Maneuvering the whims of players is a fickle thing at times. Thats why one of my players bought me a gavel, of course it only took a half hour before before they had to pry it from my hands because I was banging it on the table every time I was interrupted.Right, I hear you. I find the same to be true....when someone takes a long time and another player thinks “well it’s ten more initiative spots to my turn” it’s that much easier for their mind to wander or to check their phone, or what have you. It doesn’t happen all the time or anything, but we’ve noticed that the idea of “our turn” rather than a bunch of “my turns” keeps people focused and discussing what to do, so there’s a lot less wasted time.
It was kind of an additional perk we noticed. The main reasons we adopted that initiative system was primarily to save time by not having to roll a bunch of dice and then set the order, and also to promote teamwork. The increased focus was just an added bonus, really.
Maneuvering the whims of players is a fickle thing at times. Thats why one of my players bought me a gavel, of course it only took a half hour before before they had to pry it from my hands because I was banging it on the table every time I was interrupted.
Reminds of "My Name Is Mud" by Primus....We got a wiffle bat, and the player next to the one talking would belt them with it.
Worked great for about a session, and then it degenerated into random violence.
Still, it brought a great deal of humor, and it had re-appeared several time over the years since.
One of my players tracks initiative on a sheet of paper. I have thought of making something like in the OP, but the player tracking has been working.
I play Cortex, Fate, and SCRPG, so it's all elective action order. in f2f play, we flip a visible token to indicate a turn's taken, and flip them all back as the round moves forward. in online play, I stick a token on the player icon to do the same.
but... I'm sitting here thinking... has nobody mentioned OP's ten PCs? do you actually have ten players, or are they all playing two characters?