Initiative Dream Come True

[Rev666]

Yesterday when my group of 5 faced a Drider an interesting thing occured and it made combat so much easier.

Everyones initiative was such that i could go around the table clockwise for their turns. (So me, guy to my left, guy to his left, guy to his left and so on til it was back to me).

Anyone else had a funny little occurrence like this happen before?

[JonBeowulf]

Nope. The closest I've come to that was when we played with group initiative: I went, then they went.

[ShadowSandbag]

I'm always happy when the Initiative numbers are all in a row. Like the other day when we were playing we the party had something like "18 17 16 15" and the one enemy rolled a 14.

[animorte]

My brother recently started DMing and it's easier for him, and we all agreed, that everyone rolls as normal and then:

Highest roll starts first. The highest roll between the 2 people to that person's left and right will go next and play proceeds in that direction. DM goes when the rotation meets him.

So he rolls one initiative for all enemies, but the chances of multiple of us going before him is always much better, so we're cool with that.

[da newt]

One group I sat in with once used initiative mods only , no roll - the party always went in the same order and sometimes the baddies went early, middle or late depending on their initiative mod. It made for easy coordination within the party, but also seemed even more of a reason to play Dex based PCs over ST etc.

[Samayu]

That's cool. I don't think I've seen that, but we have had adjacent numbers, like someone said above.

[Kurt Kurageous]

Having a party act in a predictable order is a really good thing.

I've tried a couple of times to get parties to forego the 'roll your own' initiative model. Instead, the party agrees they will act in a certain order (generally offensive casters, buffers, melee, then etc.) that they can change after each fight to tweak as the party develops combat teamwork. Everyone rolls initiative as usual, but the highest modified result goes to the character that acts first, second highest to second character, etc.

The upside, it speeds pre-combat up immeasurably as I just sort the numbers and plug in monsters, and speeds up rounds as everyone knows every time who's up next.

The downside is the highest initiative modifier does not necessarily benefit that character, even though it still benefits the party.

Comments?

[Hytheter]

I'm always happy when the Initiative numbers are all in a row. Like the other day when we were playing we the party had something like "18 17 16 15" and the one enemy rolled a 14.

Your turns are always in a row if there's only one enemy. The initiative roll only then determines when the gap occurs.

[ShadowSandbag]

Your turns are always in a row if there's only one enemy. The initiative roll only then determines when the gap occurs.

Yeah, I understand that. I meant its nice to have all the numbers adjacent to each other, regardless of the actual order people go in. It would be the same thing as if say, the part rolled 8, 11 & 9, with two enemies rolling 10 and 7. Leads to a final initiative order of 11,10,9,8,7.

[Catullus64]

It's very easy to make this dream come true all the time if you're willing to change seats.

[Sigreid]

In various groups over the years we've done side initiative just for ease of use. Person with the highest modifier to initiative on each side rolls for the whole group and when it's the player's side you just go around the table. It works fine as long as nothing is 100% if the players lose initiative they're screwed.

[Khrysaes]

Ive begun using side initiative that is slightly modified. I roll for the enemies to set the “dc” the. They roll ini initiative. The results are determined like group stealth. If half or more beat the dc. Pcs go first. If half are less, dm goes first.

[LudicSavant]

Yesterday when my group of 5 faced a Drider an interesting thing occured and it made combat so much easier.

Everyones initiative was such that i could go around the table clockwise for their turns. (So me, guy to my left, guy to his left, guy to his left and so on til it was back to me).

Anyone else had a funny little occurrence like this happen before?

Life hack: When initiative is rolled, everyone gets up from their seat and sits down in clockwise order.

[ender241]

Life hack: When initiative is rolled, everyone gets up from their seat and sits down in clockwise order.

Big brain time: when each person arrives for game night have them roll initiative and then start off sitting in initiative order. Then once combat starts you're already sitting in the right place. Until some wise guy casts guidance on himself right before combat starts and messes up the order...

[Hairfish]

Life hack: When initiative is rolled, everyone gets up from their seat and sits down in clockwise order.

Have the players play Musical Chairs and the person who loses their seat fumbles for that round.

[animorte]

I love what this thread turned in to! XD

[Hytheter]

Yeah, I understand that. I meant its nice to have all the numbers adjacent to each other, regardless of the actual order people go in. It would be the same thing as if say, the part rolled 8, 11 & 9, with two enemies rolling 10 and 7. Leads to a final initiative order of 11,10,9,8,7.

Ah, I misunderstood then, my apologies.

[Ozreth]

One group I sat in with once used initiative mods only , no roll - the party always went in the same order and sometimes the baddies went early, middle or late depending on their initiative mod. It made for easy coordination within the party, but also seemed even more of a reason to play Dex based PCs over ST etc.

This seems...better.

Anybody else done this?

[Kane0]

Yesterday when my group of 5 faced a Drider an interesting thing occured and it made combat so much easier.

Everyones initiative was such that i could go around the table clockwise for their turns. (So me, guy to my left, guy to his left, guy to his left and so on til it was back to me).

Anyone else had a funny little occurrence like this happen before?

I just do that instead of rolling half the time. PC with highest init goes first clockwise or counterclockwise towards the PC that got second highest. If I have a lot of NPCs or lair/legendary actions they go at the halfway mark.

[olskool]

Yesterday when my group of 5 faced a Drider an interesting thing occured and it made combat so much easier.

Everyones initiative was such that i could go around the table clockwise for their turns. (So me, guy to my left, guy to his left, guy to his left and so on til it was back to me).

Anyone else had a funny little occurrence like this happen before?

No, I haven't.

Here's something you could try, but not everyone will approve of...

Have everyone go around the table saying what they will do. Insert your monsters between each player's turn. THEN... Say that everything that was declared/rolled for happens simultaneously and all effects are applied AFTER everyone goes but before the round ends! Yes, monsters and PCs CAN KILL EACH OTHER in a simultaneous action system but that's just part of the fun.