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I've been thinking a lot about how much time and organization the initiative system takes lately, and have been trying to think of a way to simplify it without negating the skill's usefulness. I usually play-by-post, so the usual system is pretty inconvenient because people don't have time to post in order.

Basically, so far I have each "team" (enemies, player characters, other characters) acting on the average of everyone's initiative roll at the same time. Would another way of statistically modifying the scores make more sense? Like median perhaps?

Also, I'm trying to think of ways I can integrate Initiative skill checks into the system to modify the order or make the skill relevant without breaking it. Maybe something like requiring an opposed roll to prepare an action and use it during another team's turn? Or maybe the ability to act during another team's turn if you beat their average initiative from the start of the combat?

Thoughts?

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"...and the trick usually lies in not thinking too hard about whatever you want to do, but just allowing it to happen as if it were going to anyway."

I've been reading through the Marvel Superhero Game from MWP lately, and the way they handle Initiative is that whoever says their going first gets to go first. Then they choose the next person to go, whether it be an ally or an enemy. The last person to act gets to choose who goes first on the top of the next round. Especially in a play by post setting, I think this could work out well, especially if the PCs remember to keep the flow of the story in mind and don't simply resort to dog-piling the enemy (of course, if they choose to do so, there's nothing stopping you from returning the favor next round).

The GM is able to interrupt and have one of his characters go at any time by spending a die out of what is called the Doom Pool and meeting some other requirements. This could probably be a good analogue for the Initiative skill as a core use. Other than that, remember there are numerous talents out there that use the Initiative skill (Assault Gambit and Trick Step being two that jump to mind).

Besides that, I think you could also simplify things in the existing framework with an "Us vs. Them" roll at the beginning of every round and let the PCs decide who is going to roll the skill that turn (with a stipulation that it can't be the same character twice in a row or that everyone has to roll it at least once before a person can roll it again) and how their turn is going to fall in the initiative order when "their" turn comes up. You'd probably also be fairly well served to break the enemies into groups for this. "Stormtroopers," "Deck Officer," and "Captain of the Ship" for example if your PCs were storming a bridge.

Just some thoughts.

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In what way do you feel that the initiative system takes too much time?

If you feel as though you're spending too much time before an encounter sorting out the initiative order, perhaps you should pre-roll your encounter threats Initiative. Or if you feel it's because your players are taking too long to decide what they want to do on their turn, talk to the players, perhaps before the session and just go "hey guys, just to keep things moving smoothly, while you're waiting for your turn during an encounter, think about what you want to do" I find that really works well, especially in the sessions we play because when it's not our turn we discuss with each other our own little strategies and what not.

Just from my own impression "team 1" vs "team 2" movement or "play by post" seems really broken, a lot of feats and talents kind of rely on "it's my turn and no-one elses" for it's full effect.

Also, just my understanding of what Initiative actually is seems really counter-tuitive to it's purpose. Initiave has the base modifier from the Dexterity modifier, meaning hand-eye coordination, reflexes, balance etc. From this, a character whom always has their head in the clouds, isn't really focused on what's going on around them should signify that they're going to be one of the last people to react to a situation, but if they're included in a party where everyone else is on their toes ready for anything that comes their way, they're going to make the slow guy act at the same time as everyone else.

If the issue is waiting for everyone to submit an initiative before continuing on, have everyone submit 20 initiative rolls before the session starts, or you roll init for them. (This might be problematic if they have reroll abilities, of course.) As the GM, at the start of each round you just post the order of actions and do it. It may help to have the enemies all act on a single count, or to have all the minions act on one count, all the officers on one count, and the Dark Jedi on his own initiative, or something like that.

I do that latter one even in my home games just to make things easier on my poor brain -- I can't be bothered to keep track of Stormtrooper A's initiative as distinct from Stormtrooper B's; similar units are grouped together, and special units will act on their own. If there's enough similar enemies to make that infeasable, I'll usually treat them like squads (even if they aren't technically) and have "Group A", "Group B", and "Group C" of four or five each, where each group acts on its own initiative and generally sticks together performing the same sort of actions.

I like the pre-roll idea. Make a numbered list of all your participants. Before an encounter, roll a d20 a number of times according to number of participants, then write down the numbers. When the encounter begins, apply the pre-rolled numbers to everyone and voila. You have all your initiatives.

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I usually pre-roll all the npcs before the session begins and write their numbers in the stat block. That way I only have to plug in the players which I have them do at the start of encounters. Seems to go fast enough. Usually a PC ends up managing the initiative order.

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The Initiative rules in Marvel Superheroes is easily the most interesting aspect of the game in my mind, but I don't think it really would work well in PbP. It requires a bit more effort on the part of the players to keep track of who has or has not yet been tagged every round, and then relies on them to post in a timely fashion after having been tagged.

At least with a regular initiative order, everyone can know when their turn is, and you just have to cycle through.

Personally, in my PbP games, I tend to use group initiatives, meaning all the players go on the same count. It's not a perfect system, but it does away with a lot of the hassle of waiting for someone to post on their turn. Initiative rolls are also good for dramatic one on one moments where the player needs to act faster than the baddie.

However, I think my most recent PbP game has pretty much come to an end because everyone's stopped posting in the middle of a combat. I don't know if it's because everyone's waiting on someone else to post first, or if most of the party is bored, or what the problem is. Very frustrating.

Thus, I'm thinking the next PbP game I run, I will use a regular initiative count, it might put a damper on things for players who see a new post, and want to reply with their actions right away, but I also feel it will put a bit more pressure on whomever's turn it is, seeing as they'll know they're holding up the game for everyone else.

However, I suppose that doesn't help with the question.

You could treat initiative as a static value, as opposed to something modified by a dice roll. That means that characters with a higher initiative are always going to go before characters with a lower initiative, but more often than not, it's going to work out that way, regardless.

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Kyle Reads Alpha Flight - A distinctly Canadian look at comics' premiere team of Canadian superheroes. Also: swearing and dick jokes.

There's a cool little iPhone app I like to use from time to time called Init Roller. With a little prep before the session, it greatly speeds up gameplay. It allows for additions mid-encounter, as well as changing initiative order. I recommend it.
Otherwise, yeah pre-rolling initiative is a great way to speed up combat.

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