D&D 5E Alternative Initiative: try this

[DJCupboard]

I think, if players can get at max 4 cards, then Monsters should get at max 2, plus thematically slow always goes last and exceptionally fast always goes first. I'm sure there are plenty of rules this aggravates (like the moderate Dex assassin), so it's just a matter of figuring out what they are through trial and error and then deciding if they are important enough to scrap the house rule or not.

 

[bganon]

In my opinion, while these solutions surely can work, they are more trouble than it's worth. Consider this: you are not going to match the relevance of the same bonus in standard initiative anyway.

I mean, each +1 on a D20 roll is a +5% on the total. If you give one card for a 16 DEX character, you are not matching a +15% chance unless you have around 7 total cards (more or less). But, the number of cards will not be the same each combat: the less enemies, the more relevant the bonus, which can quickly add if you give more than one additional card per character. Also, then you should do the same for monsters with high dexterity.

I don't think your math is correct. If everyone has the same initiative bonus, having two cards in the deck instead of one is exactly equivalent to having advantage on the d20 roll. Having advantage on a d20 roll is, on average, about as good as a +3 or +4 bonus. So having an extra card in the initiative deck is a significant bonus. I think the original idea of +1 card for 16 Dex, +2 for 20 Dex, etc... is pretty close to spot on.

 

[kerbarian]

Another way you could handle initiative bonuses would be to have a special first round of combat. After the surprise round (if any), everyone makes a normal initiative roll, and then anyone who gets a 20+ (or some other threshold, like anyone in the top half) puts their card in the deck. Then you shuffle and have a first round of "fast creatures only", followed by the rest of the rounds with everyone in the deck.

Instead of making fast creatures act earlier each round (meaning they've taken more actions on average at any given point in combat), it puts those extra actions up front and then has them mixed in with the pack for later rounds.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I like the idea of making your own cards too. Just like making tokens but bigger. You could really go all out and make your own from one of those deck builder sites, borrowing your favourite pics from the web... Wouldn't cost much, and you'd have your own cool customized initiative deck.

 

[ad_hoc]

You could also just give out a bonus card to rogues and monks.

Admittedly this works better when not using multiclassing.

 

[camilaacolide]

Hey Fabio, this is brilliant!

Nowadays, my group uses the Popcorn Initiative in 5e, which I love but leads to a lot of meta-thinking (which I don't mind, but tends to slow down the combat while players analyse possible choices). Since both Popcorn Initiative and your Card Initiative share the same "disadvantages", basically disregard for the DEX modifier and variable round length for effect durations, neither me nor my players will have any problems adopting that!

What's more: Currently, I display NPC and Monster Art using my iPad (and I hate digital tools at the table). With your system, I can create my own set of cards with these pictures on them, and it will naturally make my game look really beautiful! Gosh, I'm so excited, I'm going to try this in my very next session, next Wednesday! Thanks a lot!!

 

[Zaruthustran]

Ha, your post pretty much describes the organic origin of the Momentum system in Penny Arcade's upcoming game, Thornwatch. Details here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art...w-Talking-Cards-RPGs-With-Penny-Arcade-s-Gabe

Specifically: in Thornwatch, each creature in an encounter has a card in the Momentum deck. This deck is shuffled each round, and dealt out in a row. Creatures act in order, left-to-right.

Enemy creatures have Momentum bonuses; their cards leapfrog toward the left after all cards are dealt.

It's fast, it openly communicates turn order to the players (so they can prepare/pay attention), and it's dynamic round-by-round. It's pretty great.

 

[77IM]

This is brilliant!

To give Initiative modifiers some relevance, I'd introduce some system to pre-empt other characters. Examples:

Act Fast
On the first round of combat, before you have acted, if you're not surprised, you can use a reaction to try to interrupt another creature's turn. Make contest of initiative checks with the creature. If you win, you may take a single action just before the other creature, but you can't take an action on your turn this round. If you lose, you can't act now but you can still act normally on your turn. If multiple creatures attempt to interrupt the same other creature, only the one with the highest Dexterity check result gets to act now; the rest act normally on their turns.

Interrupt
When your readied action is triggered, you may make a contest of initiative checks against the triggering creature. If you succeed, your readied action occurs just before the creature's action. Otherwise, the readied action occurs after the triggering action, as normal.


...The idea is, these are risky moves: generally you are giving up actions/reactions to do them, and might fail, wasting your action. This encourages players to just stick with the cards, unless they have a fast PC trying to interrupt a slow enemy for an important reason. Spending Inspiration on the opposed initiative check would also be a good move.

 

[Nebulous]

I like the idea of making your own cards too. Just like making tokens but bigger. You could really go all out and make your own from one of those deck builder sites, borrowing your favourite pics from the web... Wouldn't cost much, and you'd have your own cool customized initiative deck.

Yeah I think a custom deck with multiples of the same cards to shuffle through would work best.

 

[the Jester]

I think, if players can get at max 4 cards, then Monsters should get at max 2, plus thematically slow always goes last and exceptionally fast always goes first. I'm sure there are plenty of rules this aggravates (like the moderate Dex assassin), so it's just a matter of figuring out what they are through trial and error and then deciding if they are important enough to scrap the house rule or not.

Wait, why are you discriminating against monsters? You're saying that a Dex 30 quickling (for instance) should effectively be slower than a Dex 20 rogue?