D&D General Rules that weren't...

[Reynard]

Is it? I haven’t read Daggerheart, but it works well for Dungeon World.

Similar: in Daggerheart, the PCs go in whatever order they want, but if a PC fails a roll, or rolls success with Fear (ie a complication) the spotlight shifts to the GM, who can then activate monsters, environments, whatever. Once the GM is done, the spotlight shifts back to the PCs.

 

[Reynard]

I think you just invented Daggerheart

That's... not how DH works at all.

 

[Remathilis]

That's... not how DH works at all.

You're right, I replied to the wrong message

 

[Xenolith234]

Yes, very similar! I go to 12 instead of only 10 to line up with weapon dice, and I have spells be based on number of different components instead of whether or not you upcast them. But that’s just small details, the fundamental concept is the same. I actually had the idea independently around the same time he released this article for general access. I do really like his full version with the “recovering” status, but I didn’t adopt it cause my players were already intimidated by the basic version. Didn’t want to change too many rules at once, but I would consider suggesting it for the next campaign I run for the same group of players.

I think what I’d really want from something like recovery time is the ability for PCs to act multiple times in a round (like if they’re using a fast weapon like a dagger), but that’s likely extremely broken.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think what I’d really want from something like recovery time is the ability for PCs to act multiple times in a round (like if they’re using a fast weapon like a dagger), but that’s likely extremely broken.

You could make it a “turns until I get to act” count instead of a “turn count I act on next round”. I don’t think it would necessarily be broken, it would just be a lot more complex, because everyone has to update their counter every single turn.

 

[pukunui]

I would be interested in trying a more dynamic initiative system sometime, but I now exclusively use DDB's Maps, which doesn't let you edit the initiative order once you've begun a combat. I'd have to end the combat, reselect all the combatants, then start over each round, which feels like too much effort.

A more dynamic initiative system would've worked better back when I had little initiative cards that I'd hang on the DM screen. I could easily just shuffle them around each round. But I don't even use a DM screen anymore ...

 

[Charlaquin]

I would be interested in trying a more dynamic initiative system sometime, but I now exclusively use DDB's Maps, which doesn't let you edit the initiative order once you've begun a combat. I'd have to end the combat, reselect all the combatants, then start over each round, which feels like too much effort.

A more dynamic initiative system would've worked better back when I had little initiative cards that I'd hang on the DM screen. I could easily just shuffle them around each round. But I don't even use a DM screen anymore ...

With my system, each player keeps track of their own initiative. Since action “speeds” determine the die you roll and there are no modifiers to the die roll, a player can simply leave the number they rolled face-up to remind themselves of their initiative count on the next round. Then at the start of each new round I count up from 1 to 12. When a player’s number is called they can jump in with a “that’s me,” and if there’s a tie with another player, usually one of them will say “you can go first.” Once all creatures on a given count have finished their turns, you resume the count until everyone has acted, and then start from 1 again.

The DM does need to keep track of monster initiatives. But if you want to keep that simple, you can group monsters by hit die and roll each group’s hit die once, having all monsters in that group act on that initiative count. If you do this though, I recommend giving ties between monsters and PCs to the PCs instead of going in descending Dex order (or whatever).

 

[pukunui]

With my system, each player keeps track of their own initiative. Since action “speeds” determine the die you roll and there are no modifiers to the die roll, a player can simply leave the number they rolled face-up to remind themselves of their initiative count on the next round. Then at the start of each new round I count up from 1 to 12. When a player’s number is called they can jump in with a “that’s me,” and if there’s a tie with another player, usually one of them will say “you can go first.” Once all creatures on a given count have finished their turns, you resume the count until everyone has acted, and then start from 1 again.

The DM does need to keep track of monster initiatives. But if you want to keep that simple, you can group monsters by hit die and roll each group’s hit die once, having all monsters in that group act on that initiative count. If you do this though, I recommend giving ties between monsters and PCs to the PCs instead of going in descending Dex order (or whatever).

So lowest goes first and highest last?

 

[Charlaquin]

So lowest goes first and highest last?

Correct; that is what “in ascending order” means. That makes it so weapons can use their damage die for their initiative die, and bigger weapons will be slower on average. The 1-12 scale also allows for some neat tricks like spells rolling 1d4 per required component, or items using 1d6 if they’re at hand or 2d6 if they have to be retrieved from a pack or other container first. It also lines up with monster hit dice, so larger monsters act slower on average.