Initiative Variations

[Mercule]

Once per encounter is much easier to handle. It makes combat flow much more fluidly as there isn't a hard break at any point.

From a meta-game perspective, if you do group initiative, say for a group of 15 orcs, you've already got a much worse suspension of disbelief issue than the predictability of once per encounter initiatives (thus why I loves my PC/GMGen).

Once per encounter initiative is also much more fair because of things like Stunning Fist, Monster Summoning, etc. that run until the beginning or end of your "next turn". If you go first, then last or last, then first, you've got either a pretty good boost or a liability on your hands.

 

[rudie]

once per encounter goes the smoothest in my opinion, it takes much much longer to do it round by round...notes get messed up, people get skipped..bleh.

On a side note, I once had a DM who used a D6 for initiative rather than the D20, it actually made improved initiative worth it . has anyone else done this?

 

[Firebeetle]

Definately once per round. You want combats to be fast

I use my homebrew initiative cards for myself, and have a Game Mastery initiative board for the players to see. If a player delays taking his turn, I quickly count down (six seconds) and then delay him until later. They catch on pretty quick.

I can no longer even imagine rolling initiative every turn.

 

[DragonBelow]

My take

Though I have not tested it, I have always thought that initiative makes more sense as a reflex "check" (essentially a reflex save). Be cause I think it's much harder to jump on someone with lots of experience.

You could eliminate improved initiative and replace with lighting reflexes (making it more useful).

Not exactly what's being discussed but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

 

[QuaziquestGM]

I go once per encounter, unless something big happens. If something utterly disrupts the situation, say an explosion or earthquake, then we reroll and pick up form there.

I run an "all comers welcome" college game sponsered by my science fiction club. I sometimes end up with 11 pcs at a table, and other times with 11 or more party members between pcs, cohorts, and temp allies. These are invaribly the times when the pcs decide to pull a multiprong assualt on the castle, or take on the entire column of orks. I've used several varitations on initive for handleing these.

1) Assult on cliffside castle.

PCs spilt into airial insertion and basement breech teams. Both teams tried to "quietly" enter at the same time. The flyer's and familiars scouted the open windows, courtyards, and rooftops, so they knew approximate locations and numbers of gnolls in each visible room. I ended up using 4 battle mats and a chaulkboard to map what was effectivly 6 levels of castel. When both groups were in position, I had the pcs multiply thier init mods by 5, and roll initivitive on d100. Badbuys rolled as needed. I expected some breaks in the action, but somehow one squad or the other was always fighting. We stayed in initive for 6 hours of real time, and maybe 25 minutes of game time. There were some odd instances of one group looting while the other was fighting for their lives 3 floors below, and then the upstairs boys fighitng the oger while the downstairs guys where killing sleeping gnolls under cover of a silence spell. Then the upstairs people got bottlenecked on the stairs trying to get into a room with 50 gnolls, while the downstairs people opened the other door to the same room, and were bottlenecked trying to get out of the gnoll sleeping quarters where their spell casters had to wait out their own silence spell while the hafling ranger held the gnolls at the door.....good times...

2) holding the recaptured fort.

Different game.
PCs had captured a fort. The fort was expecting reenforcements. Pcs decided to ambush them form within. 11 party members, 140 orcs.

This time I took prtty much every mini we had, and put the orcs in rough squads depending on which minis I had. Orc orcs, kobold orcs, gnoll orcs, chicken orcs, dog orcs, little green army man orcs.......Used the same d100 type initive roll, but used a sqaud roll for each group of orcs. Orc commanders, casters, and seige trolls got seperate rolls. I modified the encounter to match some of the mageknight minies we had, so some of the orks were riding spiders and lizards that I decided could climb walls. 4 hours of grind later, the pcs were down to the last and largest orcs on warbeasts, and orc casters. I had been pretty rough on them (orks on dire bisons bursting though the overturned wagon blockading the door, cr 4 barberian on cr 8 war rhino, the lizerd mounts could breath fire...pcs level 4-2) so I used the elf calvery escape hatch. Worked pertty well as far as maintaining the flow of the battle. The rebuilt wagon is now considered a party member.

 

[Mark CMG]

Thanks for starting this thread, KB9JMQ.

To answer you from the other thread, I am not sure what sort of variant initiative I was planning to use, so this thread will come in handy. I currently have all members of the PC group roll individually at the beginning of each encounter. The opposing side all acts as one unless an individual stands out as a major threat, then I roll for just them separately from the bulk of the opposition. If someone on the PC side joins in late, I let them roll and filter them in. If someone on the opposing side joins in late, I determine if it is a major joiner, in which case I roll for them individually and filter them in, or a minor joiner, in which case I just add them to the mass of the opposition.

The one thing I want to try an avoid with a new variant is the lag between announcing the encounter and the first action from whichever side gets to start. I want to jump right in.

I'll jump in with more comments when I get the chance to catch up with this whole thread. Thanks, again!

 

[catsclaw227]

We use a once per encounter, secret initiative. It makes the initial round suspenseful, and yet it flows faster.

WIth large numbers of foes, it helps to have an initiaive tracker. I use my laptop and DM Genie, and it makes the combats VERY fast, especially for when the baddies take their turn.

 

[QuaziquestGM]

If you write init down to track it, always write the numbers first, then the names. To be clear, arrange the list in order of initive, and in no other way. Trust me. I've seen gms try to do it other ways, and it always slowed the game significatntly as they tried to scan though the list of names looking for the next lowest number.

 

[Alzrius]

Buy this d20 book on initiative systems: Mad Scramble.

 

[Mark CMG]

I might try just getting a list of initiative numbers ahead of time to apply as needs be. Or maybe go bak to just gathering a whole list of d20 rolls to use for all of the hidden rolls plus the initiative rolls, too.


But I'll pick up that pdf on your recommendation, as well, Shane.