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<blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 9501813" data-attributes="member: 6680772">It doesn't say that.The PCs perforce cannot declare their combat actions before initiative is rolled the first time, because initiative is rolled before combat is even chosen.I think what's confusing to people looking back is that it's long been the case in D&amp;D that rolling initiative indicated the start of combat. But that's not how it is in Moldvay Basic. There, initiative is rolled as part of the Order of Events in One Game Turn when monsters are encountered during the turn. Then it is rerolled in subsequent rounds as part of the Combat Sequence, if combat occurs. So, the party encounters a monster, and neither side is surprised. Initiative is rolled. If the party wins, they can decide whether to fight, talk, run, or wait and see. If the monster wins, the DM chooses or rolls on the reaction table to see if the monster fights, talks, runs, or waits and sees.If it becomes a fight, then whichever side won initiative gets to go first, and decides their actions.This was all changed in Mentzer. There, an encounter with a monster was broken out to its own Order of Events:1. Number appearing2. Surprise3. Reactions4. Resultsa. both sides talkb. one side runs away (go to Evasion and Pursuit)c. one side attacks (go to Order of Events in Combat)Mentzer then added an Intentions phase as the first phase of the Order of Events in Combat, where everyone says what they intend to do. Only after that comes Initiative.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Iosue, post: 9501813, member: 6680772"] It doesn't say that. The PCs perforce cannot declare their combat actions before initiative is rolled the first time, because initiative is rolled before combat is even chosen. I think what's confusing to people looking back is that it's long been the case in D&D that rolling initiative indicated the start of combat. But that's not how it is in Moldvay Basic. There, initiative is rolled as part of the [B]Order of Events in One Game Turn[/B] when monsters are encountered during the turn. Then it is rerolled in subsequent rounds as part of the [B]Combat Sequence[/B], [I]if combat occurs[/I]. So, the party encounters a monster, and neither side is surprised. Initiative is rolled. If the party wins, they can decide whether to fight, talk, run, or wait and see. If the monster wins, the DM chooses or rolls on the reaction table to see if the monster fights, talks, runs, or waits and sees. If it becomes a fight, then whichever side won initiative gets to go first, and decides their actions. This was all changed in Mentzer. There, an encounter with a monster was broken out to its own Order of Events: 1. Number appearing 2. Surprise 3. Reactions 4. Results a. both sides talk b. one side runs away (go to Evasion and Pursuit) c. one side attacks (go to Order of Events in Combat) Mentzer then added an Intentions phase as the first phase of the Order of Events in Combat, where everyone says what they intend to do. Only after that comes Initiative. [/QUOTE]

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