Initiative Cards - Your Advice and Experiences

[Herremann the Wise]

Hi Everyone,

Well I'm putting the DM hat back on for our group this weekend and have decided to try Initiative Cards - a first for our group. In an effort to keep things moving, I have a few ideas but I would appreciate any advice or experiences you have had using them. Alternatively if there is a prior thread or other material on the web, feel free to post any links.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[S'mon]

I find initiative cards work really well. Have a good stack of cards, write the name of each PC (& allied NPC) on them, plus have one card for Enemy (it's not usually worth rolling Init separately for every enemy). IME I advise definitely do NOT write further info on the cards (like skills, combat stats etc), do not attempt to use them for anything other than tracking initiative.
Arrange the cards in order of rolled Init, highest on top. When characters have acted their card goes to the bottom of the deck. Characters Delaying or Readying have their cards removed from the deck.

 

[IronWolf]

I am agreeing with S'mon for the most part. I don't put to much info on the Init card (I just use colored index cards) as I tend to have them in a stack and in a particular order, so the skill, AC, hp info isn't always handy when I need it. So I just use the character's name and jot down the Init roll on the front. Then I just order them quickly and rotate through the stack. I do tend to roll initiative for each one of the critters though. It usually doesn't take that much longer and with the initiative cards it is still easy to keep track of.

With all of this said, I tend to use DM Genie to run combats now. It makes keeping track of things a bit easier in my opinion, but I tend to DM with a laptop at the gaming table.

 

[EricNoah]

Here's a somewhat recent thread on the topic:
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=96964&highlight=initiative

 

[the Jester]

All I put on 'em is the creatures' names, initiatives and (for npcs) hit points, plus a few notes directly affecting their combat ability- reminders to myself not to forget that the beastie has regeneration 5, for instance, or that wizard X has 3 mirror images. I also often track hp on the cards. Anything more and the info gets lost in the clutter and fails to serve its purpose there.

 

[derbacher]

I have to agree with the posts so far. They are a great aid for keeping combat moving, but don't put to much info on them. Just imagine trying to find the hit points for the skeleton archer, which is halfway down the stack of 11 cards. You pull it out, mark the damage, then forget where it was in the order. Argh!

I print my own on cardstock using the free template available from The Other Game Company at www.theothergamecompany.com . They have free blank cards for characters, NPCs, and monsters. Thay are designed to hold a lot of info, but after using them, my advice from above applies. If you have Acrobat Reader 6 or 7, you can type the info onto the cards and print them so they look sharp, too!

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I use color-coded index cards with stat blocks on them for monsters. (I print the stat blocks on Avery labels, then put the labels on the cards. For complex stat blocks, you can put half on front and half on the rear.) I don't use the stat blocks for everything -- I try to have a separate source, most often the page of labels on non-label paper -- but it's handy to have when it's the monster's turn in the initiative order.

I use the free blank init cards from The Other Game Company for PCs and important NPCs.

When someone is delaying or readying, turn their card 90 degrees in the stack.

Have some placeholder cards ready, labeled as necessary (e.g., Bad Guy #1, Bad Guy #2, NPC #1, and so on). Even if you generate initiatives for each type of bad guys all at once, you never know when one of the group will want to delay or ready, which will separate its init from its fellows.

 

[The_Universe]

I need to do this - we had a player that was "the initiative keeper" during our last campaign, but she's moved on to other things, and the varying people who've tried to replace her have been reasonably less attentive.

So, I probably need to go back to tracking initiative myself - cards might be the trick!

 

[reveal]

I use DM's Familiar to keep track of combat myself but we also have a magnetic whiteboard. We use color coded magnets with letters on them and my wife puts them in order from top to bottom as to who goes next.

 

[Rel]

I'll step up and be the voice of dissent. I put ALL the info that I need about a monster on the card. Level, Initiative, Speed, HP, AC (including Touch and Flat Footed), Attacks, Saves, Special Abilities, Spells and Treasure - more or less in that order.

For me, writing things down helps me remember them and the mere act of transferring the info from the Monster Manual or wherever makes it much easier for me to recall the capabilities of the bad guys. Since everything I need is on the card then I waste no time flipping through books or other papers to look up stats for the baddie.

I don't find it to be a problem in terms of getting things out of order when needing to mark off Hit Points or things like that. I keep the HP total in a column down the right side of the card and it is a simple matter to flip to the card, jot down the damage in that column and then resume the initiative. I think it helps that I use white cards for the PC's and various colored cards for the bad guys. I try to vary the color of the cards so that I have no more than 1 or 2 bad guys using the same color card and this makes finding the right card very easy.