Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

So far I've been rolling individual initiative for the heroes but group initiative for monsters. Is this unbalanced? Should I be rolling group initiative for the heroes as well? So in other words should I pick one or the other?

I do individual for everyone, that way monsters and PCs are all moving around at different times.

Its a common rule doing mix rolls.

Is it balanced? Yeah, sure. Each pc is responsible for their own initiative, and opponents can go all either before, later or simultaneously with the pc

Dimirag wrote: ↑Wed Mar 10, 2021 4:07 pm Its a common rule doing mix rolls.

Is it balanced? Yeah, sure. Each pc is responsible for their own initiative, and opponents can go all either before, later or simultaneously with the pc

Yea that makes sense. I've been doing it as I mentioned for a while now and starting thinking about it more today. I guess it makes sense to either do group rolls completely or individual. I like individual but seems like it slows things down quite a bit.

You can play with different options until you find one that fits your gaming taste.

If rolling initiative each round is cumbersome ask them to roll several d6 and to use one of them each following round, they reroll when out a new round starts and there are no more rolled d6.
(If you want to toy further, let the players to add dice for a better initiative, but at some point they won't have an Init die and thus won't be able to act, something like a "reverse hold initiative".)
Yes, doing this reveals the initiative value for some rounds, but is similar to a cross between rolling each round and using a fixed init.

Other option is using a fixed init and rolling for a new one once in a while, maybe by you rolling a d6 and asking for new init rolls on a set result, or if the die is equal or lesser to the number of rounds that passed since the last init roll.

Side Initiative is a very common houserule because of how much faster it is, but I find it lacks the dynamic and suspenseful feel of doing it unit-by-unit, round-by-round. I experimented with going full Chainmail for a while and that was very cumbersome. Right now I'm doing it by-the-book.

Tazer_The_Yoot wrote: ↑Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:12 am Side Initiative is a very common houserule because of how much faster it is, but I find it lacks the dynamic and suspenseful feel of doing it unit-by-unit, round-by-round. I experimented with going full Chainmail for a while and that was very cumbersome. Right now I'm doing it by-the-book.

So you're rolling individual initiative for each monster? Has that not seemed cumbersome? I do agree though group initiative lacks that dynamic feel.

cbarchuk wrote: ↑Thu Mar 11, 2021 9:43 am

Tazer_The_Yoot wrote: ↑Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:12 am Side Initiative is a very common houserule because of how much faster it is, but I find it lacks the dynamic and suspenseful feel of doing it unit-by-unit, round-by-round. I experimented with going full Chainmail for a while and that was very cumbersome. Right now I'm doing it by-the-book.

So you're rolling individual initiative for each monster? Has that not seemed cumbersome? I do agree though group initiative lacks that dynamic feel.

In a dungeon or small skirmish scenario, yes. These account for over 90 percent of combats that arise in my games. I don't like huge battles, though these are a possibility so if it's 20 Goblins they're all acting at once. All the more reason for players to try to intelligently avoid such combats. (I treat special units like Goblin War Chief as a different roll.)

Well one thing I'm finding though is in small fights or fights against one opponent, individual initiative heavily favors the party.

Personalized OSR-Esque game here, but I absolutely dig either group initiative or no initiative whatsoever (ranged attacks first, everything else second, so if you move and then shoot, you get lumped in with everything else).

Having to go step by step is a chore and only adds nothing but padding to the game (and waiting for your turn sucks, let's be real here), so I just give my players a time limit for everyone to tell me what they're going to do (and roll their intended dice) and bam, 4-5 minute, high-tension combats.