 
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A Combat Turn (CT) is about 1 minute long, and consists of 5 Combat Rounds (CR).
The Combat Round is the default unit of time used to measure the passage of time in combat situations.
A Combat Round divided into 2 Strike Ranks (SR). A third and last strike rank come into play under certain conditions (
see below).
Most humanoid characters can perform 2 Actions per combat round.
During a
single strike rank, any
one of the following action can be done (assuming a character have actions left to use):
- A missile weapon attack
- A melee weapon attack
- Activating a power
- A non-combat action
The order of Actions in a Strike Rank is as follows:
- Missile weapons go first, in DEX order of the user (starting with the character with the highest DEX stat).
- Melee weapons come next. Melee weapons are divided into long, medium and short range weapons. Long range weapons go first - in DEX order, medium range weapons go next - also in DEX order, while short range weapons go last - in DEX or SIZ order, whichever characteristic is the greatest.
- Activation of Powers comes after the physical attacks, and occur in INT, DEX or POW order, depending on what power or magic system is used.
- The last actions to occur during a strike rank are the non-combat actions (occuring in DEX order).
Dodge and Parry are actions that can be attempted at
any time during the combat round, as long as a character have actions left to use.
A third strike rank comes into play under some conditions. It is a short strike rank, and only certain actions can be performed:
- If a character is using a missile weapon with a ROF of 3, and have used both his Actions to fire both in the first and the second strike rank of the round, a third shot can be fired on strike rank 3 for free.
- If a character have more than 100% in his skill with a melee weapon, he can chose to split his attack - using one Action to attack twice at half skill with his weapon. The attacks will then occur in strike rank 1 and strike rank 3. Attacks in strike rank 2 cannot be split.
- If a character takes extra time to aim carefully, either to gain some bonus to the attack or to aim at a certain location, the attack is delayed to strike rank 3. A character taking time to aim carefully can only use defensive actions (parry or dodge) earlier in the round.
Example:
Roman Batou, a half-mad zealot wearing light battle armor and wielding a vibrosword, has just been be confronted by two guards. Guard one has a laser pistol, while guard two is wielding a stun lance. Instead of following their orders to drop his weapon, Roman attacks.
Combat Round 1, Strike Rank 1: Guard one with the laser pistol (ROF 3 missile weapon), attacks first and hits, but fails to penetrate Romans armor. Guard two then attack with the stun lance (long range melee weapon), which Roman parries with his sword. Roman then attacks with his sword (medium range melee weapon). As his skill is above 100%, Roman deciedes to split the attack, attacking twice at half skill. He attacks guard one, who manages to dodge the attack. Strike Rank 2: Guard one used both his combat actions in strike rank 1, and have no actions left this round. Roman used both his Actions during strike rank 1, but have a split attack left at strike rank 3. Guard two have one action left, and attacks Roman with his stun lance again, but fails to hit. Strike Rank 3: Roman uses his second part of his split attack to strike at guard two. Guard two, having no actions left for dodge or parry takes the full force of the hit and goes down.
Combat Round 2, Strike Rank 1: Guard one goes first again, and hits with his laser pistol, penetrating Romans armor with 3 points, a minor wound. Roman attacks with his sword. The guard makes a successful dodge, but the sword attack is a critical success and kills the guard. At the far end of the room, Roman see a forth guard entering. Strike Rank 2: Both Roman (INT 15) and the new guard (INT 13) wants to attack using a psychic power (activating a power). Roman, having the highest INT attacks first, with a Mind Blast. The guard is not able to resist, and gets stunned for 3 combat rounds.
Combat Round 3, Strike Rank 1: Roman moves in for the kill... (non-combat action). Strike Rank 2: Chop-chop!