D&D 5E First Strike: Initiative in Next

[Mattachine]

Group initiatives did make the first round so much more important--I don't think I liked that.

I am not in favor of a system that adds even more die rolls (and time) to combats.

 

[El Mahdi]

I use: Individual initiative every round...but with a twist.

1. Players pre-roll a set of 20 initiative rolls at the beginning of the game.
2. I use those rolls, in order, on an excel tracking sheet (and recycle as necessary).
3. I sort the tracking sheet for each encounter, round by round.

It has the benefit of inititative by round, but in a manner that does not slow down combat.

I already have the initiative rolls for the start of combat, so we don't have to take time at the beginning of an encounter to roll initiative and write them down...we go straight to guns hot.

And it keeps players paying attention to the combat...each and everybodies turn...because they don't know when their initiative order is coming up (though they can't argue against it because it is their actual intitiative roll).

It keeps combat moving, keeps players engaged because they're always paying attention, and it's fair.

That and an egg timer/chess timer limiting each persons turn, and combat is fast, furious, and fair.

 

[Dice4Hire]

My group rolls initiative once a combat, and then either the enemies or the group goes all at once, followed by the other side.

Yes, all at once can be brutal at times, but it makes the game go fast. As for the group's order, the highest initiative goes first, then we compare whether the clockwise or counter-clockwise player trolled higher and they go second and we go around the table that way.

Fast and easy.

 

[Viking Bastard]

We use Group Initiative at our table. We went from Initiative checks each round (group average vs. enemy average) to only rolling at the start of combat and I stopped rolling for enemies in favor of static DCs.

Now we give initiative to whichever side it makes narrative sense to get it. All non-obvious examples are handled by an Initiative save (if they fail the save, the enemy side goes first).

 

[Essenti]

Hmmm... Just throwing this out there, but what about using a the normal everyone rolls for the first round, and every round there after you get 10+initiative bonus to determine initiative order.

Could bring back calling out actions at the start of a round with this method too. At the beginning of each round you declare the type of actions you will take this turn: move, minor, standard. Subtract 1 for a minor, 2 for a move, 3 for a standard. These numbers are subtracted from the 10+initiative. The numbers could be adjusted, but that seems simple enough.

If AoO's and interrupts don't count against initiative, nor would blowing an action point if any of that stuff is used in your game.

Dunno about the action declaration part, I might play around with that, but I will definitely play around with 10+initiative thing.

 

[Lanefan]

Individual initiative, rolled every round on a d6, no modifiers. Simultaneous actions allowed. Casting times for spells counted in segments (6 seg. per rd.), if you start a 3-seg. spell on 5 you resolve on 2. Multiple actions (e.g. a Fighter with multiple attacks) get separate initiatives.

Lan-"battle is chaotic; why bother trying to organize it?"-efan

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

I'd like the simplest thing possible, but group initiative denies certain characters the chance to shine.

I'd favour flat initiative (10+bonus) to speed things up. I'd also consider a system that grants bonus actions for high initiative, ie: deduct 20 from your initiative to take another standard action right now.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

I also love Savage Worlds initiative, but agree that it wouldn't feel right for D&D (maybe as an optional rule).

Another option is something like Shadowrun Third Edition. Each character rolls initiative every round. Rolls that total greater than 20 let a character go more than once. For example, an initiative roll of 26 lets the character go both on 26 and on 6.

In the end, though, individual initiative rolled at the beginning of combat is probably the right choice. It's worked well enough for two editions now.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Even though I prefer Group Initiative, I think last two editions's cyclic system is a pretty good default. All I'd ask is for the system to be designed in such a way as to not make switching to a Side by Side system too difficult.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I'd like the simplest thing possible, but group initiative denies certain characters the chance to shine.

Would you say that the system I linked to earlier has this characteristic? It is group initiative in practice, albeit with individual rolls for the PCs.