Roll....initiative!!

[PhilIsAwesome]

i've been DMing for a short time now and i thought i would ask the pros if you guys had any suggestion's to keeping up with PC's and NPC's initiative, aside from old school pencil and paper. Keeping initiative isn't really the problem, it's keeping up with all the PC's buff's and debuffs and effects and conditions etc. so any suggestions?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I keep track of the basic stuff- level/class based bonuses, known major weapon or permanent magic enhancements, etc.- IOW, things that rarely change.

I leave it up to the players to keep track of all their fiddly little buffs once they've been announced ("I target the Dwarf with Bull's Strength."). If they don't keep track, that's their problem. If they cheat and I catch them, that's their problem...especially since I'm not looking too hard.

So its essentially an honor system. The reason I keep track of the major stuff is less to catch cheating and more to gauge the likely trends in the combat and as a safeguard against newer players forgetting the major stuff.

 

[Grandpa]

I ran my first game as DM the other night. For initiative, I tried a suggestion I read to fold paper strips over the DM's screen with an indicator for each combatant, and loved it. Everyone sees where they are and it's easy to shift around. I just numbered each end of the strip (player-view, dm-view) for monsters, and had the players draw an icon for themselves with a Sharpie. You just have to be okay with having some of the screen tables a bit obscured. Hehe.

For conditions, I love Alea's counters.

 

[Ahrimon]

I ran my first game as DM the other night. For initiative, I tried a suggestion I read to fold paper strips over the DM's screen with an indicator for each combatant, and loved it. Everyone sees where they are and it's easy to shift around. I just numbered each end of the strip (player-view, dm-view) for monsters, and had the players draw an icon for themselves with a Sharpie. You just have to be okay with having some of the screen tables a bit obscured. Hehe.

We do that with clothes pins. The hinge kind.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Putting some sort of token on or under a miniature is a common way to track conditions. You can use anything from fairly pricey tokens like magnetic flags on teeny poles, or perfectly flat 1" plastic squares with the condition printed on them, or something as simple and cheap as a square of colored paper or a colored ring (like an elastic hair band or the plastic rings on soda bottle caps).

 

[Plane Sailing]

For me:
PC's keep track of buffs on themselves and debuffs on monsters. If they forget it, it doesn't happen that round.

I keep track of debuffs on PCs and buffs on monsters. If I forget it, it doesn't happen that round.

Thus people are responsible for things which they are interested in happening.

I have a sheet of paper with goodies and baddies on it, and quickly jot down conditions which I'm tracking.

I find the whole process a complete PITA and it is one thing I'd eliminate completely from 4e if I could.

 

[Kzach]

My personal favourite method of keeping track of all of this is index cards for monsters and PC's. Stack them in initiative order and simply rotate through them as you go, marking buffs/debuffs/marks, etc. on each card so everything is right there in front of you every turn.

 

[MarkB]

The best tool I've seen for the job is the GameMastery Initiative Tracker (or Combat Pad as they're calling it now). A magnetic pad with a generous set of magnetic tabs to place on it, all dry-erase, allowing you to easily arrange an entire set of PCs and NPCs into initiative order, then add, remove or rearrange combatants, and mark individuals as Readying or Delaying. It also has a round counter, which can be important in some combats.

Generally in our groups, whoever's DMing will ask for a player to volunteer to be the initiative tracker for the session, and that player will organise initiatives for each combat, allowing the DM to concentrate on running the encounter.

 

[Lord Ernie]

If you use DDI for the character & monster builder, I can heartily recommend RPG.net's Combat Tracker. Tracks initiative, conditions, saving throws, and whatnot, but more importantly, you can copy-paste the stats for the characters and the monsters straight out of the DDI applications. Makes combat tracking much less of a drag, IMO.

 

[mkill]

I bought a small whiteboard at the 100 Yen store, where I jot down every combatant in initiative order, monster hps, conditions and whatever else I need to remember.