Simultaneous Initiative

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yeah...I *heart* gnomes too, man.

Actually, it was cool from a RP standpoint, too. Since my PC was unconscious and couldn't tell how the battle ended, his PC lied his short little ass off about how epic the finale was. He hasn't let ANYONE forget how he saved me by slaying an UH...with his bare hands!

 

[Roger]

It can lead to this sort of interesting exchange:

"Okay, I Delay."

"No, you can't."

"What? I can't Delay?"

"Nope. Not unless you just want to miss your turn entirely."



Cheers,
Roger

 

[TerraDave]

There wasn't much to fudge with in our old games. Initiative per the RAW in Moldvay Basic was a simple D6 roll per side. There were a few exceptions (two handed weapons and zombies struck last) but otherwise no modifiers. A tie on the initiative roll meant everything happened at once no matter who actually mechanically resolved their action first.

Opposing spellcasters would both get to have their spells cast sometimes resulting in cool situations such as party A largely being put to sleep just as a fireball detonates within party B. No matter what the effects of the spells were, combatants on both sides got to complete their actions. At the end of the round, all casualties took effect and only those still standing participated in the following round. It was great for those Mexican standoff situations.

AD&D of course invoked weapons speeds and other things...so we would reroll, or use other tie breakers.

I am assuming players would go first, and you are sort of rellying on the DM to not "cheat" when he takes his turn?

 

[ExploderWizard]

AD&D of course invoked weapons speeds and other things...so we would reroll, or use other tie breakers.

I am assuming players would go first, and you are sort of rellying on the DM to not "cheat" when he takes his turn?

Sometimes the DM went first and sometimes the players. It was always interesting watching what a doomed character or monster would do with it's last action.

 

[Lanefan]

Whenever classic D&D initiative procedures are mentioned in a thread, someone always brings up the concept of simultatneous initiative, and all the supposedly cool situations that can come up with it.

Usually me.

We use a straight d6, individually rerolled every round*; as we don't use weapon speed or any other modifiers, ties happen all the time. Occasionally, it'll lead to something funky and dramatic like a double-kill; but most often it makes little difference except when characters are for some reason trying to act in unison e.g. a timed volley of shots, or all running together under a Silence spell. Strict turn-based init. does not technically allow such things, and to me that takes away from both the realism and the fun. It's also extremely annoying.

My point is not that it always adds loads of funky stuff; it's more that allowing simultaneous actions takes nothing away from the game yet can at times add a great deal, so why not use it?

* - if you have multiple attacks in a round, each gets its own independent initiative; the only proviso being you cannot strike twice in the same segment with the same weapon.

Lan-"something funky this way comes"-efan

 

[The Shaman]

Have you seen simultaneous initiative produce anything interesting?

Depends on what you consider "interesting."

Perhaps the most memorable instances for me were a very old green dragon slain by the adventurers in the same round it killed three of the party members with its breath weapon (epic!), a cleric paralyzed by a ghoul in the same round it turned the ghoul (humorously ironic!), and a thief who pulled a lever to drop a portcullis in the same round she was dropped unconscious (reduced to less than zero hit points but not below -10 hp) by several arrows (heroic!).