NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KidSnide" data-source="post: 6604544" data-attributes="member: 54710">If you want something more frenetic and unstructured, take a page from Dungeon World style "initiative."  In Dungeon World, there is no initiative, the DM just focuses on individual PCs as it makes sense.  (Google "dungeon world initiative" if that doesn't make sense.)  In D&D, you could adapt that system something like this:DM: The five orcs charge the party.  Two charge Ardwell the Fighter in the middle, one each charges Clewell the cleric and Rasimar the Rogue on the flanks and the fifth tries to sneak around the edge to attack Melesial in the rear.DM: Melesial, you have some time before the orc reaches you.  What do you do?[Resolve Melesial's action]DM: Does everyone else brace for melee?  [Players nod]  Ok, the orcs engage!  Ardwall, the two orcs charge you in the middle.  One tries to skewer you on a spear while the other slashes at your with a rusty axe.  What do you do?[Resolve Ardwall's action and the actions of the two orcs.  If it's really important to figure out who goes first, you could let Ardwall make an initiative check modified however you see appropriate based on the speed of the action.  Otherwise, I would let the spear strike first, followed by Ardwall, then the axe.  But mostly simultaneous is ok.]Resolve Clewall and Rasimar in the same way, then:DM: Ok, Melesial, the orc has worked its way around the edge of the room.  Now it raises its axe above its head, howls in fury and charges.  What do you do?...from here, you can continue in the same cycle or - if something exciting happens - feel free to focus on that for a while.    If one PC is dueling with a monster by himself, run a couple rounds of that combat before you go back to the main action.  If a PC gets into a pickle, then turn to the nearest PC and tell them that their friend is in danger, but so are they.  They can try to save their friend and risk their own danger or focus on their own plight and leave their friend to the monsters bearing down.  What do they do?In this system, you divide up the monsters among the PCs and each monster effectively goes at the same time as the PC they are fighting.  Because you are moving around based on narrative logic (bearing in mind that you need to make sure that you're giving each player a fair amount of time in the spotlight), the whole encounter moves less predictably and players spend more time on the edge of their seat, waiting to for the action to move to them.-KS</blockquote>

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