General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
Starblazer Adventures: It's based on your Alertness skill; if there's a tie, you roll off.
Burning Wheel: There is no initiative, actions go off at the same time.
__________________ "If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry."
-- Ernest Hemingway, "A Farewell to Arms" Burning Empires:Boldaq Keep on the Shadowfell
4E D&D, Wild Talents, going to be playing Deadlands soon.
In Wild Talents, an entire round of actions is resolved with a single rols of xd10. You determine your action in order of your Sense attribute (basically perception), and roll the appropriate number of d10s. Matching numbers determine success, the value of the matching numbers determines how good a success and the number of matches determines the speed. For example, 6d10 roll 3, 5, 7, 7, 7, 9; the matching 7s are a level 7 success, and the speed is 3. Tied actions are resolved simultaneously.
Deadlands uses a Quickness stat that is rolled to determine how many actions you get, you draw a card from a deck for each action you get, and then take actions in descending card value order.
RCFG. Phase-based initiative, determined by Dex and Weapon Speed (+4, +2, +0, -2, or -4).
1d10 + bonuses
If you get more than 10, you get extra actions. For example, 14 goes on phases 10 and 4.
RC
__________________ [A]ny good dungeon will have undiscovered treasures in areas that have been explored by the players, simply because it is impossible to expect that they will find every one of them.
RCFG - My free mostly-OGC OGL game! RCFG is intended to be a fusion between OS & NS playstyles, giving the advantages of SRD-based gaming coupled with quick character and adventure generation and an Old School feel.
__________________ "From the beginning, no one has ever stood in Heaven. Not you, nor me, nor God Himself. But soon, that unbearable vacancy on the throne in the sky will be filled. From now on... I will stand in Heaven!"-Sousuke Aizen-Bleach
Spirit of the Century
Based on FATE 2.0, which evolved from FUDGE. Probably my favorite system overall, the key to the system is Aspects, which are player-designed character traits that power the Fate Point economy. It's a pulp system (1920s high action, ala Indiana Jones), but related games cover hard SF (don't know the name offhand; it's recent) and space opera (Starblazer Adventures), and the Dresden Files RPG (based on Jim Butcher's urban fantasy novels) is coming soon... or at least soon-ish.
Initiative is handled via Skills:
In a physical conflict, the character with the highest Alertness goes first.
In a mental or social conflict, the character with the highest Empathy goes first.
Resolve is the tiebreaker, and if that's also tied the player on the GM's right goes first.
You can also ignore initiative and go clockwise around the table; that's a provided variant rule.
Mutants and Masterminds 2e
A supers system based (very loosely) on the d20 system. It's a one-die system (only the d20 is ever used), character creation is done via point buy (like HERO only much simpler), and powers are extremely flexible due to the ability to substitute any power that's appropriate to the character's power source for a very low cost.
Initiative is handled via rolling d20 + Initiative bonus, ala standard d20, but being a supers system, you can get *extremely* high initiative scores.
Champions
A supers game using HERO System 5th Edition. A lot like Mutants and Masterminds, except slower, more complex and less flexible. A system I liked a lot more before playing M&M, which does basically the same thing but better in almost every respect.
Ironically, the sole area in which I still prefer HERO to M&M is, in fact, Initiative!
In HERO, characters have a Speed stat (normally ranging from 1-12) and a Dexterity stat (unlimited, but approximately 5-20 for adult normal humans). A character acts a number of times per turn equal to his Speed, so Speed 6 allows you to act on phases 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12, while a Speed of 4 allows you to act on phases 3, 6, 9 and 12. When two or more characters act in the same phase, they go in Dex order.
Dungeons & Dragons 4e
A fantasy tactics-RPG using an advanced form of the d20 system, with the most popular brand in roleplaying. It focuses on teamwork and tactics in a high fantasy environment. Wait, you knew about this one?
Anyway, I don't think I have to explain D&D 4e initiative, and it's the same as M&M anyway.
Star Wars Saga Edition
Another d20-derivative, an no, I'm not describing freaking Star Wars. In my view the best example of the original d20 branch, but it's hard to go back to now and I haven't run it since using 4e.
Initiative is d20 Initiative, same as always.
Call of Cthulhu
I... honestly, despite playing this recently, I don't remember how Initiative works. We didn't do a lot of fighting and I don't own the rulebook.
I recall it working somewhat like other BRP games, though:
Guns go first, then weapons, then unarmed (including monsters, the only reason it's possible to survive a fight with many of them). Ties are resolved by Dex. Then, characters who can take extra combat actions (due to high Dex) take their remaining actions after all three types have resolved, in the same order.
Fantasycraft, Spycraft, have become my default rulesets for any genre I want to play. I still look at other systems from and am fond of others that I have played in the past, but the Crafty guys game engine has gotten my gamer heart.
__________________ Terry
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."- A. Einstein
In HERO, characters have a Speed stat (normally ranging from 1-12) and a Dexterity stat (unlimited, but approximately 5-20 for adult normal humans). A character acts a number of times per turn equal to his Speed, so Speed 6 allows you to act on phases 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12, while a Speed of 4 allows you to act on phases 3, 6, 9 and 12. When two or more characters act in the same phase, they go in Dex order..
Hero is my main game.
While the above is an excellent basic description - While your Speed stat tells you how many time you act in the 12 segment turn, it also tells you when on those segments you act. A Speed 4 character moves on different segments than a Speed 6 character.
You can hold actions to another segment, and you can "abort" to a defensive action - which means you don't take your next action.
And there are many house rules for breaking tiebreakers when characters have the same dex in the same phase. My favorite was using Comliness as a tie breaker (the better looking people get more "screen time" in the comic of the game they are playing).
There is no rolling for initiative, it is all Speed and Dex.
__________________ I'm one of the lucky ones. I married a "gamer-girl."
"Build 'em like a powergamer, but play 'em like a roleplayer." - firesnakearies
Much to the annoyance of my wife, I am in 3 weekly games. Now the Tuesday and Thursday night games are only 3 hours, but still she hates it
I am running a Savage World EX Swashbuckler/Pirate game called Tales in the Ten Thousand Isles. It has standard fantasy races (Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Halfling, etc), magic and gunpowder weapons. The characters have an old battered sailing ship, a small crew and have been catch up in the plot of the local Lord Governor to become a Lich and gain greater power over the islands. The game will be wrapping up in 5-10 more sessions after they are all Legendary and destroy the Lord-Governor. The initiative has been talked about already.
When we are done I am thinking about running a Shadowrun 4th and all the players seem pretty interested in it. Intitiative is you have an Initiative ranting, this is how many d6's you roll. Each 'hit' you get adds to your base Initiative (so if you have an Initiative rating of 6 you roll 6d6, and if you get three 5's and 6's your initiative for that round is a 9). There are also initiative pass that get you extra actions in a round.
I am playing in a Dark Heresy game where I am the Tech Priest. We all started as really low-end nobodies, but we are now in our 7th rank and are pretty powerful and travelling around with our Inquisitor investigating the Tyrant Star stuff. Unfortunately he was recently assassinated and we have to clear our names by finding the cultist responsible before the rest of the Inquisition finds out about this. The group responsible seems to have access to some kind of teleporter and the ability to summon a powerful daemon(s) as the Inquisitor was ripped apart in less than a minute. Personally I have NO idea how we are going to survive the final confrontation with something that can kill a powerful inquisitor in power armor BUT hey
Initiative in DH is roll 1d10 + your Agility 'base'; the first number in your Agility score (so if you have an agility of 36, you add +3 to the die d10). There are lots of things that can add to this number though..
The last game I am in just started a couple of weeks ago and is a D&D 4th game called ‘Under the Broken Moon’ based somewhat on the Thundaar the Barbarian. You can see the wiki here. I am playing a Human Wizard in a setting where most (all?) wizards are evil and the badguys. My character is of course good and ‘pretends’ to be different things so that people don’t know what I am… so far pretty funny. We started as slaves on a flying ship that has just crashed onto the roof of an old skyscraper that is now ruled by some spider-themed goblins.
__________________ "With the Force as my guide I can not fail"
Last edited by Sen Udo-Mal; 5th September 2009 at 11:28 PM..
A supers game using HERO System 5th Edition. A lot like Mutants and Masterminds, except slower, more complex and less flexible.
M&M is a great game for sure, but I don't think it is actually more flexible than HERO (both are pretty close).
It does have a very good compromise between complexity and flexibility, though.
I also like the HERO initiative system.
Back then, when we played Shadowrun 2nd Edition, I made an action-point-based initiative system for that game, which uses some elements from the HERO system. Worked very well and combat was very fluent with it, even though it was quite complex.
Bye
Thanee
__________________
In our world, immortality is not for the living. The legend lives on!
In Memoriam Dave Arneson ( April 7th, 2009) & Gary Gygax ( March 4th, 2008).
Wondering what the Dungeon Tiles are like? Take a look here (up to DU5 Sinister Woods).
My RuneQuest game goes on, and I'm really enjoying the Mongoose revamp of the rules. I've also started experimenting with Dragon Warriors, which I got hooked on after the freebie at Free RPG Day, this year...
A system I liked a lot more before playing M&M, which does basically the same thing but better in almost every respect.
In my view the best example of the original d20 branch, but it's hard to go back to now and I haven't run it since using 4e.
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