D&D 5E Fast Initiative ideas?

[S'mon]

What I've done to speed up cyclical initiative is compare initiative to the monsters', the player that beats the monsters goes first, then progress clockwise or counter-clockwise around the table (depending on which catches more high-initiative PCs). Monsters go when it gets to me.

Worked for running 8+ player Encounters tables inside of 2hrs.

I'm thinking maybe something like this, assuming I don't want to mess with the player side rules (roll d20+DEX) - roll to beat monster init DC then go in any appropriate order, eg front rank first in a passage.
I may just end up sticking with RAW though, or RAW with monsters 'taking 10' on init.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I just use index cards with everyone's names on them. I usually note their DEX and Init. bonus too, just in case I need to compare quickly.

I also like the monsters take 10 rule, but I usually use 15 for boss monsters.

 

[Ilbranteloth]

I'm about to start a new 5e campaign in an old-school style. I'm a bit worried that the
initiative rolling & tracking may be a major time sink and slow down combat & thus the game -
for this game it will be important that the PCs can complete a delve/expedition and get back to base at the end of a ca 4-hour game session.

What are good ways to speed up initiative/combat sequence that work well with 5e?

Initiative is old school. Although in AD&D RAW was roll a d6 for each side, with very few modifiers (including Dexterity). Low roll goes first, Dex is consulted if there's a tie.

Having said that, even though I've written up a roundless initiative/combat system that's very, very fast (and not so different from Hackmaster and similar approaches), my new group has fallen into the approach I've been using for several years, which is no initiative.

I've included a variation using rounds, and a more complete version without rounds. Both are very fast in terms of play at the table, although I've found the roundless variant faster myself.

Ilbranteloth's Initiative

 

[Psikerlord#]

What about the following. Only players roll for initiative. Make an old school Dex check (trying to roll under Dex, 20 auto fails). If success, that PC goes before the monsters. If great success (say rolls <half stat), they also go before any boss monsters. If more than one player succeeds, they work out themselves who goes first (or best margin wins (or high dex) if an argument breaks out). If fail, monsters go before that PC.

So GM doesnt have to roll. Only players, and they immediately know from their one roll whether they are going before monsters or after, they dont need to check with the GM or other players.

Might speed things up a bit for those games where you're rolling init at the start of each round. Does however make Dex an (even) more desirable stat.

 

[Satyrn]

My table does a group initiative. Though it kind of works like an Initiative check for a bonus turn.

At the beginning of combat the PCs roll initiative against a single monster Initiative roll (although you could also set the DC to a static 10 or 15 to speed things up even more).

The PCs who beat the monster's Initiative get to act first. But they get to act in whatever order they want, as they choose regardless of who rolled higher.

Then all the monsters go. And that's essentially the end of the round.

In each subsequent round, the players go first, again acting in whatever order they choose regardless of what they rolled or what order they acted in the previous rounds.


Where this speeds things up is that the players are in complete control of who goes next, and we tend to pay far more attention to what the others are doing, looking for a good time to take our own turn. Plus, if there's a player hemming and hawing about what to do, or looking up a spell, someone else can step in and do their thing in the meantime. It kind of bundles all the indecision together, and that helps, too.

A round can go by so quickly, and being withing the control of the players, our DM often doesn't realize that it's the monsters turn again, and we're sitting around waiting for him to act until one of us says "uh, we're done. It's your turn."

 

[Satyrn]

What about the following. Only players roll for initiative. Make an old school Dex check (trying to roll under Dex, 20 auto fails). If success, that PC goes before the monsters. If great success (say rolls <half stat), they also go before any boss monsters. If more than one player succeeds, they work out themselves who goes first (or best margin wins (or high dex) if an argument breaks out). If fail, monsters go before that PC.

So GM doesnt have to roll. Only players, and they immediately know from their one roll whether they are going before monsters or after, they dont need to check with the GM or other players.

Might speed things up a bit for those games where you're rolling init at the start of each round. Does however make Dex an (even) more desirable stat.

So yeah, essentially this but simpler (only applies to the start of combat, and we don't bother with the boss monster thing). And it hasn't pushed any of us to value Dex more, so I don't think you should be concerned with that.

 

[77IM]

By far, the bigger time-sink will be people dithering on their turns, not knowing what to do, or taking too long on their turn trying to think through their options. 5E kind of forces you to act on your turn (the Ready maneuver is somewhat gimped), and for some people, this restriction pressures them to carefully consider their actions in a way that takes an excruciatingly long time.

I'd re-introduce the Delay action (from 3e). Anybody who doesn't declare their action right away on their turn automatically does Delay. They can jump in later. No pressure. If you want to take an action, declare it, or the game will move right along.

 

[Psikerlord#]

By far, the bigger time-sink will be people dithering on their turns, not knowing what to do, or taking too long on their turn trying to think through their options. 5E kind of forces you to act on your turn (the Ready maneuver is somewhat gimped), and for some people, this restriction pressures them to carefully consider their actions in a way that takes an excruciatingly long time.

I'd re-introduce the Delay action (from 3e). Anybody who doesn't declare their action right away on their turn automatically does Delay. They can jump in later. No pressure. If you want to take an action, declare it, or the game will move right along.

Yeah interesting. I think on reflection I wiould like to see an initiative rule that includes a 5 finger countdown (5 secs). If you dont declare what you're doing within that time, you lose your turn.

Pretty severe, but it would add a level of stress to battle (or perhaps, for some, frustration) - or at least for those who dont think ahead a bit.

 

[S'mon]

My table does a group initiative. Though it kind of works like an Initiative check for a bonus turn.

At the beginning of combat the PCs roll initiative against a single monster Initiative roll (although you could also set the DC to a static 10 or 15 to speed things up even more).

The PCs who beat the monster's Initiative get to act first. But they get to act in whatever order they want, as they choose regardless of who rolled higher.

Then all the monsters go. And that's essentially the end of the round.

In each subsequent round, the players go first, again acting in whatever order they choose regardless of what they rolled or what order they acted in the previous rounds.


Where this speeds things up is that the players are in complete control of who goes next, and we tend to pay far more attention to what the others are doing, looking for a good time to take our own turn. Plus, if there's a player hemming and hawing about what to do, or looking up a spell, someone else can step in and do their thing in the meantime. It kind of bundles all the indecision together, and that helps, too.

A round can go by so quickly, and being withing the control of the players, our DM often doesn't realize that it's the monsters turn again, and we're sitting around waiting for him to act until one of us says "uh, we're done. It's your turn."

I'll probably do something like this.

 

[Dausuul]

In my group, each side rolls for initiative. The DM rolls for the monster with the best initiative mod, and the player with the best mod rolls for the party. Whichever side wins goes first, and then it's clockwise around the table.

If you want to make each player's initiative roll matter, do the same thing, but all the players roll and only those who beat the DM get to act on the first turn.