Hi all

Just something I've been musing on this morning. I normally pre-roll my NPCs' Initiatives, but last session I forgot and had to roll them in game. Not a big deal, just took an extra minute before combat could get underway.

I was wondering about making NPC Initiative even easier, by avoiding rolling altogether. The NPC would get 1 Advantage per rank in the relevant Characteristic, and 1 Success per rank in the relevant Skill. Essentially, you're setting a D&D style DC for the check - if the players roll above that, they can go first.

The downside is obviously that you lose some of the randomness...although I'm not sure that matters too much. Players will still be rewarded for investing in Cool and/or Vigilance, and it gives the GM perhaps a little more ability to plan how encounters unfold.

What do people think?

Ed

I've never seen rolling initiative as a big time consuming deal. Plus the way I handle ambush/surprise, mines, etc, if we didn't roll initiative I would just end up having to roll something else, so I roll initiative.

If you go with that route, I'd go as far as using the same for the PCs to make it even easier, but ask them beforehand if that's ok with them, so they don't feel cheated or something. Also, maybe take the higher of Skill or Characteristic as number of success and the lower as advantage. A character with high Willpower, but no ranks in Vigilance should still have a good initiative imo.

I think something similar is written in the books somewhere: To simplify initiative, the round begins with whoever (PC or NPC) has the most ranks in the relevant skill (Cool or Vigilance), then the one with the second most ranks and so on.

Another way to make it easier was employed by a fellow GM: At the start of the session (or in this specific case, at the start of a longer dungeon crawl), every PC rolls Cool and Vigilance to determine their initiative for the whole session (or dungeon). Likewise, the GM rolls both for every kind of enemy they will encounter, and for each fight, PCs and NPCs use the appropriate result (e.g. PCs run into an ambush: PCs use the pre-rolled Vigilance, NPCs use the pre-rolled Cool). Considering there were 5+ combat encounters, it saved us a lot of dice rolling.

Downside to both is that it eliminates situational modifiers to the initiative roll like Boost and Setback dice.

Personally, I don't mind the extra minute or two for rolling initiative, but it always depends on how many combat encounters you have planned. Except for ship combat, there I usually let the ship's Captain roll initiative for the whole ship (but our captain has the best Vigilance and Cool rolls anyway).

You'd lose the initiative benefits of Triumphs...

Triumph on Vigilance is a free maneuver, on Cool the character recovers 3 Strain. Someone who might roll 2+ Triumphs would definitely feel this house rule in their ranks.

You could also have each player roll and take the highest and roll for each type of dude on the BG side and take the highest.

You could also have each player roll and take the highest and roll for each type of dude on the BG side and take the highest.

Err, sorry, I didn't understand this. Could you elaborate? Take the highest as just the initiative...for the whole party?

You'd lose the initiative benefits of Triumphs...

Triumph on Vigilance is a free maneuver, on Cool the character recovers 3 Strain. Someone who might roll 2+ Triumphs would definitely feel this house rule in their ranks.

Is that RAW?

But yes, you're right, it loses the chance of a triumph.

If you go with that route, I'd go as far as using the same for the PCs to make it even easier, but ask them beforehand if that's ok with them, so they don't feel cheated or something. Also, maybe take the higher of Skill or Characteristic as number of success and the lower as advantage. A character with high Willpower, but no ranks in Vigilance should still have a good initiative imo.

I think something similar is written in the books somewhere: To simplify initiative, the round begins with whoever (PC or NPC) has the most ranks in the relevant skill (Cool or Vigilance), then the one with the second most ranks and so on.

I'd be nervous about going this way - I think having an element of chance (i.e. the players' rolls) is important. Plus, since they all roll at the same time, that's not the bit that takes any time - it's the GM rolling for 4-5 NPCs.