Initiative: second by second

[Madmaxneo]

"Hackmaster did not hit shelves until 2001", that was said earlier in the thread.. and like I said I could have the wrong game. But it definately wasn't one of those you listed above. Maybe they were playtesting Hackmaster, who knows. It's not really that important.

 

[Ravenheart87]

Maybe it was Rolemaster, it uses quite big numbers compared to AD&D. Or Synnibarr.

 

[Baumi]

Besides Hackmaster and Feng Shui, there is also Exalted 2nd Edition and Apocalypse Prevention Inc (haven't tried this one yet).

But so far the Tick-based Systems always fumbled in my group. In the end you usually still have a round-based system (you just attack every x-rounds) that is just more complicated. It is also often frustration for those who took slow weapons, sicne they have to wait even longer than in round-based systems until they can do something.

If you want a completly different Initiative System, then I would recommend "Dungeon World". This has no Initiative at all and Monsters only react to Character Actions (except if they are just standing around). So it's much more like books and Films where you simply switch the focus between the characters just as it seems to fit best.

 

[Madmaxneo]

Maybe it was Rolemaster, it uses quite big numbers compared to AD&D. Or Synnibarr.

I would have known if it was Rolemaster or one of its sister products because ICE games are my forte. It was a d&d based system and it used outrageous bonus numbers and such like a holy avenger +5000. I remember certain things pretty clearly, somethings not so clearly. Ah, the guy who ran the game was named Rocky and it was at the now closed campaign headquarters in Norfolk, VA. Then again it could've been 2000, 2001, not really a big deal.

 

[Madmaxneo]

....But so far the Tick-based Systems always fumbled in my group. In the end you usually still have a round-based system (you just attack every x-rounds) that is just more complicated. It is also often frustration for those who took slow weapons, sicne they have to wait even longer than in round-based systems until they can do something.

But they've worked great for me.

 

[Baumi]

But they've worked great for me.

As I said ... in MY Group

I am actually really intrigued by Ticked-Systems but so far I just had no good experience with them (Hackmaster too crunchy and slow, Exalted is broken, Feng Shui was actually fun but the combat to slow for the action style). But soon we will try Apocalypse Prevention and I am really looking forward to see how this Tick-Version works.

 

[Madmaxneo]

I am actually really intrigued by Ticked-Systems but so far I just had no good experience with them (Hackmaster too crunchy and slow, Exalted is broken, Feng Shui was actually fun but the combat to slow for the action style). But soon we will try Apocalypse Prevention and I am really looking forward to see how this Tick-Version works.

When I first started using a "tick" system it was very slow going. One of my players volunteered to do the tracking and after about 3 more sessions everything started to run smoothly. I made up action sheets that listed the times for all the standard actions as handouts. After sometime the players didn't need those handouts anymore. Some of my players got it faster than others. It happened to be that the guy who volunteered to do the tracking was great at math. On another note I give extra exp for players that volunteer for things like mapping, note taking, etc, I also did exp different. The system I used had similarities to what others call a bragging system. Only I called it the memory system, where players only got exp for what they remembered at the beginning of the next session. I also did a "recap" exp session every so often when something important was coming up that was previously foreshadowed in the game,