Deciding What to do Before Initiative is Rolled.

[Scribble]

I was looking at the rules for combat in an earlier edition and came across this rule. That all actions were decided/announced before initiative was rolled.

Did any of you use this rule or was it house ruled out?

I remember our group knew about it, but we pretty much never used it.

Did you?

 

[Dausuul]

I was looking at the rules for combat in an earlier edition and came across this rule. That all actions were decided/announced before initiative was rolled.

Did any of you use this rule or was it house ruled out?

I remember our group knew about it, but we pretty much never used it.

Did you?

We used it. It was a royal pain. The new way is better.

In my not-so-humble opinion, anyhow.

(Actually, I prefer a hybrid of modern initiative with the AD&D "team initiative" option; the system espoused in a recent thread, wherein the monsters have a fixed initiative, players roll to beat it, and those who succeed get to go first, with monsters and players alternating after that. When your team is up, team members can go in any order they like, even simultaneously.)

 

[Scribble]

I guess it was supposed to make it so you couldn't just automatically counter whatever the other side was doing?

Taking it out never seemed to really cause any problems though.

 

[billd91]

We ususally didn't do it in 1e, but in 2e we did. It really is one of the ways to keep the casters in balance and, in some ways, 3e hurts for it.

 

[weem]

Completely forgot about that - never used it though

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Some groups I played in did this, but I found it to be a pain. I know it was supposed to simulate the fact that everything is happening nearly simultaneously, but it just slowed the game down with exercising useless actions, like when somebody declares they are going to attack a certain opponent, and that opponent is dropped before their initiative.

 

[ExploderWizard]

The only part of it we really used was for spellcasting. It was vital for helping keep casters from becoming too powerful.

 

[Corathon]

I still use it.

 

[Bullgrit]

I moved to AD&D from BD&D. BD&D didn't use such a rule, and apparently I didn't read the AD&D DMG closely enough to discover this rule for the advanced system. So, no, I didn't use this rule.

I've played at least two RPG systems that had this rule: Marvel Super Heroes and Star Wars d6. In practice, with both games, this declaration phase was an annoyance, at best. I can't imagine it being anything good in a D&D game.

In my experience, using a declaration phase essentially doubles the time it takes to run through a battle. D&D works better for me without it.

I played Battletech with this rule, but that is a war game more than an RPG, and it worked better in that system.

Bullgrit

 

[Mallus]

Put it this way... my groups did it in the AD&D era and it sometimes resulted in some memorable and amusing situations... but we don't nowadays and wouldn't dream of going back (wouldn't make sense, anyway, since D&D no longer uses per-round initiative).

The frustration outweighs the unintended comedy.