D&D General Rerolling Initiative each Round

[billd91]

Who has played with rerolling Initiative each round and weapon speeds? It seems like it will drastically slow down games, but it may also feel more tactical. How does it end up changing the way the game is played? How do the players change their play?

I'm not sure it would be more tactical, rather the tactics and how they are determined will change.

But if you do transport rerolling initiative by rounds to a game build around cyclical initiative (like 3e/4e/5e), you'll want to review short-duration effects like a monk's stunning fist or a shield spell so that they can provide a similar level of benefit when the turn order is variable and are neither too good nor too weak.

 

[Brotton Goodfellow]

This is basically how DnD did it in the beginning times.

Yeah, I just ripped it from OSE. Has made running encounters way easier and punchy.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I guess what you could do is have people roll five initiatives at the start and use them in order.

 

[aco175]

I tried it before in 3e days I think and it felt different and more swingy. Sometimes you go two times in a row and get to kill the monster or sometimes he went to times if it went last and then first. It was a little slower rolling each round. I made a tracker with clothespins and a stick with numbers on it for my 5e games that seems to speed this up. At the start of combat I place the tracker in the middle of the table and the players place the clothespin on their initiative. Then everyone sees it and knows when they are coming up. I guess having two of these means you can have one for this round and the player rolls after his turn and moves his clothespin for the next round and there might be little downtime.

Not sure how it would work with the 5.5 rules. I see some people get advantage on initiative and other abilities. It might just mean they go first most of the rounds, but the the other PCs jumble around with the monsters and no big deal. .

 

[Guest 7037866]

I reroll Initiative each round, but I have a macro in my Excel file for tracking everything (encounter, HP, damage, etc.) and this is at the top of the spreadsheet with frozen panes so if I scroll down I always see it. I click the button and the rolls and totals appear, already sorted.

The players are fine with me using this for Initiative, so I don't have to ask them to roll, get the rolls, order them each time. I just go down the list.

It makes things super-fast and I can always tell whoever is on deck they are going next. If they are attacking, often they can roll while I am completing the currrent turn and just get the damages on their turn when it comes up.

Since I re-roll every round, often a player will get to go twice in a row (ending one round and then beginning the next).

 

[renbot]

I was a player in a game with a more computer-savvy DM than myself who used a platform that "rolled" initiative at the top of every round. It REALLY upped the tension of combats in what I thought was a good way. Unfortunately I run using Roll20 where it would be too much work to do so.

 

[sevenbastard]

My preferred method. I've run multiple 1e/2e campaigns using roll every round once you train everyone it's fast especially as those system don't have a lot of options for players.

As said it adds more delicious choices as you don't know when each person will go. Will the fire all go off in time, can we heal the thief before he loses another hp, ect.

 

[Xeviat]

C) Some abilities last until the beginning or end of your next turn. If you were to go at the end of the 1st round, then the beginning of the 2nd round, your ability might get wasted. Likewise, if you were to go at the beginning of the 1st round, then the end of the 2nd round, your ability might last an overpowered amount of time.

Thank you for pointing this out. It makes me consider how durations could be adjusted. Environmental effects could be changed to last until the end of the round, not particular turns, making it part of the round phase. Buffs and Debuffs would instead end at the end of the target's turn, so it affects them once for 1 round buffs.

 

[Xeviat]

I reroll Initiative each round, but I have a macro in my Excel file for tracking everything (encounter, HP, damage, etc.) and this is at the top of the spreadsheet with frozen panes so if I scroll down I always see it. I click the button and the rolls and totals appear, already sorted.

View attachment 385933
The players are fine with me using this for Initiative, so I don't have to ask them to roll, get the rolls, order them each time. I just go down the list.

It makes things super-fast and I can always tell whoever is on deck they are going next. If they are attacking, often they can roll while I am completing the currrent turn and just get the damages on their turn when it comes up.

Since I re-roll every round, often a player will get to go twice in a row (ending one round and then beginning the next).

That's an interesting way to do it. I've been wanting to try out this version, though:

1) At start of round, everyone declares action intent in order of lowest to highest initiative bonus
2) Everyone rolls initiative, applying the initiative adjustment for their action (+2 for light weapons, -2 for heavy weapons, -1 per spell level).
3) Turns proceed from highest to lowest initiative. If your action is nullified, there are basic actions you can choose to do instead.
4) (based on my last reply) End of round, end certain effects (tick down round count on durations).

But, if I don't use action speeds, I could just use an initiative Macro since I run games with Roll20. It would be as simple as highlighting all of the tokens and clicking my initiative Macro that I already use for the monsters at the start of combat. Hmmm...

 

[Zaukrie]

Thank you for pointing this out. It makes me consider how durations could be adjusted. Environmental effects could be changed to last until the end of the round, not particular turns, making it part of the round phase. Buffs and Debuffs would instead end at the end of the target's turn, so it affects them once for 1 round buffs.

It's also just luck of the dice..... but this is 100% something tables need to consider.