Glad you like it. Have fun with it.
Players' side won initiative. I don't care who goes when, because they're all going before any of their enemies.
Your home-brew being so popular in this thread really confuses me due to the particular part i quote. Just because all the pc's go before the enemy should never lead to them getting to choose what order they act in. For starts your instantly letting your characters know that they have won the initiative, a piece of tactical knowledge i would certinally look to abuse i.e say they've walked into a room where they know they've bitten of more than they can chew e.g tactical retreats, if the party are unsure in what order they will act in 1 of the frontline characters may charge into the room whilst the others flee, any reason to do this is removed when you know for a fact your group will act first.
Also by letting them decide what order they act in the mage casting fireball will always get perfect value were as if he acted after the 2 intelligence fighter who's bound to charge into melee with his great axe he would struggle to get the same value.
I can see the time saving values but all your doing is making the game tactically easier and less realistic to how combat would unfold in real life?
I too use a d10 for initiative and will some times say if theres 3 goblins and 3 orcs and a big bad wizard and the pcs, group the orcs and goblins on the same iniaitve for time saving but i would never ever group my main villain with his underlings or the goblins with the orcs for the same reason as above.
Too provide some positive input to the topic my big big house rules are -
1. 1 is always a miss, 2 1s = a critical fumble of some kind (no set chart usually involves your shoe lace being untied and falling over on your face, bow string snapping etc.)
2. -10 and dead.
3. Critcals occur only when crit range is rolled twice in a row, and a death blow occurs when critical threat range is rolled 3 times in a row (very similar to 3.5 but slightly less generous)
4. I strongly discourage players from sharing knowledge about their current hp etc with others, instead i will go to great lengths to try and give some visual description of wound severity so that the cleric isn't just playing a computer game with raid bars.
5. No social skills, were playing a role playing game, if you want to be a master negotiator then i suggest you rehearse that role (within reason i dont expect a 5 year old to be a master diplomat but i do expect them to try before rolling their dice)
6. HP is done off race not class (something i can't believe was not implanted in 5th)
7. If a race receives +2 in a stat then their new maximum for that stat would be 22 opposed to 20.
8. 1st edition rules for non magical hp recovery
9. 2h weapons provide a bonus to initiative in the first round or in large open areas and vice versa daggers and other small weapons provide a bonus in cramped fighting or once the melee has been engaged.
10. Dex provides a small bonus to movement speed at certain points, resulting in a maximum of +15 at 20. It has always annoyed me that it is assumed everyone of a race moves at the same speed, especially with horses and other mounts.