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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8105615" data-attributes="member: 508">I build an initiative card for each PC and each monster type.  These are the size of a playing card, with a black-and-white image of the PC/monster printed on a sheet of paper (I can fit eight on a sheet), cut out, glued to the back of an index card, cut out again, I write the name of the PC/monster on the back, and then I cover it with ConTact paper and cut it out again, this time leaving about 1/8" around the edge of the card.  I save these in a series of index card holder boxes.  It's a little extra work before each adventure if I don't already have initiative cards for all of the monsters I'll be using, but once an initiative card has been built for a given monster I have it for any subsequent adventure using that monster.In use, I have everyone roll for initiative and then assemble my deck for the encounter.  The top card shows who's currently up.  If they take their complete turn, I move the card to the back of the deck and press on with the next PC/monster's turn; if the PC/monster readies an action, I place their card at the back of the deck like normal but turned 90 degrees so it sticks out, indicating there's still a readied action that can come into play at any time.  (Once they take their readied action, the card gets turned back like normal.)  And if a PC is, say, paralyzed or held I can put his or her initiative card upside down as a reminder there's something going on with that PC the next time his or her initiative rolls around.The initiative cards are handy not only in tracking initiative but also in showing the players what their PCs see.  On occasion, I've purposefully used monster images from different sources so the players don't automatically recognize the picture of a given monster from the Monster Manual; as an example, I used a Tony DiTerlizzi image of a skum and made sure to describe the creature as a "fishman" rather than a skum and the players had no idea their PCs would likely be encountering aboleths later in that adventure.  It allows me to overrule Monster Manual images I don't like - since I still run a 3.5 game, I can make sure the carrion crawlers, homunculi, and ogres in my game look more like the traditional versions of those creatures than the oddities that showed up in the 3.0/3.5 Monster Manual.Johnathan</blockquote>

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