Initiative Idea :)

[Richards]

So what happens under the Ars Ludi system if you're fighting more than one type of monster? For the purpose of illustration, suppose you have 4 PCs up against a troglodyte shaman, a group of 6 normal troglodytes, and their allied otyugh? Do all the monsters have to share a single initiative roll? (It seems like they would have to for your Ars Ludi system to work, unless I'm missing something.)

Johnathan

 

[S'mon]

So what happens under the Ars Ludi system if you're fighting more than one type of monster? For the purpose of illustration, suppose you have 4 PCs up against a troglodyte shaman, a group of 6 normal troglodytes, and their allied otyugh? Do all the monsters have to share a single initiative roll? (It seems like they would have to for your Ars Ludi system to work, unless I'm missing something.)

Johnathan

I normally only roll once for monsters; since they're all being run by me I only need 1 initiative count.

 

[weem]

Awesome.

I just ran our 12th game earlier tonight. It went for 8 hours (2pm to 10pm). It included 3 combat encounters all of which we used this method.

Combat was faster - MUCH faster. There would be a minute or less of setup by the players, but then bam bam bam, one followed the other without hesitation - action, roll, action, roll - very quick and easy.

There was definitely more interest and focus on what was happening as opposed to people wandering off when it was not their turn, or turning their attention to other things.

Everyone, including myself, prefer this method over the standard and it's safe to say this is how we will handle initiatives from now on. The speed of combat allowed us to do much more during this game than we normally could.

Anyway, just thought I would drop that in since we actually used it tonight

 

[S'mon]

Thanks weem! How many players do you have?

I find it works great for smaller groups, but yesterday I had 9 players turn up (*eek!*) to my game at the club, and I panicked a bit and made them resolve actions in order round the table, which several didn't like AT ALL and complained, making out they were losing actions (they weren't). One spellcaster PC didn't know what to do, so I said he was Delaying, and ended up losing his action - the monsters acted before he had decided what to do. Not my fault, but another player, a stranger, flipped out at the 'unfairness' of it.

I think with 7+ players with using the ars ludi system I need to appoint 1 player as Party Caller to coordinate PC actions and make sure everyone acts once, and only once, each combat round.

 

[weem]

I was short a player (had worked out why story-wise ahead of time) so we had 3, with 2 NPC's joining them - so yea, this would be a "smaller" group.

It was a blast and gave me an idea...

...I'm thinking that over time I could come up with some abilities that are tied to sets of PC's. Example...

An encounter power that is used by (requires) two players to spend their standard actions on, but does something really cool. So it could be the fighter and wizard saying "okay, on this turn we both use 'Burning Blade'"

In this (very basic) example, Burning Blade could do x[w] of the fighters type with an added bonus of x[w] from the wizards as fire damage, and perhaps a little extra (so as to be worth using this one as opposed to them each doing an individual attack). It could require them to be adjacent to each other, etc.

Or as another example...

"Flying Attack"

Say you have a halfling rogue and human fighter... they could have an encounter ability that lets the fighter toss the rogue 3 squares allowing the rogue to make (while in the air) a basic melee attack against each enemy in each of the two squares he flies over (if there are two - one if there is only one, etc). It would cost the fighter his standard action as well as the rogue's, but it would produce a cool effect that only these two people (pc's) could do.

I don't know, just an idea. I would imagine some would say that this is all possible via page 42 in the DMG and some creative thinking on the parts of the pc's - but I think working together with the PC's as a DM you could come up with some cool ideas and reasons for their existence within the story.

And also, they could still use the current method of initiative and delay in order to time it as required, but this 'new' method makes it much easier to visualize/control I think.

 

[Baumi]

I recommend the magnet board from paizo, which is easy to use and is a great help.

But there is another Idea that might Inspire you:
I played OD&D (77-Edition) a few weeks ago and I was amazed how easy you get in and out of combat with it's initiative system. It nearly negated rolling since it only compares dex for the order (and uses a phase system for spells/ranged/melee). So when combat started we could just forgone the initiative step and went straight to attack rolls

This inspired me to announce that for my next campaign we will no longer roll for Initiative but instead "take 10" for it. But since the campaign hasn't started yet I cannot say how well or bad it works, but the idea might still interest you.

 

[Scribble]

Ok so on Friday we had our weekly game and I used the new initiative idea.

Worked really well actualy. The visual match between the card and the tokens on the table were a big help. Plus I was able to track things like ongoing damage on monsters and PCs. I tacked a little token to the init card when someone had ongoing damage, so everytime their init came up it was easy to remember to take ongoing damage, and then later roll the save.

 

[Festivus]

We use a combat pad. I made it into a tented sign and then hand it to one of the players at the table. That player is responsible for moving things around on the init sheet (magnets), and everyone, including myself can see what goes when.

The bad guys are usually given some oddball name that I understand... like "Big Lizard" or similar.

By not tracking and managing the init myself, I am freed up to work on other things that need my attention, and the players can all see who is comign up next and be ready for their turn.

 

[Scribble]

The bad guys are usually given some oddball name that I understand... like "Big Lizard" or similar.

Thats what I used to do, as well. The problem I noticed was it would sometimes take me a moment or two to translate the name, into the on table representation. It wasn't a HUGE amount of time, but enough that I noticed it.

It just seemed much more "fluid" I guess to just be able to say THAT one goes next.

 

[maddman75]

We ran the game with the Ludi system on Saturday, and I loved it. Not having to write down numbers, get the order right, and so on made the fights run a lot faster and smoother. It works out to the same, but it feels like beating the GM for initiative means you get an extra turn. I plan on using it for pretty much every game I run.