Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: "Greyhawk" Initiative

The latest Unearthed Arcana by WotCs Mearls is up. "Mike Mearls introduces an alternative initiative system, inspired by AD&D and the journey to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin—the birthplace of D&D—for Gary Con 2017. While the initiative rules in fifth edition D&D are great for keeping the action moving and being easy to use at the table, the Greyhawk initiative variant takes a different approach. These rules add complexity, but with the goal of introducing more drama to combat."

He's calling it "Greyhawk Initiative". It'll be interesting to compare this to how we interpreted his earlier version of alternative initiative.

Mearls also talks about it in this video.

[video=youtube;hfSo4wVkwUw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfSo4wVkwUw[/video]


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[Syntallah]

I have been using this system for some time now (first, the DM Speed Factor variant and then Mearls' Greyhawk variant), and I love it. It randomizes combat for me and my group quite nicely, and does not slow things down hardly at all. Some things that I have tweaked or just do:

- Players must simply declare their actions, not targets. In the case mentioned a few posts ago, if a wizard declares a Lightning Bolt, that's it; I don't care where he casts it or at who. He declared that spell so he has to cast it or forfeit that particular action. No need to worry that his target died a few segments before his turn.
- I modified the Initiative Dice table as follows:

Die Action
d4 Missile weapons
d6 Skill or Ability checks
d8 Melee weapons
d8 Using a Tool or Implement
d8 Retrieving an item at hand
d10 Casting a spell
d10 Retrieving a stowed item

Modifiers (all cumulative)
Finesse, or Light property; quicken 1 step
Ammunition, Heavy, Loading, Two-handed; slow by 1 step
High Level Spells (i.e. 6th level or higher); slow by 1 step

- You can Delay your turn as long as you want. So, if your initiative count was a 7, but you want to see how things shake out, or the above mentioned wizard wants to wait until his meat shields have moved away from his intended target, he can Delay until 8,9,10,11, whatever. As a new segment rolls by, I simply ask the player "do you want to go?" If yes, his Delay beats all ties for that segment, if not, we finish that segment and move to the next... and so on...

 

[Ilbranteloth]

I have been using this system for some time now (first, the DM Speed Factor variant and then Mearls' Greyhawk variant), and I love it. It randomizes combat for me and my group quite nicely, and does not slow things down hardly at all. Some things that I have tweaked or just do:

- Players must simply declare their actions, not targets. In the case mentioned a few posts ago, if a wizard declares a Lightning Bolt, that's it; I don't care where he casts it or at who. He declared that spell so he has to cast it or forfeit that particular action. No need to worry that his target died a few segments before his turn.
- I modified the Initiative Dice table as follows:

DieAction
d4Missile weapons
d6Skill or Ability checks
d8Melee weapons
d8Using a Tool or Implement
d8Retrieving an item at hand
d10Casting a spell
d10Retrieving a stowed item

Modifiers (all cumulative)
Finesse, or Light property; quicken 1 step
Ammunition, Heavy, Loading, Two-handed; slow by 1 step
High Level Spells (i.e. 6th level or higher); slow by 1 step

- You can Delay your turn as long as you want. So, if your initiative count was a 7, but you want to see how things shake out, or the above mentioned wizard wants to wait until his meat shields have moved away from his intended target, he can Delay until 8,9,10,11, whatever. As a new segment rolls by, I simply ask the player "do you want to go?" If yes, his Delay beats all ties for that segment, if not, we finish that segment and move to the next... and so on...

I’d recommend considering that they delayed character go last in the segment. That is, those who actually rolled that segment are acting, and the delayed character is reacting to the actions in that segment.

It also allows you to retain the Ready action, which does go first, but limits your options in a different way.

In other words a pro/con or risk/reward choice on whether to delay or not.