Mechanical Talk: Taking the Initiative

Hey all, how ya doing?

I've been thinking on this a bunch and while I'm not one-hundred percent certain, initiative really feels like a gamist concept.

Now I'm not going to say it's wrong the way it's handled in games, after all you're attempting to simulate how a person responds to sudden combat, fast people can suddenly fumble all of their actions as the shock of aggressive actions stuns them, and slow, clumsy people can respond to their aggressors in a matter of moments. A D20 which gives you a certain level of luck on these rolls is a good way of simulating luck, but once it's been rolled Initiative remains static and unchanging, and for a mechanic that's supposed to represent the chaotic nature of actions in combat that's just a little bit naff.

Now there's nothing to be done about the fact that initiative is a gamist concept, even rolling for initiative is unrealistic, and simulationist, but there are a couple of ways of changing up the system, some of which are better than others, and others which help give the feeling of being in a very chaotic fight with advantage shifting from fighter to fighter.

So with that said let's get started

Method 1: The Regular Method

I've already said what I feel needs to be said on this systems disadvantages, but it's a good system for a simple non-important fight, 5 Heroes vs 30 Goblins, sort of thing, it's simple, easy enough to track, and only requires one roll, and can be house-ruled easily enough.

Popular house rules involve, +WIS to your initiative, natural 1 means you don't act in the first round, and only taking one action each in the first round.

Method 2: The Re-roll Method

This method is good for representing a chaotic fight between roughly equal forces, both in power and number. At the beginning of the fight everyone rolls initiative, goes in that order, and at the end of the first round, depending on how you want to rule it, either everyone or just the people who want to, re-roll their initiative for the next round, before the fight continues.

Now obviously this method requires more book-keeping on the part of the DM and players, so it might not be suitable for a singular DM, or an inexperienced DM, but as I said it can help set the scene for a chaotic bar-fight, or a melee on top of a city wall where combat flow is often prone to change and tracking large amounts of initiatives isn't an issue.

Method 3: The Direct Roll Method

This method is just another version of method 1, but it does warrant it's own title if only because whenever it comes up it seems to carry a stigma. This method completely ignores any positive stat modifiers that might alter the Initiative roll, and just relies on the roll of a D20. If a slow Fighter with a DEX of -1 rolls an 18, and the nimble Rogue with a DEX of +5 rolls a 15, well too bad the fighter's going first, he rolled higher, you want to go first, roll higher next time fuckwad.

Now this method may be almost completely luck based, but it does have it's advantages, surprise rounds for one, you're flat-footed and unable to respond, I wouldn't allow you to add your positive DEX mod to an initiative roll in the that round; negative modifiers still apply, but that's because that makes sense for that particular situation, and really if you're unlucky enough to still be rolling a penalty stat in these days of Stat buy and 4d6 , re-roll low, drop low then either cover for it with tactics or suffer for your shitty luck

Method 4: The Direct Stat Method

Kinda similar to the above Method 3, but instead of rolling a D20 and going with that, your Dexterity score is your initiative in combat, only way to change it is through magical items that increase your dexterity score, or Improved Initiative.

It's not very fun, but it requires almost no book-keeping on the DM's part, and can be altered simply to be Dex Score + DEX mod, or  roll but you can't roll above your Dex score + your DEX mod. (Eg, a Alchemist with a Dexterity of 17, and a mod of +3, couldn't roll above a 20)

Method 5: The -10 Step Method

This method might be my favourite in concept, but I've never got to play it, so I can't speak for it's effectiveness, but at the start of combat everyone rolls their Initiative and throughout the turn, acts at their initiative, and again at the initiative -10, -20, -30, until the initiative reaches 0, and everyone re-rolls initiative.

This one might be a little hard to explain via words, so I'll quickly do an example

Initiatives:

Rogue 23,
Fighter 9,
Wizard 16,
Cleric 13,
Goblin A 19,
Goblin B 5,
Goblin C (Nat 20 so +10) 33.

So the turn order should look like this

Goblin C Acts at 33
Goblin C acts before Rogue at 23
Rogue Acts at 23
Goblin A acts at 19
Wizard acts at 16
Goblin C before Rogue and Cleric at 13
Rogue acts before Cleric at 13
Cleric acts at 13
Goblin A acts before Fighter at 9
Fighter acts at 9
Wizard acts at 6
Goblin B acts at 5
Goblin C acts before Rogue and Cleric at 3
Rogue acts before Cleric at 3
Clerics acts at 3
Initiative reaches 0, everyone re-rolls

As you can see if someone rolls luckily on Initiative, or has put a lot of time, money and Feats into improving their initiative, they get a lot more chances to alter the way combat happens, but this method is also immensely complicated and requires far more book-keeping than any other method shown above, and I wouldn't recommend this method for large combats, but I would say to use it for duels, climatic final fights, and small but important combats.

It all depends on how much book-keeping you want to do mostly, and while most people are plenty happy with method1, it's all up to you if you want to spice up your combat.

and if you do so take the initiative, Carpe Jugulum.