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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 2947209" data-attributes="member: 2011">Actually, a DM could use your:method in round one, have a player place the index cards in order as the DM goes along and circular initiative by default will always be faster by the start of round two. Every single time. It does not need to take 3 or 4 rounds to catch up. The DM is caught up by the end of round one.So by definition, circular initiative is always faster than rolling every round. It's inevitable if the DM handles it in an organized fashion.Your test here fails.No. By automatic definition, a DM who rolls inits each round is way below my expected standards.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /> Just by your post here, it is obvious that your definition of decent and mine are two different things.First off, as DM, I do not get involved in inits except for the NPCs. Why give the DM double duty? He has enough tasks to do without rattling off questions or numbers as per either of your examples. Any task that can be done by a player should not be done by the DM in order to limit the number of simultaneous things that the DM has to handle.Second in 3.5, we have a keeper of the index cards who typically says (using your example):Keeper: "Anyone 20 to 25?"Steve: "My cohort has 23 and I have 22"Keeper: "Anyone 15 to 19?"Matt: "My cohort has a 15"Rick: "I have an 18"Bill: "I have an 18"Keeper: "Bill, Rick, and Matt's cohort because Bill has the highest init mod. Check. 10 to 14?"Jeff: "My cohort has 14 and I have 11"Matt: "I have a 13"Keeper: "Jeff's cohort, Matt, and Jeff. 5 to 9?"Rick: "My cohort has a 9"Keeper: "Is Tommy the only one in the 1 to 4 range?"Tommy: "Yeah, I guess I'm last with a 4."Interspersed into this, the DM will say "Bad one has a 14", etc.It takes about a minute, two minutes tops for a combat with a lot of NPCs. Still a lot less time and annoyance than:4 minutes of gamingDM: "15"Matt: "I do xyz"DM: "14" (assuming the DM is organized and keeps a D20 init die in front of him so he does not forget the current number)Bill: "Oh shoot, I had an 18"DM: "Pay attention Bill. Ok, you delayed until now because I'm not going back."Bill" "Well, it was Rick's joke. I had coke coming out my nose and forgot my init. Blame Rick."DM: "Next time, write it down."Yada, yada, yadaAnd actually, my wife is usually the keeper of the index cards (except for the last few weeks while she is recovering from surgery) and you can have 5 people throw 5 simultaneous names at her with 5 sets of numbers and she'll get the cards perfect every time. So, it actually goes a lot faster than what I wrote above. And even before she started to play, we always had some player who was able to put the cards in order quickly. It's a fairly easy skill to master once a person has done it for several sessions in a row.So, nobody has to write anything down (except as DM, I write down inits for the NPCs if I have more than 5 NPCs or so, otherwise, I just have 5 or less rolled D20s in front of me for when inits are figured out), nobody has to "pay attention" for more than a minute or so at the beginning of combat, etc. But, you are wasting DM time and energy if he is asking for inits either at the beginning of combat, or every round, regardless of technique. However, there are DMs who are "control freaks". For some bizarre reason, they have to be involved in every little detail, or they have to be at the center of attention, or they would not dream of letting the players know when the NPC inits are, or whatever the motive (e.g. the DM has always kept track of init in our games, etc.). I have played under such DMs and they have to be in charge of inits, regardless of the fact that it is a total waste of their time to do so. It's very strange, but different strokes ... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f615.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":confused:" title="Confused    :confused:"  data-smilie="5"data-shortname=":confused:" />PS. We even have a guy in charge of miniatures in our game. Either I get out miniatures I'll need before the session even starts, or during the game I'll say: "Get me out a huge giant" or whatever. It's a waste of the DM's time to do tasks that the players can handle for him. While the player is getting out the miniature, I as DM can be doing something else like adding to the drawing on the playing surface, or be flipping to a spell, or joke, or even just take a short breather for a second, or whatever.</blockquote>

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