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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 8960492" data-attributes="member: 12731">I am thankful HARP exists since it tells me there is no inherent crucial quality to the MERP rules where on one hand you say movement goes before melee, for example, but on the other hand say "conflicting actions are resolved with an opposed roll" except, perhaps, nostalgia (i.e. the TRS in vsD).A simple roll for initiative appears to work just as well for D100 systems, since HARP is one.You do need to keep in mind that detailed things, such as "you haven't drawn your sword yet" is already penalized in vsD, so it doesn't feel appropriate to also apply an initiative penalty (like HARP does).In the end, I ended up with a relatively simple approach for my Against the Darkmaster houserules:Add Swiftness and one other stat, and divide by 5. That's your initiative bonus.The other stat should be appropriate for the situation. In a situation where you're talking with duplicitous townspeople, the other ability could be Wisdom in place of Swiftness. (If you quickly intuit a fight is brewing, you can act fast) In an obvious martial combat situation, where you see bandits running towards you on the path, the other ability could be Brawn in place of Swiftness. (Warriors are generally quick to make up their minds when they understand the situation) If you're faced with an intricate trap with many moving parts, perhaps Wits is appropriate as the second ability. In most cases, however, doubling up on Swiftness is perfectly fine.At the start of combat, roll 1d10 and add your initiative bonus. If you and some monster is tied, you both act at the same time (so you could kill each other, neither blow interrupting the other).Designer Note: I expect the static bonus to be at least comparable to the average roll (=5,5) so that ability and chance has roughly comparable if not equal impact on the final initiative score. Perhaps larger for slow starting characters, likely smaller for experienced capable characters. A character with +25 in Swiftness adds +10 for example (when using SWI + SWI / 5), and will thus likely never be dead last. I personally do not agree with systems where ability has a far higher impact and the random roll often plays zero role at all (such as the default system in HARP). Combat is far too chaotic to be that deterministic, where Bob always acts before Sue. Not to mention gameplay issues: how it sucks to create a character that can never act first. Why even bother rolling if the roll seldom matters?I will probably just do cyclic initiative (=not reroll each round).</blockquote>

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