Let's Talk Initiative, Shall We?

[Oryan77]

"Let's Talk Initiative, Shall We?"

Ok, so what I'm wondering is why people are using the term "nish". For one, there is no letter "s" in the word initiative. Secondly, there is no letter "h" either. Also when abbreviating a word, isn't it customary to start with the first letter of the word and go from there? "Nish" is terribly confusing when I'm supposed to relate it to "initiative". It also doesn't roll off the tongue when used in a sentence in place of the word "initiative". An abbreviation is supposed to help speed a reader along, not cause him to come to a complete halt & stumble with the abbreviation.

Then again, using lb. for pound is even worse! You can't even speak "lb." out loud in your sentence. Maybe I should start a thread so we can talk about pound.

 

[EYEforanEYE]

"Let's Talk Initiative, Shall We?"

Ok, so what I'm wondering is why people are using the term "nish". For one, there is no letter "s" in the word initiative. Secondly, there is no letter "h" either. Also when abbreviating a word, isn't it customary to start with the first letter of the word and go from there? "Nish" is terribly confusing when I'm supposed to relate it to "initiative". It also doesn't roll off the tongue when used in a sentence in place of the word "initiative". An abbreviation is supposed to help speed a reader along, not cause him to come to a complete halt & stumble with the abbreviation.

Then again, using lb. for pound is even worse! You can't even speak "lb." out loud in your sentence. Maybe I should start a thread so we can talk about pound.

Never heard of "nish" used to describe initiative. Must be something new...

 

[Water Bob]

"Nish" is a term I've used, and I've heard used, for decades. It comes from the phonetic pronounciation of eee-nish-ah-tive. It's gamer-speak, not unlike the term "chargen" (which means character generation), or speaking "Thay-coe" for the AD&D acronym THACO...or even using the abbrievated form of character attributes, like DEX. "He failed his DEX check!"

I've used it in the past, and some people on this forum have taken offense to the term, for some reason. Some have never heard it used--it's new to them. People say, in a game, "Make your Fort save." You know what is needed--your character's Fortitude save. Nish is the same. "Roll nish."

Or, referring to a character's initiative count, "What's his nish?" This means, "When is the character going to act in the initiative line-up?"

A GM may say, "Feddar is acting on nish 9."





EDIT: @Oryan77

I don't think "nish" developed through text. Like "chargen", it's more of a spoken thing.

And, believe it or not, I have heard people actually say "El-bees" when describing something. "Damn, my books weigh fourteen el-bees!" Again, more of a speech thing than it is something you're likely to see in writing.

But, with all the texting shortcuts that people use today....who knows. R U OK?

 

[Ratskinner]

"Nish" is a term I've used, and I've heard used, for decades. It comes from the phonetic pronounciation of eee-nish-ah-tive. It's gamer-speak, not unlike the term "chargen" (which means character generation), or speaking "Thay-coe" for the AD&D acronym THACO...or even using the abbrievated form of character attributes, like DEX. "He failed his DEX check!"
...

"Nish" is a new one on me, but then there's plenty of local "dialectical" variation in gamer speak. I've always heard ThAC0 pronounced "thack-oh" ("thay-co" sounds Southern US to me), and we'd use the terms "segment 9" or "init 9" rather than "nish 9".

In any case, my current favorite initiative system is the one from MHRP. By consensus, one combatant acts (usually determined by narrative factors), then that person selects who goes next. This continues until all participants have gone. Everyone "untaps" and the last acting combatant selects who goes first in the next round.

 

[Water Bob]

"Nish" is a new one on me, but then there's plenty of local "dialectical" variation in gamer speak.

That'd be the great state of Texas, sahr.

I've always heard ThAC0 pronounced "thack-oh" ("thay-co" sounds Southern US to me), and we'd use the terms "segment 9" or "init 9" rather than "nish 9".

I've heard "thack-oh" before, but mostly "Thay-coe" around here. "segment 9", I've definitely heard, but not in a while. Used to use it all the time in the 1E AD&D days. Since, I don't hear the term "segments" that much at games around here.

Never heard "in it" before.

In any case, my current favorite initiative system is the one from MHRP. By consensus, one combatant acts (usually determined by narrative factors), then that person selects who goes next. This continues until all participants have gone. Everyone "untaps" and the last acting combatant selects who goes first in the next round.

I mentioned that, above. It seems to me, though, that the problem with it is that all combatants need to be know in order to be "tapped".

I do, indeed, like your twist where the last acting character picks the first one for the new round. That's cool.

But, what if the GM has secret NPCs? Say, 3 NPCs enter the fray and fight, but 3 more are in hiding, waiting to spring on the players on round 2?

How would you handle that?

 

[Ratskinner]

I've heard "thack-oh" before, but mostly "Thay-coe" around here. "segment 9", I've definitely heard, but not in a while. Used to use it all the time in the 1E AD&D days. Since, I don't hear the term "segments" that much at games around here.

Never heard "in it" before.

Accent on the second syllable "in-IT". Could be local. ::shrug:: Nowadays I only hear "segment" amongst old-timers.

I mentioned that, above. It seems to me, though, that the problem with it is that all combatants need to be know in order to be "tapped".

I do, indeed, like your twist where the last acting character picks the first one for the new round. That's cool.

But, what if the GM has secret NPCs? Say, 3 NPCs enter the fray and fight, but 3 more are in hiding, waiting to spring on the players on round 2?

How would you handle that?

If they remain in hiding....there's nothing to handle, they aren't acting. (If they need to perform "secret" actions like casting spells on themselves, just do it on the "untap" phase.) There's a couple of possibilities:

• "activate" them using one of your other GM characters
  • if the other characters all die before you activate them, then the fight ends and the hidden badguys might remain so. If they are discovered, or if they are in position to initiate a sneak attack, a new fight begins, possibly with their sneak attack.
• treat their first attacks as traps that are triggered on or by PC actions. Give them "tapped" initiative status, and let them "untap" at the end of the round.

 

[delericho]

I'll just use the initiative rules for whatever game I'm using - they're seldom worth worrying about. Although I will almost invariably group up the NPCs into a small number of rolls, simply for convenience.

My slight preference is for 3e's cyclic initiative system, FWIW.

Then again, using lb. for pound is even worse!

It comes from the Latin. Which, of course, makes it entirely sensible.

Edit: Oh, and like some others, I have an entirely unreasonable dislike for 'nish'. And 'toon' likewise.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Feng Shui, the action movie ropeplaying game, has another mechanic.

Each character has an initiative score (1d6+stat) and rolls at the start of each round. You act on your initiative count, plus every three 'beats' after that. Certain actions (such as complicated spells) may take longer to fire off, and some characters have the ability to act faster. Reloading your gun takes a certain number of beats.

It does require a little bit of bureaucracy (and for the players to be both paying attention and honest) but it works pretty well in practice.

 

[Bagpuss]

Doctor Who:Adventures in Time and Space has a wonderful initiative system that reflects the tropes of the series. The order is...

Talkers - "Now wait just a minute..."
Movers - "Run!"
Doers - "Now I wonder what happens if I press this?"
And finally...
Fighters - "Open Fire! All Weapons!"

The Doctor is always talking himself out of tricky situations or running away, or finding weird solutions before the bad guys get to shoot.

 

[BriarMonkey]

Nope, can't say I've ever heard, or used, "nish". I've used a short form, like in'it.

But as to the topic, I tend to just keep it simple. Players roll initiative for themselves, and the DM rolls for each major NPC and then normally once for smaller groups of antagonists - just to keep it simple. Thus, roll at the begining and that's the order for the entire encounter.