I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
I'm not too familiar with Exalted, unfortunately, so I can't compare.
I will clarify, however, with the way I'm explaining it to my own players:
Step 1: Roll initiative. Roll 1d20, add your Agility and your Dexterity, subtract your Weight.
Step 2: Determine Initiative Scores. The number you rolled is the first one. Subtract 20 from this number to determine your second one. Continue in this fashion until you can no longer subtract 20 and have a positive number. These are your Initiative Scores. A cycle of these, from the highest to the lowest, is a round.
---(a): If your highest Initiative Score is a negative number, you will not have any turns this round.
Step 3: Take your turns. Turns count down from highest initiative in the round. If you have more than one Initiative Score, you can take more than one turn.
Step 4: Keep track of the delay associated with your actions in your turn, but in a seperate column. The most common actions are a standard or partial action, followed by a wait. These will affect your Initiative Scores in the next round. Below, the most common delays are listed:
---(1) For a full-turn action, the delay is -10.
---(2) For a standard or partial action, the delay is -5.
---(3) If you wait as a full-turn action, the delay is +10.
---(4) If you wait as a partial or standard action, the delay is +5.
---(5) If you take a standard action and a partial wait, your total delay is 0.
Step 5: Those with negative initiative scores gain a delay of +10.
Step 6: When the round is over, apply the effects of your delays to your Initiative Scores. This may change the amount of turns you have, granting you more or less depending on what you did in the previous round.
EXAMPLE:
Thief, Fighter, and Red Mage begin combat with a troupe of 3 goblins. They roll initiative, and determine their initiative scores. Thief has initiative scores of 45, 25, and 5. Fighter has an initiative score of 7. Red Mage has an iniative score of 12. The goblins have initiave scores of 23 and 3. The GM (or a volunteer player) writes these down, and then calls for Thief to go. Theif tries to flee, which is a full-round action. He fails, so he doesn't leave combat, and takes a -10 delay. The GM calls the next initiative score, which is 25 -- Thief again. Figuring he may as well escape with some goods, Thief attempts to steal as a standard action. First, he has to move into the front row (a partial action), and then he attempts to steal (a standard action). He succeeds, but his two actions give him another -10 delay (for a total of -20 so far).
The goblins go next, and they attack Thief with a fury. They need to move into the front row (a partial action) and attack (a standard action), so their delay is -10. And they attack well, meaning Thief is in trouble.
The next highest initiative is Red Mage with a 12. Seeing Thief in some trouble, he casts a healing spell. He doesn't need to move into the front row to do so, but the spell is a standard action. With the partial action he has left, Red Mage waits, meaning his total delay for his turn is 0.
Fighter's next with his 7. He charges into one of the goblins mobbing Thief, which is a full-turn action. He kills it, and his delay for this turn is -10 for his full-turn action. Thief gets to go again at 5, and he attacks one of the other goblins as a standard action, killing it. He chooses to drink a potion as his partial action, adding to his defense. He has taken both a standard and a partial action, meaning he has another -10 for this turn (bringing his total to -30). The goblins go again at 3, and the one left calls for backup as a full-round action. Another goblin arrives, and the goblins have a total delay of -20.
With that, the round is over, and the GM (or the volunteer) applies the results of the delays. For the second round, Thief has -30 to all his Initiative Scores, meaning he really only has one Initiative Score at 15 (45-30 being the only one that remains a positive number). Fighter's -10 reduces his Initiative Score to -3, meaning he cannot take any turns this round. Red Mage had a delay of 0, so his Initiative Score remains 12. The goblins, with their -20, now have an Initiative Score of 3.
Thief still has the highest, and he moves into the back row (a partial action) and changes his weapon to a boomerang (also a partial action), giving him a -10 total for this turn. The next is Red Mage, who chooses to blast one of the goblins with a magic spell. The goblin dies, but the spell was powerful, and casing it was a full-turn action, giving him a -10 for his turn. The goblin gets to go now, at 3, and (seeing Fighter right there) decides to try to flee. He can't flee from the Front Row, however, so he moves into the back row (a partial action) and waits (as a standard action), giving him a 0 delay for his turn.
In Round Three, the scores are 5 for Thief, 2 for Red Mage, 3 for the Goblins, and 7 for Fighter. Slower, but persistant, Fighter performs a Forced Row Change on the goblin, effectively chasing him. With a good roll, he succeeds, and forces the goblin into the front row as a partial action. In his standard action, he attacks, killing the goblin.
The goblins are defeated, and Red Mage calls Thief an idiot for jumping into the Front Row so soon.
) Of course, this may ead into a later question regarding multi/sub-jobbing mechanics...
