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Message: <blockquote data-quote="zakael19" data-source="post: 9677390" data-attributes="member: 7044099">Most games that include the idea of "combat" but have no set initiative, also don't lock you into combat; you instead are in a scene which may evolve into direct conflict, or not. Daggerheart is a little interesting because it's trying to do the "you don't have to solve scenes with combats" but also has the idea of planned encounters and balance and such; whereas something like Dungeon World has none of that. There's a number of ways to run initiative-less combat systems; what I've come around to is something not all that dissimilar to a fiction-first version of side-based initiative. Essentially, as the scene evolves somebody will generally naturally have the lead to "take the next step" and I'll spotlight them off a provocative Move ("the skull-gem glows red again and you hear a firm knocking sound, and you can just tell the road's protection is about to shatter") and ask what they do. Once I get that fictional description + intent, I may pivot with a "Naren, you see Zel charging forward behind his shield, bronze mace held out in a cross guard ready to deliver a blow, what do you do?" and they can either say they do something there, or wait, etc. Once we build a good picture of what's happening or set up in teh fiction, I'll start asking for rolls and evolving the fiction based on that.</blockquote>