D&D General Initiative Homebrew favorite.

[aco175]

Great idea. Think I might try this in my game to see if the players like it.

 

[mamba]

Fair question. Elephants and whales are pretty slow in real life, but real life isn't turn-based (combat).

try outrunning an elephant sometime…

 

[bedir than]

try outrunning an elephant sometime…

Should all initiative just be movement rate then?

 

[mamba]

Should all initiative just be movement rate then?

no, it should be no more that than it should just be Dexterity or Wisdom.

Movement speed would probably be a better approximation than size though (which is where this started). Large animals are not inherently slow, just like smaller ones are not inherently fast (sloth, anyone)

 

[Sacrosanct]

Hey, congrats! What's next on the agenda, and how many decades are you allotting it?

Player Agency. I probably only have 2-3 decades left in me, so I better hurry up!

Not bad, but I'm preferring the Sort function on a spreadsheet.

I try to minimize having a screen in front of me while DMing. If anything, I only have a PDF of the adventure or notes.

 

[el-remmen]

After literally decades of tweaking initiative, I think I've landed on my favorite system. Previously, I did a system where everyone rolled. Let's say I as the DM rolled 14 for all monsters. I'd call out "Everyone higher than 14 can go." Then I'd go. Then "Everyone else can go." It wasn't team based quite, but allowed the PCs to organize a bit if they wanted.

However, now I like this other system better. It's one I'm adopting for my own games here on out. Everyone rolls like normal. I start at the lowest number and place them on the initiative tracker. The next highest (2nd lowest in total) places their tracker above or below. Then the next highest places there anywhere in that order. And so on, until the highest initiative places their tracker wherever they want. I don't like D&D (and other's) systems where the highest initiative is actually a penalty because you go first, which may be a bad thing. And the way hold actions work, it feels punitive for those who had the best initiative. This way, the winner can go in whatever order they want.

I created this little tracker today to give a visual reference. Using clothespins allows an easy way to move combatants around without switching out numbered cards or whatever.

View attachment 288961

How do you handle combatants entering an already occurring combat? Automatically at the beginning or end? This may seem like a corner case, but it happens quite often in my games and thus why I always mark the initiative number along side the character/monster name (we use a dry erase board to keep track of initiative).

 

[Sacrosanct]

How do you handle combatants entering an already occurring combat? Automatically at the beginning or end? This may seem like a corner case, but it happens quite often in my games and thus why I always mark the initiative number along side the character/monster name (we use a dry erase board to keep track of initiative).

At the end. If they by chance have a bonus to initiative, they can move up that number of spots if they want.

 

[the Jester]

I've never tried it, but I've considered an initiative variant where you total the modifiers on each side and roll one d20 for each side using the total. Reroll each round. That gives larger groups an edge most of the time, but it can shift as the combatants start to drop.

 

[Charlaquin]

no, it should be no more that than it should just be Dexterity or Wisdom.

Movement speed would probably be a better approximation than size though (which is where this started). Large animals are not inherently slow, just like smaller ones are not inherently fast (sloth, anyone)

Yeah, size affecting initiative doesn’t really make sense from a simulation perspective. But, I like that it gives different monsters different initiative dice for non-weapon, non-spell actions, while still being super easy to remember.

 

[Quickleaf]

Very creative @Sacrosanct ! I think that's a great way to give players more agency.

Personally – while I have a hack I like better than the RAW initiative – I would rather do away with rolling/tracking/displaying initiative entirely. I find that the drawback of creating an unnatural speed bump right when the tension should be ramping up outweighs any benefit that "roll initiative" focuses and excites players.