What systems are you playing these days?

[Mark Hope]

Torg. Mmmmm. Teh awesome .

I am running a house-ruled Mage: the Ascension chronicle at the moment. Initiative is determined by totalling each character's dots in Dexterity and Wits. Highest total goes first, but characters can delay if they want to.

The core rules actually suggest adding a single d10 roll to each Initiative total, but we can't be arsed with that. Too many damn dice in WoD games as it is! So we just go with static initiative. Works nicely and keeps the game flowing along smoothly.

In my homebrew (Pathfinder) we used the standard D&D3 initiative rules: roll d20 and add any applicable modifiers. But we do so at the end of the preceding combat and use that total for the next combat that comes along. That way we can move smoothly into combat without having to stop to "roll for initiative". This also means that, when we are setting the session up, all the players roll for initiative for whenever the first combat of the night breaks out (assuming there even is one). This makes for a fun opener to the session - rolling well or poorly means that you have something to look forward to (or dread) later on in the evening

 

[Thanee]

Shadowrun 4th Edition

You roll Xd6 (X being your initiative value) and your initiative result is X + the number of 5+ you rolled.

A round has (up to) 4 passes. Every participant has between 1 and 4 actions (depending on equipment, spells and such).

On the 1st pass, everyone acts in the initiative order.
On the 2nd pass, everyone with 2+ actions acts in the initiative order.
And so on.

Cortex System

That one's straightforward. You roll two dice and add them together. Initiative order from highest to lowest.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Wik]

In addition to 4e, my groups is diving into Savage Worlds and I love their initiative mechanic. It's a set of regular playing cards with the jokers. Each PC and the monsters (however the GM feels like grouping them or dividing them) gets a card, count is from Ace high down to Deuce. A Joker lets you go whenever you want in the round, even interrupting someone else's action and gives you a generic +2 bonus, as well.

Savage Worlds = Awesome. "rolling" for initiative is also really fun, because you can make a player do it. I have two decks, and give them to two different players, so one is shuffling while the other deals... once a joker is drawn, the initiative tracking job flips to the other player. Helps keep things fast! furious! And fun!

***

I like the Star Wars d6 method. Since characters can take multiple actions, it works like this: Everyone's first action goes off at the same time. Then everyone's second action. And then everyone's third action. And so on. If you need to figure out who shot first (henh henh), roll opposed agility checks.

So, Han and Luke are in a hallway fight with three stormtroopers. Two stormtroopers decide to fire twice, while the third will fire, run for cover behind a comm console, and then call for help. Han fires twice, and Luke will fire, run towards the troopers while drawing his lightsaber, and then cutting one to pieces with two attacks.

The combat order looks like this:

PASS ONE: (all the attacks happen simultaneously)
Storm Trooper #1 Fires
Storm Trooper #2 Fires
Storm Trooper #3 Fires
Han Fires
Luke Fires

PASS TWO:
Stormtrooper #1 Fires
Stormtrooper #2 Fires
Storm Trooper #3 runs for cover
Luke Runs towards troopers
Han Fires

PASS THREE:
Stormtrooper #3 calls for help
Luke Uses his lightsabre

PASS FOUR
Luke uses his lightsabre

Anyways. It's a fun system. But if you have multiple foes who each decide to do something different, it sort of falls apart. And action chains can get ridiculous, if players declare a string of actions and some event halfway through that chain of actions would change a PC's course of action (for example, Luke might want to keep moving forward instead of attacking the two troopers, so he can stop the third guy from calling for help).

But, overall, it's a neat system.

...man, I miss the d6 system.

 

[Crothian]

Yow. That does kind of sound like a mess, yeah. Don't think I can support that one - though - speaking as someone who hasn't played the game - I'm kind of amazed that you're able to keep track of things *without* a program...

You just have a something for each character and move them around the wheel. The more characters in a combat the worse it gets.

 

[Wombat]

I'm in two biweekly games.

The one that has been running for a while is NWoD's Changeling, set in Las Vegas.

The new one is Ars Magica set in the Stonehenge Tribunal on the Welsh frontier.

Enjoying both of these immensely.

 

[maddman75]

One game is Savage Worlds: Slipstream, which uses cards as noted.

I run Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Each PC rolls d10 + Dex, and if they have the Fast Reaction Time quality they add another five. Dex is rated 1-6 for normal humans, though supernaturals can go higher. Doubt you'd see PCs higher than 10 (and that would be super-optimized)

I also play oWoD Vampire, which uses 1d10 + Dex + Wits. Abilities range 1-6 for most vamps.

 

[Woas]

3:16. Everyone rolls a d10 against your NFA (or AA in the case of the GM) stat. Then you compare: PCs all successful; aliens fail: ambush by the PCs. Highest success is a PC: that player sets initial rage... and so forth. There's 5 possible outcomes so it's not really a big list.

 

[coyote6]

Mostly d20-derived games at the moment, but I'll be starting a GURPS 4e game in a few weeks. GURPS 4e's initiative is, IIRC, the same as 3e -- in order of Speed, with occasional modifiers.

 

[slwoyach]

The one that has been running for a while is NWoD's Changeling, set in Las Vegas.

oh, dear, god....

 

[slwoyach]

I'm currently trying to get an Alternity game up and running. Alternity has a great initiative system:

The first thing you need to do is figure out your action check score. Your action check score is the average of your dexterity and intelligence, +1 to +3 based upon your profession. There are 4 phases in every round; amazing, good, ordinary, and marginal. Roll 1d20, if your result is 1/4 your action check score or lower you can act in the amazing phase of a round, 1/2 or lower gets you into the good phase, your score or lower is the ordinary phase, and if you fail your action check you don't act until the marginal phase. You also get an action in ever phase after your first action of the round. So if you score an amazing success you may act in all 4 phases. However, you're also limited in the maximum number of actions you can take per round. You determine this by averaging your constitution and will and dividing that by 4, rounding down. Ability scores for humans range from 4-14, so you'll rarely see 4 actions in a round (requires an average of 16 in con and will.)

It's not nearly as complicated as it seems when you start to use it.