Recently bought 5.0, being drawn to 1981 Moldvay Basic

[ExploderWizard]

I do think the one letdown of Moldvay is combat; I find the combat sequence to be a little awkward even though the basic mechanics are solid.

Personally, playing today I'd ditch the per-side initiative and combat sequence and just use cyclic initiative.

Exactly the opposite here. I much prefer side base initiative to cyclic. The initiative order becomes predictable, gets meta-gamed and is boring IMHO. Not knowing who gets to go first round by round is much more exciting.

 

[RevTurkey]

D&D B/X is like Galaxian. Still an amazing, addictive, challenging and fun game.

 

[JeffB]

Exactly the opposite here. I much prefer side base initiative to cyclic. The initiative order becomes predictable, gets meta-gamed and is boring IMHO. Not knowing who gets to go first round by round is much more exciting.

amen.

 

[arjomanes]

Exactly the opposite here. I much prefer side base initiative to cyclic. The initiative order becomes predictable, gets meta-gamed and is boring IMHO. Not knowing who gets to go first round by round is much more exciting.

I'm running my 5e game with simple D6 group initiative. I find it fosters teamwork and collaboration more with my group. There is a lot of suspense when I roll a die for the monster and the players decide who should roll the dice to beat the 5 I just rolled. I also find that players are less distracted when it isn't their turn.

It does prove more potentially swingy and lethal — monsters sometimes exhibit pack mentality when they group together like that. Also the potential of a group to go twice in a row can be dangerous. But for our group, that just adds extra suspense, and it's exciting for players when they get to go twice in a row.


If a player has a character that impacts initiative, I'll decide at that time what the best course of action should be. Possibly I'll allow that one player to roll initiative separately with the benefit their class or feature grants.

All-in-all, group initiative is my favorite house rule with 5e.