Just a (hopefully) quick question.

In a recent session, we came across the situation where we had rolled initiative for the PCs and NPCs. The NPCs had been split across 3 slots. There was 1 slot for the 4 Minion groups, 1 slot for the 2 Rivals and 1 slot for the Nemesis. This resulted in an initiative order of:

NPC

NPC

PC

PC

PC

NPC

PC

After a few rounds, both the PCs and NPCs had been using the various slots according to the flow of battle. Nobody had been tracking which slot had been rolled by which character; it didn't seem relevant as characters can switch between slots for their side. However, as the NPCs started falling I had slots left and no characters to fill them.

Have I missed something?

I don't track who rolled for what slot. As a PC (which rarely happens) and bad guys goes down, I just wipe out the bottom initiative slot. Trying to keep track of who rolled what slot, then clear that away when they leave battle is too much for me. None of my players ever seemed to care that I was wiping out the bottom ones first, and if one them happened to leave or go down, I don't wipe out the slot they rolled for, I take out the bottom slot for the PCs. I do also roll for each minion group though. So in your situation, I would have had 7 baddie slots. Hope this helps a little. I have a white board on my table and to track my initiative slots I use two colors, one for PCs, and one for Baddies. As the players roll, I just write down what they rolled like this, PCs are on the right, baddies on the left: Our system also makes it go pretty quick, they always call out Successes first, and Advantages second, so they will just call out "Three and Two." "Three and One" Two and Two"

S S S A A S S S A A A

S S S A S S S A A

S S S S

S A A A

S A

A A

A

I am curious to know how (if at all) the order changes if/when your players wish to spend their advantage from their initiative roll for some extra benefits (e.g. boosts, setbacks, free maneuvers, etc) during the first combat round. In your example, if the players with 2+ advantage spent them to gain the listed benefits, do they lose their initiative order and, on a separate note, when would they benefit from what was purchased (from the beginning of the round or from their position in the round)?

@ Arrakus, what you are describing and asking are really two different things per RAW. You are asking about spending Advantages for in game mechanical bonuses. Per RAW you can do that with COMBAT checks, not with initiative checks(Skill Check). Per RAW the Advantages are there to separate ties in the number of Success on the initiative roll. Also, initiative check is a Simple check, so no Difficulty Dice are involved. All this is on page 198 ECRB.

So essence, everyone makes a Simple Cool/Vigilance check, the GM assigns initiative order by the number of Successes. If two or more slots have the same number of Successes, the order is then determined by the number of Advantages. If a PC and NPC roll is still tied, then PC's win the tie.

In the ECRB there is no chart for spending Advantages on Skill checks, (Which is your question, you are actually asking about spending Advantages from a skill check, but used Combat check mechanical effects), instead of a chart, spending Advantages and Threats for skills are covered in the ECRB Skill descriptions.

If a GM does a players to spend Initiative Advantages as a combat check mechanical benefit, that is not accordance with RAW/RAI and is a house rule. How they do that is up to them. I follow RAW as much as I can.

Just a (hopefully) quick question.

In a recent session, we came across the situation where we had rolled initiative for the PCs and NPCs. The NPCs had been split across 3 slots. There was 1 slot for the 4 Minion groups, 1 slot for the 2 Rivals and 1 slot for the Nemesis. This resulted in an initiative order of:

NPC

NPC

PC

PC

PC

NPC

PC

After a few rounds, both the PCs and NPCs had been using the various slots according to the flow of battle. Nobody had been tracking which slot had been rolled by which character; it didn't seem relevant as characters can switch between slots for their side. However, as the NPCs started falling I had slots left and no characters to fill them.

Have I missed something?

This has been brought up multiple times on this board over the years and the consensus almost always is, "Nope, this is exactly how it works."

Just leave the slots open and have the NPCs fill the ones you want as normal. Empty slots can be used to insert more combatants into combat more fluidly instead of rolling, can give more choice in when you want characters to go (sometimes it's more tactical to go last), and it will cause issues if Nemesis NPCs get back up and there aren't enough slots because you erased some.

As usual, don't add more complexity than is needed, just let em flap in the breeze.

I agree with Zen, there's no mechanical benefit for removing slots; just ignore them if they can't be filled. The one thing I can think of in favor of ticking off an empty slot is when you're making sure that all of your bad guys have gone that round. Empty slots might make you think that you've accidentally skipped a group But this would only come up in large battles, really.

I believe there was a dev question about initiative, and Sam Stewart said that initiative rolls are special cases used only to determine order, and are not actual skill checks. As such, success and advantage have a pre-determined function in the roll and can't be used for anything else. Triumphs can optionally be used in the normal way that Triumphs are used, if the GM allows it. Other than that, Triumphs are just treated like a success.

In the ECRB it is mentioned that a Triumph on an initiative check can grant a free maneuver.

I rule that whoever rolled the Triumph immediately greats a free maneuver, they can draw a weapon, aim, whatever. And this way it does not count for the Two Maneuver per turn rule.

Like Oggy said, looking at empty slots could make you think you forgot a group, so that is why when they go down, I just use my finger and erase the last initiative slot off my white board. If I do have a new baddie/PC come in, they just do a quick roll, and I add them into the list. But if you want to leave them on there you can, if you track who rolled what, and if they leave, you take that slot away, or take out the bottom slot, just do what works best for you and your group.

If you do something like what my group does (pieces of paper with character ID on them) you could just make ones that say "unassigned" for the empty ones as well.