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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 6255218" data-attributes="member: 32740">It's a largely 1E game but my initiative system is fairly simple, players side versus the opponents rather than individual initiative, has SOME adjustments but not much, and is re-rolled each round.  It is used more as a good means to simply introduce a random element into what is otherwise a very boring repetitive cycle (as 3E would have it) because ultimately initiative order has VERY little impact on the overall battle.An interesting notion, but not one that I think will turn out well in the end.  Books, movies and RPG's share many of the same elements - but not ALL the same elements.  What works in one DOES NOT always work in the others.The very first example that springs to mind is author control.  In written fiction the author has ABSOLUTE control over the fate of his characters, for better or worse.  The first thing an RPG does is TAKE AWAY THAT CONTROL for the protagonists - the central characters - the very reason for the existence of the written story/rpg.  That control is split between choices of the individual players of those characters and random chance.  In an RPG if the referree attempts to re-exert that control then the RPG fails because it means the DM is "railroading" or worse.  But in written fiction for an author NOT to exercise control over the fate of his own characters leads inevitably to failed plotlines, awful pacing, intolerable use of deus-ex-machina and more.The difference is ONLY that you are adding narrative filler and explanation.  Initiative in an RPG serves to provide the order in which events are resolved, such that the mechanics work in a fashion that can acceptably equate to a narrative of the battle details.  Initaitive in written fiction can be handled in radically different ways.  You can tell the whole battle from the point of view of one character, then go back and tell it again from the point of view of another.  That can be an interesting approach for fiction.  It's an AWFUL approach for an RPG because it leaves all but one player twiddling their thumbs for long periods until all players have had their narrative turns, and having the same battle told over and over and OVER from differing points of view gets tiresome very fast unless interesting, significant things are being revealed each time, whether about the characters, their opponents, or perhaps details not directly related to the battle.  What works in one DOESN'T always work in the other.  Even between movies and RPG's.I'd say that you have to lay out the narrative style that you are trying to emulate and then build RPG rules to emulate it.  But they'll still be RPG rules and thus can't follow all the rules for written fiction or films and still be worth playing AS an RPG.</blockquote>

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