Hey folks,

After spending way more time than we liked trying to calculate initiative order to start combat (which seemed to slow down the pace of the game, especially when you're dealing with 10+ slots to sort out), we had the idea for an automated tool to do this. So I whipped up this page. After using it a few times, I think I'm sufficiently satisfied that it works well and speeds up the process a good amount. So I thought I'd share.

http://initcalc.imperialnet.net/

Basically the GM (or someone helping the GM with initiative sorting tasks) just has to plug in the dice results as they happen, hit the button, and it will automatically add that result into the proper slot on to the grid below.

Let me know if anyone has any questions, suggestions, or finds any issues. Enjoy!

(And props to the peeps in my group who came up with the idea and are hosting the page!)

The name section seems redundant since initiative order in this game doesn't rely on who rolled what. Ie if any player can act on any players initiative slot as long as they haven't acted yet that combat.

That's why I made it an optional field. You can leave it blank if you wish. For people who would like to better track exactly which slot was generated by which roll (even though they don't have to specifically use the slot they rolled), it's available.

To be fair the name field helps know you got everyone's results, it isn't needed for the table but it is needed to know you filled it out.

We find it easier to purchase two different color note cards. Roll initiative writing PC's (normally green) one one color and NPC's (normally white) on another. Fold them in half and hang them over the GM screen in initiative order with another small folded piece of paper to indicate what initiative we are on. Simple, cheap and helps keep the electronics off of the gaming table.

We find it easier to purchase two different color note cards. Roll initiative writing PC's (normally green) one one color and NPC's (normally white) on another. Fold them in half and hang them over the GM screen in initiative order with another small folded piece of paper to indicate what initiative we are on. Simple, cheap and helps keep the electronics off of the gaming table.

This is a cool idea. Will have to try something similar during our in person sessions. This was mostly developed for online games using Roll20, so the electronics are already in play for everyone.

Could even do this simply in Excel. One column for the successes, one for the advantages and one to mark PC vs NPC. Then just sort the data after entering it.

We find it easier to purchase two different color note cards. Roll initiative writing PC's (normally green) one one color and NPC's (normally white) on another. Fold them in half and hang them over the GM screen in initiative order with another small folded piece of paper to indicate what initiative we are on. Simple, cheap and helps keep the electronics off of the gaming table.

This is a cool idea. Will have to try something similar during our in person sessions. This was mostly developed for online games using Roll20, so the electronics are already in play for everyone.

You know the roll20 initiative tracker works fine. All you do is put success.advantage and it will sort them just like this table does.

Triumphs I thought go at thd top of the list I thought...?

Triumphs I thought go at thd top of the list I thought...?

I believe only for the first round. Then revert to the place their successes including the triumph and advantage placement.

Unless I'm missing something, this doesn't work on iPad or iPhone. You can't enter dice results and there is no slot for triumphs shown.

So thanks for the work at least, but not something I can use unfortunately.

Triumphs have no effect on initiative order. They can be used for several things including a free maneuver prior to the beginning of initiative.

Triumphs I thought go at thd top of the list I thought...?

Triumphs have no effect on initiative order. They can be used for several things including a free maneuver prior to the beginning of initiative.

Triumphs and Initiative order come up quite a bit. I'm pretty **** sure I read it somewhere, and as others bring it up too I think it's printed somewhere, but I never think to look it up when I'm near my books. I believe Satchmo72 is correct, that Triumphs have no direct effect on Initiative order as presented in the core rule book. (The only benefit they give is listed in the skill description, one of them is a free maneuver.) However, I think that Triumphs used as a tie breaker is written somewhere, I'm thinking either in the Beta rules or the Basic rules in the starter kit. I'm leaning towards the Basic rules, because I don't think I read the Beta rules for EotE before playing my first game.

Anyone have the starter game basic rules handy and feel like looking up the initiative tie breaker rules to verify if Triumphs are listed?

Anyone have the starter game basic rules handy and feel like looking up the initiative tie breaker rules to verify if Triumphs are listed?

On page 18 of the Beginner Game adventure where the initiative rules are finally written (the earlier fight has a fixed initiative order given for the adventure), it only makes mention of Successes and Advantages—Triumphs are not factored in at all and are not even mentioned in the text.

CRB (which is all that really matters) states that "Once all Initiative checks have been made, the GM notes the results of each check and ranks them in order from the highest number of successes to the lowest. If two checks are tied, the check with more [advantage] is ranked higher. If a Player Character and an NPC are still tied, the Player Character is ranked higher. This is the Initiative order."

As stated in other threads, Triumphs do count as successes, but otherwise do not affect the initiative order.

Could even do this simply in Excel. One column for the successes, one for the advantages and one to mark PC vs NPC. Then just sort the data after entering it.

Sure, if you have Excel easily at your fingertips and are comfortable with how to do multi-column sorting.

We find it easier to purchase two different color note cards. Roll initiative writing PC's (normally green) one one color and NPC's (normally white) on another. Fold them in half and hang them over the GM screen in initiative order with another small folded piece of paper to indicate what initiative we are on. Simple, cheap and helps keep the electronics off of the gaming table.

This is a cool idea. Will have to try something similar during our in person sessions. This was mostly developed for online games using Roll20, so the electronics are already in play for everyone.

You know the roll20 initiative tracker works fine. All you do is put success.advantage and it will sort them just like this table does.

Are you talking about the "Turn Order" feature in Roll 20? How do you get this to work with the dice results and the sorting? We use it, but we usually enter them in order (after the order has been calculated from the dice rolls) and then use the number in the window to track who has gone and who hasn't in a particular round. If there's a way to make this work for EotE dual axis initiative rolls, I'd love to learn how!

Triumphs I thought go at thd top of the list I thought...?

I think this is a common thought and something a lot of people may use as a house rule. But as some others have stated, there is absolutely no mention of Triumphs in the "Determine Initiative" section of the Core Rulebook on page 198.

Unless I'm missing something, this doesn't work on iPad or iPhone. You can't enter dice results and there is no slot for triumphs shown.

So thanks for the work at least, but not something I can use unfortunately.

Doh, thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't tested it on an iPad. Since it's using pretty common web technologies (JQuery and Bootstrap), I assumed it would work across all browsers and devices. I'll see if I can fix that without too much trouble. Thanks for the feedback!

Could even do this simply in Excel. One column for the successes, one for the advantages and one to mark PC vs NPC. Then just sort the data after entering it.

Sure, if you have Excel easily at your fingertips and are comfortable with how to do multi-column sorting.

Who doesn't? If you don't have MS Office, then any of the other office suites will have the same functionality (Google Sheets, OpenOffice, etc...). As for doing sorting, welcome to something that anyone with basic levels of proficiency (which is any office worker) should know or be able to look up quickly.

Who doesn't? If you don't have MS Office, then any of the other office suites will have the same functionality (Google Sheets, OpenOffice, etc...). As for doing sorting, welcome to something that anyone with basic levels of proficiency (which is any office worker) should know or be able to look up quickly.

With respect, multi-column sorting is not easy to figure out with most tools, and there are still a surprising number of tools out there that can’t do it at all.

Just because someone else doesn’t have your level of skill with tools like MS Office, doesn’t give you the right to be so condescending.

Who doesn't? If you don't have MS Office, then any of the other office suites will have the same functionality (Google Sheets, OpenOffice, etc...). As for doing sorting, welcome to something that anyone with basic levels of proficiency (which is any office worker) should know or be able to look up quickly.

With respect, multi-column sorting is not easy to figure out with most tools, and there are still a surprising number of tools out there that can’t do it at all.

Just because someone else doesn’t have your level of skill with tools like MS Office, doesn’t give you the right to be so condescending.

I was just going to say this, but you beat me to the punch. I do appreciate the feedback people have given in regards to other ways to easily track the initiative order. If Excel works for someone and at least one other person will now use that as a result of this thread, all the better!

If I were doing this online, I'd just do as Daeglan said and format the successes and advantages as a decimal number. Successes in the one's digit and advantages in the tenths place. 3 successes with 2 advantages becomes formatted as "3.2". You don't need multi-column whozits to sort a single number.

In person, it's fast enough to roll your NPCs' initiative first, look at the highest result—let's say it's 4 for example's sake—and then ask your players, "Who has 5 or more successes?" If two players raise their hand mark down two PC slots. Then ask, "Who has 4 successes? 3? 2? 1?" Each time there is a tie with an NPC, then you ask for their advantages and sort accordingly.

If the PCs are tied with each other, say if there were two PCs with 3 successes, then don't bother sorting them by the number of advantages. Just mark the appropriate number of PC initiative slots and move on. Once you and the players get used to the method, rolling for initiative will take almost no time at all.

If I were doing this online, I'd just do as Daeglan said and format the successes and advantages as a decimal number. Successes in the one's digit and advantages in the tenths place. 3 successes with 2 advantages becomes formatted as "3.2". You don't need multi-column whozits to sort a single number.

In person, it's fast enough to roll your NPCs' initiative first, look at the highest result—let's say it's 4 for example's sake—and then ask your players, "Who has 5 or more successes?" If two players raise their hand mark down two PC slots. Then ask, "Who has 4 successes? 3? 2? 1?" Each time there is a tie with an NPC, then you ask for their advantages and sort accordingly.

If the PCs are tied with each other, say if there were two PCs with 3 successes, then don't bother sorting them by the number of advantages. Just mark the appropriate number of PC initiative slots and move on. Once you and the players get used to the method, rolling for initiative will take almost no time at all.

Ohhh, I didn't understand that when Daeglan wrote "success.advantage" he meant to actually enter the values as a decimal. I just tried that and it totally works. Thanks for the clarification!

The in person approach is interesting too and seems like it could work well enough once people get used to it.

Thanks for the feedback!

Unless I'm missing something, this doesn't work on iPad or iPhone. You can't enter dice results and there is no slot for triumphs shown.

So thanks for the work at least, but not something I can use unfortunately.

Doh, thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't tested it on an iPad. Since it's using pretty common web technologies (JQuery and Bootstrap), I assumed it would work across all browsers and devices. I'll see if I can fix that without too much trouble. Thanks for the feedback!

Hey no worries. If you can get it working, it'd be a nifty time-saver for our group at least!

In other news, I just found a use for threat in the starship Advantage/Threat table which says that the current player's initiative slot drops to the bottom of the initiative tree for this encounter. Well there is ONE reason to track which PC is which on the table.

Unfortunately this means you would need to be able to manipulate the online calculator to emulate that Sorry if I just caused you some more work.

The in person approach is interesting too and seems like it could work well enough once people get used to it.

In person solution that we use: In our games I help the GM with some of the bookeeping. I go around the horn and the players tell me their initiative scores using the "x.y" where successes equal x and advantages equal y. I write them down on a dry erase board giving enough space to add numbers and put them in order. The GM tells me the bad guy initiatives and I write them in another column to the right and draw a line over to where they would insert into the PC initiative order. Go down the two columns and read left to right in case of ties. viola.

Unless I'm missing something, this doesn't work on iPad or iPhone. You can't enter dice results and there is no slot for triumphs shown.

So thanks for the work at least, but not something I can use unfortunately.

Doh, thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't tested it on an iPad. Since it's using pretty common web technologies (JQuery and Bootstrap), I assumed it would work across all browsers and devices. I'll see if I can fix that without too much trouble. Thanks for the feedback!

Hey no worries. If you can get it working, it'd be a nifty time-saver for our group at least!

This should work on an iPad now. I just tried it myself, and the layout seemed fine and all the inputs and buttons worked as expected. Give it a try and please let me know if you're still having issues.