Last week's post ended off talking about initiative, which is where I'll pick it up from today. Even though initiative is only handled at the beginning of a combat, it affects how every combat round is structured. The only thing is, after the first combat round, it doesn't have any real effect on the combat. If we remove the unnecessary limitations of the initiative structure after the first round, then we can speed up our combat and simplify the rules at the same time. (simplifying things just about always speeds up combat)
Party vs. the Mob
For the general case, let's take the party against a mob of monsters all of the same type. In this case, the players each roll an individual initiative. The monsters roll a single initiative for the entire mob. If you take my advice from last week, rolling for the monsters is a waste of time; you assign them a set "take 10" initiative score.
Let's say we have four players, Al, Bob, Carl and Dave vs Monsters. Initiative rolls are Al - 21, Bob 14, Carl 11, Dave 5, Monsters 13. Combat turn order goes like this:
- Al
- Bob
- Monsters
- Carl
- Dave
- Al
- Bob
- Monsters
- Carl
- Dave
- Al
- Bob
- Monsters
- etc.
Now, consider that the players can delay around one another however they like. Once the monsters have taken their first turn, all of the players will get to act before the monsters get another turn. Since they can delay and ready actions compared to one another, we can lump them into a single group after the first round. We can then break down combat into this:
- Al
- Bob
- Monsters
- Party
- Monsters
- Party
- etc.
No more initiative tracking. No foldup cards on the DM screen, names on the whiteboard, or using a laptop to see whose turn it is. It's simple, it's easy and when you put that all together, that means it's fast. And it has absolutely no effect on the game at all to do this.
A lot of people have figured this point out already. After the first round, initiative is monster turn vs. party turn. The only thing we need to do now is really take advantage of this.
Round and Round We Go
When I've played in conventions where combat is not the point of the session and the DM needs the game to go quickly, the DM simply goes around the table in clockwise order to determine the order that players act in. And why not? If players can all take their turns in any order, you might as well use the one that makes your life as easy as possible. Players can jump in and make plans to switch order for those occasions when a certain sequence of events takes place, but otherwise, the order is unimportant. If the party finds they often want to act in a specific order, (ie. leader, controller, striker, defender) they can start sitting around the table in that order. Poof, instant initiative ordering for all your game sessions.
When we disregard initiative scores after the first round and we don't care what order the players go in, we can take advantage of that to avoid any down time during the game. Wizard can't make up his mind which spell to cast? No problem, the fighter can take his turn now while the wizard makes up his mind. In the game, the wizard delayed his action until after the fighter went. Now, we're using the reasoning of wanting a faster game to drive this decision.
While discussing initiative over at The ID DM, someone brought up end of turn effects. If players can always choose their initiative order in the party group, they can reorder it so an effect whose duration is "until end of your next turn" could be used twice by other characters by ensuring the creature with the power goes first on round 1 and last on round 2. To get around this, have all "end of next turn" effects be used once only by all characters, either this round or next round. Once again, this would be the same effect as having all the players perform delays to have the effect apply in the round they desire. No matter how they delay, they can only utilize the effect once. But like before, we can just assume that happens without actually needing any reordering or delaying to take place. The battle continues on exactly the same without any bookkeeping.
Monsters and Their Friends
There is one more exception to consider in the party vs. monsters initiative ordering, and that's when you have more than one initiative roll for the monsters. The speedy lurkers might not want to sit out in the open waiting for his vampiric half-dragon half-troll lycanthropic fiendish snail's turn in the initiative order. In this case, we would like the faster monsters to use the abilities they have, like fast initiative, to their full advantage. But then the monsters can't all act together and we end up needing to track everyone in the initiative order again.
Alternatively, we can go back to the idea that initiative is only important for the first round. In the first round, the slowest monsters, usually the big mob, represent when the monster turn takes place and anyone who beats the slowest monster initiative roll gets to go ahead of the monsters, just like normal. This includes the fast monsters. We could have this monster delay their action until the slow mob goes- boring! We could let the monster act in the first round at their initiative and then again at the monster turn, which is unfair as this monster would get to go twice before some of the players had their first turn. Still, that seems like a closer solution. Getting a turn to act before the normal initiative order takes place is a lot like a surprise round. There's the solution.
If you are rolling multiple initiative rolls for the monsters, the slowest monster initiative is when the monster turn occurs. All of the faster monsters that have a player act between the faster monster and the monster turn can take advantage of their quick reflexes by taking a single standard action during the first round. (similar to a surprise round) This way they can take advantage of their speed without being overpowered.
Some monsters, especially solo monsters, have multiple initiative scores as their actions take place throughout the round. Depending on the monster and your situation, you can use a few different options here. One, you can let the solo monster have all their turns at one time. This may honestly happen anyway if the entire party rolls exceptionally high or low on their initiative check, so it's not a bad option.
The purpose behind a single monster with multiple initiative scores is to let the monster act throughout the combat instead of all at one time. You could split your monster actions up amongst the party, regardless of the order they take. So an ettin receives two initiative rolls in combat. Instead of grouping them all together, roll one initiative to use as one of the monster turns. However, after one half of the party takes their action each turn, (regardless of the order they take it in) the ettin takes its second action. It still lets you spread the monster actions without requiring anyone to do any initiative tracking.
Put it Together
Combined with last week's post, here's how I run initiative:
A lot of people have figured this point out already. After the first round, initiative is monster turn vs. party turn. The only thing we need to do now is really take advantage of this.
Round and Round We Go
When I've played in conventions where combat is not the point of the session and the DM needs the game to go quickly, the DM simply goes around the table in clockwise order to determine the order that players act in. And why not? If players can all take their turns in any order, you might as well use the one that makes your life as easy as possible. Players can jump in and make plans to switch order for those occasions when a certain sequence of events takes place, but otherwise, the order is unimportant. If the party finds they often want to act in a specific order, (ie. leader, controller, striker, defender) they can start sitting around the table in that order. Poof, instant initiative ordering for all your game sessions.
When we disregard initiative scores after the first round and we don't care what order the players go in, we can take advantage of that to avoid any down time during the game. Wizard can't make up his mind which spell to cast? No problem, the fighter can take his turn now while the wizard makes up his mind. In the game, the wizard delayed his action until after the fighter went. Now, we're using the reasoning of wanting a faster game to drive this decision.
While discussing initiative over at The ID DM, someone brought up end of turn effects. If players can always choose their initiative order in the party group, they can reorder it so an effect whose duration is "until end of your next turn" could be used twice by other characters by ensuring the creature with the power goes first on round 1 and last on round 2. To get around this, have all "end of next turn" effects be used once only by all characters, either this round or next round. Once again, this would be the same effect as having all the players perform delays to have the effect apply in the round they desire. No matter how they delay, they can only utilize the effect once. But like before, we can just assume that happens without actually needing any reordering or delaying to take place. The battle continues on exactly the same without any bookkeeping.
Monsters and Their Friends
There is one more exception to consider in the party vs. monsters initiative ordering, and that's when you have more than one initiative roll for the monsters. The speedy lurkers might not want to sit out in the open waiting for his vampiric half-dragon half-troll lycanthropic fiendish snail's turn in the initiative order. In this case, we would like the faster monsters to use the abilities they have, like fast initiative, to their full advantage. But then the monsters can't all act together and we end up needing to track everyone in the initiative order again.
Alternatively, we can go back to the idea that initiative is only important for the first round. In the first round, the slowest monsters, usually the big mob, represent when the monster turn takes place and anyone who beats the slowest monster initiative roll gets to go ahead of the monsters, just like normal. This includes the fast monsters. We could have this monster delay their action until the slow mob goes- boring! We could let the monster act in the first round at their initiative and then again at the monster turn, which is unfair as this monster would get to go twice before some of the players had their first turn. Still, that seems like a closer solution. Getting a turn to act before the normal initiative order takes place is a lot like a surprise round. There's the solution.
If you are rolling multiple initiative rolls for the monsters, the slowest monster initiative is when the monster turn occurs. All of the faster monsters that have a player act between the faster monster and the monster turn can take advantage of their quick reflexes by taking a single standard action during the first round. (similar to a surprise round) This way they can take advantage of their speed without being overpowered.
Some monsters, especially solo monsters, have multiple initiative scores as their actions take place throughout the round. Depending on the monster and your situation, you can use a few different options here. One, you can let the solo monster have all their turns at one time. This may honestly happen anyway if the entire party rolls exceptionally high or low on their initiative check, so it's not a bad option.
The purpose behind a single monster with multiple initiative scores is to let the monster act throughout the combat instead of all at one time. You could split your monster actions up amongst the party, regardless of the order they take. So an ettin receives two initiative rolls in combat. Instead of grouping them all together, roll one initiative to use as one of the monster turns. However, after one half of the party takes their action each turn, (regardless of the order they take it in) the ettin takes its second action. It still lets you spread the monster actions without requiring anyone to do any initiative tracking.
Put it Together
Combined with last week's post, here's how I run initiative:
- Players roll an initiative check against the monster's take 10 initiative score. Anyone who makes this check, gets an immediate turn before the monsters.
- After these initiative checks, all of the monsters take their actions as the monster turn.
- For the player turn, players take their actions in clockwise order around the table, though they can switch it up for tactical reasons if needed.
- Monsters with individual initiative get a standard action before the first monster turn if another player would normally act between the individual monster and the monster turn.
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