Quote from: Eric Diaz on May 31, 2021, 04:51:53 PM
The idea that each player rolls for initiative and THEN roll their attacks is my least favorite. The fighter waits patiently while each kobold attacks him once... and THEN attacks THREE TIMES? I don't like it.

That would be where the shot-clock/tick system would work well. If an attack at first level advances your clock by, say, 6 ticks... the high level fighter who would have three attacks in D&D instead has their attacks only advance their clock by 2 ticks each.

It also works well with those old school 3/2 attacks... instead of 6 ticks, it takes them 4 ticks... so over the same 12 ticks you attack three times instead of twice.

Honestly, it was probably the only good thing about the Arcanis system, and if my own system weren't so vastly far along before I figured out how to make it work I'd probably have used it for my own system instead of cyclical initiative with main, minor and movement actions each turn (as it stands far too much is built around cyclical initiative to change it short of gutting and starting over).

I enjoy the Savage Worlds initiative cards, though I find them a little slow at times at the table.

Recently, because we've been playing Stars Without Number online, 1d8 + DEX mod at the start of the combat has been pretty fast.

I always had a soft-spot for Twilight:2000's Coolness Under Fire, and even the later 2.0 and 2.2 Initiative systems, but they were occasionally very cumbersome.

Just to through it out there whats every ones thoughts on bolt actions activation system? You put a pile of chits or or cards for a side in a pile or hat each turn you draw one and that side gos?
Altirnitively you could make that individual initiative with cards or asked chits for thoughts of you who like initiative to change every round.

I'm using a mix of phase/side-based initiative.

A Full Turn –
1. Initiative/Morale Phase: Each side rolls a 3d10 to decide order of action and on a tie the one with a character with the highest Sharpness score chooses initiative order. If the NPCs' roll fails their Morale Test then they break.
2. Movement Phase: In initiative order each side moves and chooses their Action(s).
3. Run Phase: Every character who is running does so in initiative order
4. Ranged Phase: Every character who is not in melee and chose a ranged Action acts in initiative order.
5. Melee Phase: Every character who chose to Run acts in initiative order.  Then all melee attack rolls are rolled at the same time.

For #3 - movement is normally pretty slow (humans get 1 square base in the movement phase) so running is really the only way to get around quickly. This helps to make ranged combat primary (makes sense for a space western IMO) as it's difficult to close to melee - making melee high risk/reward.

For #5 - it works at the same time because melee is (almost) opposed melee attack rolls. Technically your melee attack roll becomes your defense score for the rest of the round as I found that created a lot fewer wonky edge cases - but it's mostly opposed attack rolls.

GURPS

Actions are taken in order of Move as modified for encumbrance ties are broken by unmodified Move and then DX.  That's it.  It works well for GURPS, I'm not sure it would work with other combat systems.  GURPS has actions like All Out Attack and Rapid Strike that let you attack twice.  You can dodge pretty much all round but parries and blocks get harder.  You can also run GURPS combat around the table.  If you've got a big group.

Depends on the game, though I really do like how Battletech handles things (everyone moves, then shoot, then physical attacks, then heat and miscellaneous events). All actions occur mostly simultaneously.

I've been mulling over how you could adapt that to D&D or other games. I mean, it shouldn't be hard -- people make move actions, THEN you resolve combat actions such as spellcasting, attacks, etc.

Quote from: Ghostmaker on June 01, 2021, 08:50:44 AM
Depends on the game, though I really do like how Battletech handles things (everyone moves, then shoot, then physical attacks, then heat and miscellaneous events). All actions occur mostly simultaneously.

I've been mulling over how you could adapt that to D&D or other games. I mean, it shouldn't be hard -- people make move actions, THEN you resolve combat actions such as spellcasting, attacks, etc.

At various times, I've run with all movement being ad hoc ruled by the GM as a declare/resolve phase, then use a more mechanical system for the other actions.  It works reasonably well in a lot of scenarios.  I started it because both sides charge is very different from more careful movement.  Also, one side runs away.  It's a system that doesn't add much the more you use a grid, because once you get within one move of the opponents, the GM rulings start to become a system anyway.  And if you are on a grid 500 yards away, the GM is probably going to ask for something like intent and resolve it anyway.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on May 29, 2021, 12:50:37 PM

Quote from: Zalman on May 29, 2021, 09:53:58 AM

Quote from: deathknight4044 on May 29, 2021, 03:52:25 AM
I like the idea of split side initiative (I believe that's what its called)

Basically everyone rolls initiative independently (though monsters are grouped together) and anyone who goes higher than the enemy is "group A", while anyone who goes after the enemy is "group B".

Every round is group A, enemy, group B.

I think it does a good job of merging the strengths of group initiative with the strengths of individual initiative.

This is very cool. The idea seems to have been around for a few years, and according to the comments in that link some games used a passive version of it prior to that. (First I've heard it though).

Ahem!  https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/initiativeorderaction-for-large-groups/.

I'd been doing some variation of it since around 2006.

Sounds like your forum post would be a good example of the prior art mentioned, using what the article calls a "passive" roll. I really like the specific idea in the article, of a contested roll used for split-group initiative.