Months ago I started a thread called I think I'm gonna have to ditch the initiative system. It wasn't the most popular idea lol, but my group liked it so we put it into play. I stopped running because of work time constraints and handed over GM duty to the others, and to my surprise they kept the Narrative Initiative system. I told them to feel free to ditch it but they actually liked it, even as I began to have doubts about it.

In the spirit of analyzing ongoing use of the Narrative Initiative House Rule I wanted to report some of the situations that came to pass that you guys in your wisdom (which is impressive and vast) had talked about.

A hierarchy emerged as to how we wanted the order to be weighted:

1) Common Sense: The physics of the situation, was it a slow weapon against a fast one or a melee guy charging someone with a blaster ready. An ambush?

2) Story: This included the time goes to the heroes rule where unless there was a good reason not to the players tended to go first. The RPG rule of cool was also used here.

3) Characteristic/Skill Comparison or Dice Contest: In situations where it was disputed or unclear we just used some test to determine who went first. RAW Initiative Test was invoked for individual Character/Minion Group in these situations.

The Cons - As a player I felt like the Initiative tended to weigh too heavily toward the players, but at the same time seemed driven by GM Fiat rather than a sense of what was going on. This was mostly just a perception, as the GMs were later able to explain how they came to the decision, but without that explanation in the moment it felt a bit like story time. The combatants still had to have their turns so I came up with a token with different colors on each side to indicate if someone had acted or not that round.

Pros - No tallying rolls, which resulted in faster progression into combat, and a heroic feel for characters who initiated combat.

Has anyone else used a system like this in this or any other TTRPG? Please share your thoughts or concerns so I can keep developing this and refining it.

• Starship/Vehicle Combat: Never tested it with this and I don't want to. For some reason I like to roll Initiative for this type of combat. Also not having the Narrative Initiative for ships differentiates it from personal combat in our game in feel.
• Simultaneous Action: combat, especially melee combat, is assumed to be occurring at the same time unless otherwise specified. This was mainly to keep a D&D cadence from emerging, but it was also to make combat feel dangerous by nature. It has been often used as a concession too, such as in when someone made a good case that they could react quickly they were upgraded from going after to going at the same time.
• Vigilance & Cool - While this doesn't yield necessarily faster characters in combat the skills are used for a roll-off comparison when the situation isn't clear
• Talents:
  • Rapid Reaction - I just let them take a Strain to win against any opponent directly threatening that character or in their frame of regard.
  • Uncanny/Reactions/Sense - I will let them act first because it simulates those Jedi-type reactions or reflexes. If opposed characters are Force Sensitive I just have them go before the other combatants in their own Frame.
  • Other Talents/Powers - I weight them pretty heavy, especially in the first round of combat or in a dramatic moment.