This is part of an ongoing series of posts about Initiative (mostly in Dungeons and Dragons, but most of this can be used in any TTRPG). I have a massive PDF I planned to sell, but I’ve decided to post it all here for free. I chose this next type of initiative by roiling a die.
This version can be a lot of work for the game master, and will likely slow combat down some. If you hate it when players have to make decisions that potentially slow things down, just stop reading now and do something else!
Everyone Delays Rules
In this system, use the normal system in your game to set an initiative number for everyone. The actor with the worst initiative goes first. Anyone with a better initiative can interrupt that actor and take their turn instead. If more than one actor wants to interrupt, use a tie breaker. The normal tie breaker is whoever has the better initiative score, but you can use any tie breaker you want. This system should only be use as an non-cyclical system in my opinion, though you can set the order one time if you want (that would be faster / easier).
An Example
An orc (7), wizard (10), and ranger (12) are in a fight. The orc acts first with its 7. It starts moving toward the wizard. The wizard interrupts the orc’s turn and moves further away and fires magic missile. The orc cannot reach the wizard at this point. It uses the rest of its movement to move toward the ranger (who did not interrupt the orc or wizard). The ranger now interrupts the orc and moves back ten feet and fires an arrow at the orc. The orc decides to move behind a rock with its last ten feet of movement to get cover from both the wizard and ranger to start the next round.
Options for Everyone Delays
Option: Actors cannot change their action once they start it.
So, in the example above, the orc keeps moving to the spot it was originally going toward.
Option: Actors can change their action after they are interrupted.
(see the example above).
Option: Actors can interrupt, and use all or part of their move, and save their action (and some movement) for their turn.
In the example above, maybe the ranger moved back, but did not shoot an arrow. The orc moved, but was only twenty feet from the ranger, and the ranger finished its move and attacked the orc with its sword. This is much more complicated to keep track of, and I would not try it with inexperienced players or players that struggle with tracking details.
Tracking Who Has Taken Their Turn
Regardless of the option you choose, you’ll need a way to remember who has acted every round, since you don’t just go in order. One option is to have everyone put a die in front of them (you can even have them put them in order, highest to lowest, to recall their order) and move the die to a 1 when they’ve acted. I’ll have other posts about tracking initiative in the future (maybe that should be the next one?).
Why You Might or Might Not Like This Idea
Look, I really like this one! I think it is a great idea that gives real power to the high rollers. So I’m not even going to list negatives (that’s a lie).
You might like this if you want to really change up combat from the standard, and to give players meaningful choices about when they decide to go.
You might not like this if your players are slow decision makers, or if you think tracking who has gone will be difficult.
The image for this post is an NFL official signaling delay of game. Hopefully the NFL police don’t come after me :).