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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Anyone Using the Optional Initiative from the DMG?
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<blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 6488354" data-attributes="member: 6680772"><p>In Expert D&D, it was fantastic for large groups because there are essentially three lines -- no waiting. Your turn is not decided by a roll, but rather what you decide to do.</p><p></p><p>But Expert D&D had a lot less moving parts than 5e. The biggest issue that I can foresee is bonus actions. In my particular case, my group is quite small -- only four players. However, they are all veterans of Expert D&D and AD&D, with no experience with the action economy of 3e or 4e. So in our games so far we have a lot of time bleed from setting up the initiative order, then having each player go in turn, considering their actions, looking at different routes, things like that. While it's one person's turn, the others are in Wait mode, not wholly involved. Or at least, not actively engaged in the play of the game. I'm willing to take a slight increase in time in aggregate if players are more engaged throughout the process.</p><p></p><p>On the DM side, with Expert D&D I found this supremely easy to run. There, defensive movement (withdrawals and retreats) and spell casting have to announced before initiative, so I'd just say, "Any movement? Any magic?" before rolling. If the answer was nay, then we rolled initiative, at which point I'd just announce the phases, and the players worked out the order -- basically, in order of who spoke up first. Players who had a good idea of what they were going to do could just go, without waiting for more deliberative players, while the deliberative players could take some time to consider their movement or targets without feeling pressured.</p><p></p><p>One thing to note, though, is that due to Bounded Accuracy, combat can be as swingy or more than Classic D&D, especially at low levels. As the DMG indicates, using this kind of side initiative could result in some curb stomps. I'll report again when I've had more opportunity to playtest this.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iosue, post: 6488354, member: 6680772"] In Expert D&D, it was fantastic for large groups because there are essentially three lines -- no waiting. Your turn is not decided by a roll, but rather what you decide to do. But Expert D&D had a lot less moving parts than 5e. The biggest issue that I can foresee is bonus actions. In my particular case, my group is quite small -- only four players. However, they are all veterans of Expert D&D and AD&D, with no experience with the action economy of 3e or 4e. So in our games so far we have a lot of time bleed from setting up the initiative order, then having each player go in turn, considering their actions, looking at different routes, things like that. While it's one person's turn, the others are in Wait mode, not wholly involved. Or at least, not actively engaged in the play of the game. I'm willing to take a slight increase in time in aggregate if players are more engaged throughout the process. On the DM side, with Expert D&D I found this supremely easy to run. There, defensive movement (withdrawals and retreats) and spell casting have to announced before initiative, so I'd just say, "Any movement? Any magic?" before rolling. If the answer was nay, then we rolled initiative, at which point I'd just announce the phases, and the players worked out the order -- basically, in order of who spoke up first. Players who had a good idea of what they were going to do could just go, without waiting for more deliberative players, while the deliberative players could take some time to consider their movement or targets without feeling pressured. One thing to note, though, is that due to Bounded Accuracy, combat can be as swingy or more than Classic D&D, especially at low levels. As the DMG indicates, using this kind of side initiative could result in some curb stomps. I'll report again when I've had more opportunity to playtest this. [/QUOTE]
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Anyone Using the Optional Initiative from the DMG?
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