D&D 5E Alternative Initiative: try this

[DJCupboard]

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?

That sounds like a good candidate for the monster that always goes first. In general I discriminate against (ie, give fewer chances to go first to) the monsters because they aren't trying to enjoy the game like the players are.

 

[Vaslov]

When I started to run SW using cards for imitative was one of those things I thought was just an odd gimmick of the system that I would likely drop. After seeing it in action with a large group I find I like it much more than having players roll. The tracking always bogs down with large groups. With cards everything moves faster. Making a custom deck is a cool twist on the idea.

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?

For creatures where a high imitative is their shtick, like quicklings, modify the mechanic to say they get two cards and act on both of them. For characters that are
"just" high dex some of the suggestions up thread where they get multiple cards and pick which to act on works. For slow characters they also get multiple cards, but take the lower.

 

[the Jester]

That sounds like a good candidate for the monster that always goes first. In general I discriminate against (ie, give fewer chances to go first to) the monsters because they aren't trying to enjoy the game like the players are.

Fair enough. Not to my taste, but that's a playstyle thing.

 

[Madeiner]

I think having multiple cards per characters and discarding any cards after the first is cumbersome.

How about this? If you have dex 20, or the alert feat, you get to say "i go first, instead" once per combat when another creature's turn is up. You disregard the character's card for only that turn, as he went first instead.

You can "go first" before another character too, if he lets you.
The assassin becomes more powerful however under this rule, in that he always gets to go first, in the first round of combat.

 

[Coredump]

For characters that are
"just" high dex some of the suggestions up thread where they get multiple cards and pick which to act on works.

I really like that mechanic, and it should be easy to manage...I think.

For slow characters they also get multiple cards, but take the lower.

Not sure I like that one, it starts making a *huge* difference between high and low Dex. I think I would stick with 1 card for any Dex of 11 or lower, and then give extra cards for Dex bonuses.

I do like the symmetry of this mechanic... just don't thin I would like the result.

 

[Minigiant]

Instead of tarot cards you could use cards from a CCG (like MtG) that have pictures like the characters. Players might like finding a card that represents their character--sort of like picking out a mini for your character.

A DM one mine did that once.

The best part is that you can use copies of the same cards as miniatures via card stands and after every creature's turn you can "t-word" another copy of the card.


It was a use for all those bad commons.

 

[davout1805]

Just a few ideas that came to mind - no idea how well they would work out, especially for monsters.

One, for each encounter each character rolls a die (GM decide dice size). If the roll is less than or equal to the character's initiative modifier they get a second card for that encounter. May want to add some negative modifier to die roll if you wish for characters with negative initiative modifiers the chance to get bonus card.

Two, each character subtracts their initiative modifier from some number, say 8. The result is an interval. The best way to describe is with an example. Say the number the DM decides is 8, character A has a initiative bonus of +3, 8 - 3 is 5. Every 5th combat of a session character A gets a bonus card. Character B with -1, 8 - (-1) is 9. Every 9th combat of a session that character gets a bonus card.

Three, each character subtracts their initiative modifier from some number, say 5. The result is the round number of each combat the character gets a second one card. Ex: Character A again with +3, 5 - 3 is 2, Starting in the 2nd round character A gets a bonus card. Character B with -1, 5 - (-1) is 6, starting in the 6th round character B gets a bonus card. If the character B is the combatant with the worst init bonus, you could just remove everyone's bonus card.

Four, mixture of #2 & #3. Each character subtracts their initiative modifier from some number, say 5. The result is an interval. Every nth round the character gets a bonus one card but the next (unless his result is a 1). Example same characters as above. Character A gets bonus card every 2 (5 - 3) rounds. Character B gets bonus card every 6 (5 - (-1)) rounds.

Just some food for thought.

 

[Fabio Andrea Rossi]

The idea to use a custom deck inserting multiple copies of the same character who gets special initiative bonuses is brilliant! It seems less cumbersome than adding different pics for the same PC.

I’m still not convinced that there will be a measure of accuracy as opposed to D20 rolls: probably nearer to Advantage than static bonuses, as someone pointed out. I’m not a math guy but without crunching numbers too much the deck is changing depending on the number of creatures while a D20 is always 1-20 for everyone, so it’s difficult to balance it out especially for the low numbers, we’ll still use double cards only for exceptional situations but for those it can work.

 

[davout1805]

Four, mixture of #2 & #3. Each character subtracts their initiative modifier from some number, say 5. The result is an interval. Every nth round the character gets a bonus one card but the next (unless his result is a 1). Example same characters as above. Character A gets bonus card every 2 (5 - 3) rounds. Character B gets bonus card every 6 (5 - (-1)) rounds.

That last paragraph should have read
Four, mixture of #2 & #3. Each character subtracts their initiative modifier from some number, say 5. The result is an interval n. Every nth round the character gets a bonus card for that round but not the next (unless his result is a 1). Example same characters as above. Character A gets bonus card every 2 (5 - 3) rounds. Character B gets bonus card every 6 (5 - (-1)) rounds.

 

[Coredump]

Just a few ideas that came to mind - no idea how well they would work out, especially for monsters.

One, for each encounter each character rolls a die (GM decide dice size). If the roll is less than or equal to the character's initiative modifier they get a second card for that encounter. May want to add some negative modifier to die roll if you wish for characters with negative initiative modifiers the chance to get bonus card.

Two, each character subtracts their initiative modifier from some number, say 8. The result is an interval. The best way to describe is with an example. Say the number the DM decides is 8, character A has a initiative bonus of +3, 8 - 3 is 5. Every 5th combat of a session character A gets a bonus card. Character B with -1, 8 - (-1) is 9. Every 9th combat of a session that character gets a bonus card.

Three, each character subtracts their initiative modifier from some number, say 5. The result is the round number of each combat the character gets a second one card. Ex: Character A again with +3, 5 - 3 is 2, Starting in the 2nd round character A gets a bonus card. Character B with -1, 5 - (-1) is 6, starting in the 6th round character B gets a bonus card. If the character B is the combatant with the worst init bonus, you could just remove everyone's bonus card.

Four, mixture of #2 & #3. Each character subtracts their initiative modifier from some number, say 5. The result is an interval. Every nth round the character gets a bonus one card but the next (unless his result is a 1). Example same characters as above. Character A gets bonus card every 2 (5 - 3) rounds. Character B gets bonus card every 6 (5 - (-1)) rounds.

Just some food for thought.

While intriguing, I think these all add a lot more recordkeeping and time to the process.

As it stands, the PC cards are the same for every fight, the DM just needs to add in the monster cards; but that is only once each fight.
These would have cards going in and out for PCs every round.... assuming you track which round it is correctly.