Team Initiative

[ZenBear]

What are your experiences with having the entire party fight under one initiative against the monsters? I think it would be fun to strategize with the team on how best to coordinate our actions to greatest effect. Everyone pays attention because they're all a part of the decision process, and then the enemies' actions are always relevant to the whole party so the players are still engaged. D&D is already pretty swingy so would it exacerbate the "rocket tag" feel? What's the best way to determine initiative in this way? Highest of the party, average (more maths is not a good thing IMO), or something else? I feel like taking the highest grants too much of an advantage to the side with more members.

[DersitePhantom]

There's a version of side initiative a few people have come up with that mitigates the (otherwise overwhelming) advantage of going first: each player rolls initiative as normal, but all the enemies have the same initiative; any players that roll above the enemies go first (together), then the enemies all go (together) and from there it's just normal side initiative. This way, abilities like Alert's initiative bonus are still useful and things are a bit more even.

[Safety Sword]

I always roll team initiative of sorts.

Bad guys are grouped into teams. Each team has it's own initiative.

Every PC is their own team.

[ZenBear]

There's a version of side initiative a few people have come up with that mitigates the (otherwise overwhelming) advantage of going first: each player rolls initiative as normal, but all the enemies have the same initiative; any players that roll above the enemies go first (together), then the enemies all go (together) and from there it's just normal side initiative. This way, abilities like Alert's initiative bonus are still useful and things are a bit more even.

I like this, but to clarify do you allow the players to freely alter their initiative among themselves or do you enforce Player A goes before B because initiative rolls?

[DersitePhantom]

I like this, but to clarify do you allow the players to freely alter their initiative among themselves or do you enforce Player A goes before B because initiative rolls?

Nope. The PC initiatives only matter to determine whether they get to go before the enemies do. After the first round, the PCs all go simultaneously, including (for instance) Player A using their action, then Player B using their movement, then Player A taking a bonus action as Player C uses their action. Allows for a lot of creative improvised actions, so if you're thinking of using this, be ready to adjudicate them.

[RickAllison]

Nope. The PC initiatives only matter to determine whether they get to go before the enemies do. After the first round, the PCs all go simultaneously, including (for instance) Player A using their action, then Player B using their movement, then Player A taking a bonus action as Player C uses their action. Allows for a lot of creative improvised actions, so if you're thinking of using this, be ready to adjudicate them.

Okay, so this is the order I'm seeing it in (and correct me if I'm wrong):

1) High-rolling PCs
2) Enemies
3) Entire PC group
4) Enemies
5) Entire PC group
...

And do you average the enemy initiatives?

[DersitePhantom]

Okay, so this is the order I'm seeing it in (and correct me if I'm wrong):

1) High-rolling PCs
2) Enemies
3) Entire PC group
4) Enemies
5) Entire PC group
...

And do you average the enemy initiatives?

Yep, that's right in regard to the order.

I usually do passive initiative for the enemies (10+DEX).

[Knaight]

There's a version of side initiative a few people have come up with that mitigates the (otherwise overwhelming) advantage of going first: each player rolls initiative as normal, but all the enemies have the same initiative; any players that roll above the enemies go first (together), then the enemies all go (together) and from there it's just normal side initiative. This way, abilities like Alert's initiative bonus are still useful and things are a bit more even.

You could also keep the initiative system, but instead of each character getting to go each team gets to have any one character go. So if 4 people from team A and team B show up and all roll, instead of having an initiative for all of the 8 you just get something like AABABBBA. Then if individual members of the team drop you take out the initiative from the back forward, which makes it harder to exploit a small initiative advantage. Plus, it has some book keeping advantages from a GM side, much as team initiative does, while still being more mixed up than team initiative.