Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Xetheral" data-source="post: 7480134" data-attributes="member: 6802765">I've played with a very similar houserule, and it works great. One small difference: at my table it's not enough for the character's actions to be unexpected... they have to be the only PC or NPC who wants to take a hostile action at that time. In other words, when only one character wants to act first, I let them go first in the initiative order. If multiple characters want to go first, the question is resolved via an initiative roll.The houserule does require the players to be honest about their character's intentions, without relying on their OOC knowledge that their fellow player just declared an attack.Overall, the houserule had two effects. First, it slightly increased the number of encounters that resulted in combat, which was a positive change, because some of the players were getting dissatisfied with how infrequent combat had become. Second, it avoided the occasional problem of characters winning initiative but having to skip their first turn because the action that triggered initiative wouldn't be officially declared until a later initiative count.There are many other ways to get both of those effects, but I find this initiative houserule to be the most elegant option at my table.</blockquote>