Initiative Cards

[Panthanas]

While reading some posts I came across references to initiative cards. I was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to give me a heads up on how to go about using said cards.

I'm going to be running a game soon with a large number of people (8-10) and thought, from what little I have read about the cards, that it would be a great help in speeding things up while playing.

I appreciate any assistance.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Thanee]

Maybe use cards to identify the individual characters and creatures and then stack them together in the initiative order (change appropriately for delaying) and then just flip thru them (move from top to back) while resolving the combat round?

That's at least what I could imagine to be rather useful.

Bye
Thanee

 

[LazarusLong42]

http://www.thegamemechanics.com/freebies/index.asp

Look WAY down at the bottom for "Initiative Cards (Fantasy)" They come with instruction as well!

 

[Nareth]

The way my group uses initiative cards is simple. All you need is a stack of index cards. We got ours at a dollar store for, you guessed it, a dollar.

The DM writes the name of each character in the party on one of the cards, and when we get to a combat, he writes a seperate card for each enemy/group that he has against us.

For example. If we were fighting 4 bugbears and 3 skeletons, he'd make a card for the bugbears and one for the skeletons.

Then, he takes down our initiative rolls, writing it on the appropriate card, and then sorts the pile from highest to lowest. It does help keep track of combats much easier than trying to count down verbally each round.

Hope that helps.

 

[BSF]

They work well when you are a little bit prepared. Thanee has it pretty much on the nose. The Game Mechanics site has a PDF format, but to my knowledge, people have been writing on 3x5 cards for years. I remember using 3x5, non-formalized cards back in the 80's. It's funny that this topic just came up since I am prepping a post for my personal forum explaining exactly how we will be using initiative cards in my current game.

 

[Patman21967]

Have the player hold them against their head like in blind mans bluff....

 

[Paradigm]

http://www.thegamemechanics.com/freebies/index.asp

Look WAY down at the bottom for "Initiative Cards (Fantasy)" They come with instruction as well!

I use these.

They are great!

 

[Panthanas]

Cool. Thank you everyone for the responses. I'll be sure to use the info, and cards, when I start my game in a few weeks.

-Panthanas

 

[Whimsical]

I also use inititave cards. They at least need to have the Player/Character name, their initiative modifier (to break ties) and what they rolled for inititave. But sometimes I include sex, race, class, and levels, epecially if its the beginning of a campaign or I'm running a one-shot game at a convention. I used to include skill checks, saves, and such, but I almost never used them. I have my players roll for almost all of their skill checks and saves.

To save time, I hand the cards to the players at the beginning of the game session and have them roll six inititaves, then write them down in order. That way I don't have to keep handing out the cards several times during the game.

The other thing that I do is that I use and re-use generic placeholders for the NPCs. I have three cards that tends to cover almost all of my scenarios: "Big Bad", "Lieutenants", and "Minions". So, if the party is fighting only one monster, I use the "Big Bad" card. If they are fighthing a horde or swarms of lower powered creatures, I use the "Minions" card. If they are fighting around an equal number of enemies, then I use the "Lieutenants". Of course, they were labeled and intended for combats which mix two or all three of these types of opponents.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I started using init cards a few months back and they're amazing. They really keep things humming along. I also track everyone's hp and other special ongoing effects on them - it's an easy way to remember that joe-blow PC was poisoned during the battle and joe-schmo PC was not.

We've since expanded to use the cards for magic items, spells, and special abilities. The latter two we use to track what's been used/cast and what hasn't. It's great for if someone can't make a session b/c the player sitting in just picks up the cards and knows what's available. It's also kinda fun to throw your spell cards in a big pile; when it giets big enough the party knows it's time to rest!