Fralex
Explorer
I thought the complicated initiative variant would slow down the fights. It seemed obvious that adding an extra step to every round would take longer. But having tried it out, it has actually made combat not just faster, but more engaging!
Before using this variant, every combat began with the arduous writing down of everybody's initiative on slips of paper and shuffling through them in order each turn. Some players (including me) would ignore what was happening during other people's turns so they could plan out their own turn. Others (also me) would just watch the fight play out until it got to their turn, then suddenly realize they didn't know what they wanted to do yet. It took a huge amount of effort to keep games going during what was in theory the most exciting part of the game.
Then I decided to give this initiative variant a try. I didn't do it to keep people from gaming the initiative order OR to add more realism with varying weapon speeds. No one in my games pays that much attention during combat! I did it because it sounded kind of cool. It wasn't. It was amazingly cool.
Now, combat begins immediately when someone says they attack a thing. Every player simultaneously decides what they'll do on their turn each round. Then I count down from 30 really fast, pausing whenever someone says the number they rolled came up to let them take their turn. They do what they planned earlier. Everybody else spends the turn paying attention to what that character does in case it changes how their own turn goes. I love it.
It slightly lengthens combat by one round of rolling dice each round, and speeds up combat by however much time was previously wasted by inattentive and/or unprepared players each round. In my group, that's a net benefit.
Oh, and there's no need to let enemies invalidate a mage's action simply by hitting them first. You can't interrupt a spell before they start to cast it, and they don't officially start to cast the spell until they take the Cast a Spell action on their turn. Realism shouldn't make a game less fun.
Before using this variant, every combat began with the arduous writing down of everybody's initiative on slips of paper and shuffling through them in order each turn. Some players (including me) would ignore what was happening during other people's turns so they could plan out their own turn. Others (also me) would just watch the fight play out until it got to their turn, then suddenly realize they didn't know what they wanted to do yet. It took a huge amount of effort to keep games going during what was in theory the most exciting part of the game.
Then I decided to give this initiative variant a try. I didn't do it to keep people from gaming the initiative order OR to add more realism with varying weapon speeds. No one in my games pays that much attention during combat! I did it because it sounded kind of cool. It wasn't. It was amazingly cool.
Now, combat begins immediately when someone says they attack a thing. Every player simultaneously decides what they'll do on their turn each round. Then I count down from 30 really fast, pausing whenever someone says the number they rolled came up to let them take their turn. They do what they planned earlier. Everybody else spends the turn paying attention to what that character does in case it changes how their own turn goes. I love it.
It slightly lengthens combat by one round of rolling dice each round, and speeds up combat by however much time was previously wasted by inattentive and/or unprepared players each round. In my group, that's a net benefit.
Oh, and there's no need to let enemies invalidate a mage's action simply by hitting them first. You can't interrupt a spell before they start to cast it, and they don't officially start to cast the spell until they take the Cast a Spell action on their turn. Realism shouldn't make a game less fun.
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