Initiative Tracker?

[MacMathan]

I am looking for a good initiative tracking option for our game. Please let me know what you are using out there and the pros and cons you have observed.

 

[kenmarable]

GameMastery Combat Pad by Paizo.

I got one a couple years ago when some small start up first came up with it and it's really handy. We originally used either the "write everyone on the dry erase board" method or the "write out on a bunch of index cards" method. But this board is handy because it's pretty easy to avoid having to re-write the PCs (as long as you're carful, I haven't had trouble with the PC names wiping off too often), and there's room for status effects and so on.

Overall, very useful product.

 

[Verys Arkon]

I use two card-sleeves taped to a bent and folded paper-clip that hangs over my DM screen. In the first card-sleeve I put the PC's portrait, and in the second sleeve (the one that faces me behind the screen), I slip in the character data card that gets printed with a Character Builder set of cards.

This lets me set up initiative order easily and quickly, and I can rearrange the order faster than any other method I've used so far. The players can easily see who's turn it is and when their turn is coming up. I can see all their defenses on my side, so I don't have to keep asking them if I hit or not.

 

[Morrus]

GameMastery Combat Pad by Paizo.

I got one a couple years ago when some small start up first came up with it and it's really handy. We originally used either the "write everyone on the dry erase board" method or the "write out on a bunch of index cards" method. But this board is handy because it's pretty easy to avoid having to re-write the PCs (as long as you're carful, I haven't had trouble with the PC names wiping off too often), and there's room for status effects and so on.

Overall, very useful product.

We used that for ages, but the guy we assigned to track initiative ultimately said he found scrap paper more convenient.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I'll second the Combat Pad recommendation. Best solution we've found. We've tried cards, writing on the battlemat, writing on a whiteboard, a PalmOS app ... pretty much everything except a laptop application.

Combat Pad wins. I've used it since I bought mine from Open Mind Games, who subsequently sold the product to Paizo.

I bought some magnetic strips in different colors, and I write PC names and very common status effects -- e.g., Bard Song, Haste -- in permanent marker on color-coded strips -- e.g., ongoing effects are on yellow strips.

 

[Festivus]

GameMastery Combat Pad by Paizo.

I got one a couple years ago when some small start up first came up with it and it's really handy. We originally used either the "write everyone on the dry erase board" method or the "write out on a bunch of index cards" method. But this board is handy because it's pretty easy to avoid having to re-write the PCs (as long as you're carful, I haven't had trouble with the PC names wiping off too often), and there's room for status effects and so on.

Overall, very useful product.

I use one of these in my 3.5 game with great success. For 4E however, I find that it's more useful to go back to index cards because of tracking stuff like ongoing damage and effects.

 

[Hereticus]

Initiative Tracker?

I am looking for a good initiative tracking option for our game. Please let me know what you are using out there and the pros and cons you have observed.

To track initiative and all other relevant scores, I recommend a pen and a note pad.

It is infinitely flexible and quick and easy to use, and has worked well for me for over 20 years.

Best yet, it can be found in many local stores and the price is reasonable.

Some of us even find this "Initiative Tracking System" in our company supply cabinets.

 

[Scribble]

My Method

I use Fiery Dragon's Counter Collection Digital in my game so:

I have a picture of each PC printed out in 2x2 inch size

When I design encounters, along with the counters I use in the game I also print out a 2x2 image of each monster type in the encounter.

Durring the game I tape each of the pictures to the wall next to me in order of initiative. I can also tack little markers onto them to show when someone has an effect on them.

kind of blurry but:

the second one down "Ralgar" one of the PCs has an effect on him.

 

[Mistwell]

I am looking for a good initiative tracking option for our game. Please let me know what you are using out there and the pros and cons you have observed.

Paizo's rocks. I am sure it has flaws, but I have nothing really to compare it to aside from an index card system, and I find Paizo's superior to the index card system.

 

[Dykstrav]

I've been using index cards for about twelve years now. It's not only fast, easy, and cheap, it also allows me to pull out cards when people delay/ready actions and track monster hit points independently.

I use blue cards for PCs and write passive Perception, Insight, and defenses for each character. I use yellow cards for monsters and green cards for things that act on an initiative count but isn't a creature (like traps and hazards). I sometimes use sticky tabs to keep track of status effects and ongoing damage, but my players are good about tracking it and being honest with these sorts of things.

An added benefit as a DM is the ability to add tension to a scene with harmless extra cards. I can stick and extra yellow or green card in the "deck," leave it blank, without the players knowing what it is... When the players see me cautiously contemplating a yellow card that they haven't seen associated with a critter, they assume that there's something invisible lurking somewhere on the battlefield, or that perhaps one of the monsters is really an elite, or something else unpleasant. Good times.

In olden times (1E, 2E and early 3E), I actually used graph paper. You can make a very simple matrix to track round-by-round effects and conveniently mark off who has acted yet and who hasn't. I discontinued this practice because 3E went to a cyclic initiative model, which works much better for the index cards.