D&D 5E House Rule: Card Initiative

[DND_Reborn]

IME, it happens one time in a battle.....and it wasn't missed when we ran a test of this system.

I could see the anticipation of wondering who is going next as a way of offsetting the loss of enjoyment from rolling, but since the OP wants shuffling each round, I would think they probably were rolling each round already--not just once per battle. shrug

 

[Zaukrie]

I could see the anticipation of wondering who is going next as a way of offsetting the loss of enjoyment from rolling, but since the OP wants shuffling each round, I would think they probably were rolling each round already--not just once per battle. shrug

It's possible, of course. Re-rolling every round is the easiest way to get rid of cyclical for sure.

 

[Dausuul]

I could see the anticipation of wondering who is going next as a way of offsetting the loss of enjoyment from rolling, but since the OP wants shuffling each round, I would think they probably were rolling each round already--not just once per battle. shrug

Actually we're not, we only roll once at the start. Rolling each round and then sorting out the initiatives was too much hassle. (I know it can be sped up with technology, but you still have to enter the numbers into your spreadsheet or whatever, every single round.) One of my goals was to achieve the variation of rolling each round, without having to actually do it.

 

[Dausuul]

Yup, I have a document with a couple dozen systems in it, and this is one of them. I've built such decks in Roll20, and the faster characters often act earlier in a round, but not always. You could also do this with an Excel sheet or rollable table in Roll20 where you increase the odds of one selection, and set it not to select the same character until they are all selected. Not sure about Foundry, Astral, or Fantasy Grounds and how their rollable tables work.

My players paid more attention in the two fights we ran this way, because they never knew when their turn would come up.....

Also very helpful to know! Did you encounter any problems when using this approach? Was it the one you settled on, or did you end up using something else?

 

[Zaukrie]

Also very helpful to know! Did you encounter any problems when using this approach? Was it the one you settled on, or did you end up using something else?

We mostly still use the RAW, because everything is set up that way. And, I'm testing more than one system with this group (all new players but 1 of them). I like the card approach quite a bit. I'll send you the document so you can see other things.

Frankly, I want to move to concurrent/everyone goes at the same time. But I'm not ready for that yet mentally.....

 

[DND_Reborn]

I want to move to concurrent/everyone goes at the same time. But I'm not ready for that yet mentally.....

LOL if you pull it off, LET ME KNOW! I've never seen a system that is concurrent that was not a nightmare when it came to "each moment in time."

 

[Dausuul]

LOL if you pull it off, LET ME KNOW!

Seconded, I would love to hear if somebody figures out a way to make that one work in D&D. Or at all, really. It's like the holy grail of initiative systems.

 

[jmartkdr2]

LOL if you pull it off, LET ME KNOW! I've never seen a system that is concurrent that was not a nightmare when it came to "each moment in time."

Seconded, I would love to hear if somebody figures out a way to make that one work in D&D. Or at all, really. It's like the holy grail of initiative systems.

You'd need to make what amounts to an MMORPG but with a dm.

I suspect more than a couple people are working on it right now.

 

[Zaukrie]

LOL if you pull it off, LET ME KNOW! I've never seen a system that is concurrent that was not a nightmare when it came to "each moment in time."

I've started writing it up, based on threads here and elsewhere on the internet. But I'm not thrilled with it yet, or ready to share it......this fall, I hope!

 

[JohnSnow]

"Savage Worlds" uses a card-based initiative system. You'd have to fiddle with how to marry it with D&D's various bonuses and feats, but the concept is certainly workable.