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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 7761940" data-attributes="member: 6787503">A strict reading of the initiative rules without the paragraph about what to do in the event of a tie would have combatants with tied initiative rolls always act simultaneously (at the same time). The 3rd paragraph allows ties to be broken.Perhaps interestingly, the Holmes Basic Set (1977) rules decide initiative by comparing Dexterity scores, which is, I think, the earliest initiative system published specifically for D&D. The original rules (1974) use Chainmail's initiative system which has two options: the "Move/Counter move" system, the ancestor to AD&D's side initiative, and the "Simultaneous Movement" system, which requires players to write out orders for their units beforehand, simultaneously take half their movement checking for unintended melee contact, complete the movement phase, and then resolve missile fire and melees in simultaneous phases. Simultaneous in a system like this means something like "happening roughly in the same one minute of time". A similar system could be devised for 5E, all action in a given round happening "simultaneously" in roughly the same six seconds as a level of abstraction. Any simultaneity at all requires some level of abstraction. For example, if you're accustomed to resolving combat in Planck time units, simultaneous events are going to be far more rare than that in which your above method would result.</blockquote>