I had a couple questions about Initiative slots in combat:

- As NPCs (and, I guess, PCs, though less likely) fall during combat, do you remove any NPC slots?

- If the above is "no" and it's an NPC's turn, can the GM pass that slot to wait until a later slot? Or must an NPC always be picked to act (making the last slots "useless" when NPCs die).

- If new NPCs appear mid-combat, how are slots affected? Do they just get added to the bottom? Do you make some kind of roll to insert them mid-stream? (This is assuming they appear between rounds, like reinforcements coming or something like that).

Thanks! Still a pretty green GM but am having fun so far!

Slots stay. This is especially important if a character is returned to action via stimpacks or other healing.

You can skip slots.

New additions should roll an initiative check of the appropriate skill at the beginning of the turn they arrive in combat. They can still use any slot from their side on that turn.

So when I write down the slots at the beginning of combat (PC vs NPC), I should keep track of what the scores are at that point, and insert the new initiative slots in the appropriate place? (Makes sense, I just want to make sure I understand).

Thanks for the quick reply!

Personally, I repurposed this for my games. I just write down everyone's name and roll (2s3a, 1s, 4a) and organise as required.

Add, remove and modify as needed as the encounter progresses.

1 hour ago, sigmazero13 said:

So when I write down the slots at the beginning of combat (PC vs NPC), I should keep track of what the scores are at that point, and insert the new initiative slots in the appropriate place? (Makes sense, I just want to make sure I understand).

Thanks for the quick reply!

That is correct.

12 hours ago, warchild1x said:

Personally, I repurposed this for my games. I just write down everyone's name and roll (2s3a, 1s, 4a) and organise as required.

Add, remove and modify as needed as the encounter progresses.

Oh I love this especially the round tracker we keep lossing track of those things

21 hours ago, warchild1x said:

I just write down everyone's ... roll (2s3a, 1s, 4a) ...

You don't even need letters, just use the decimal system...

2.3, 1.0, 0.4, to replicate your examples using decimal.

1 hour ago, emsquared said:

You don't even need letters, just use the decimal system...

2.3, 1.0, 0.4, to replicate your examples using decimal.

True. Personal preference really.

On ‎7‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 10:50 AM, warchild1x said:

Personally, I repurposed this for my games. I just write down everyone's name and roll (2s3a, 1s, 4a) and organise as required.

Add, remove and modify as needed as the encounter progresses.

I use the exact same thing! I give everyone their own blue slider and dry-erase pen, and when we roll everyone writes down their result (typically as S/A or S/T; so 3 Successes and 2 Advantage is 3/2, while 1 Success and 3 Threat would be 1/-3) and passes their slider in, making it much faster to set up and track initiative .

20 minutes ago, Absol197 said:

I use the exact same thing! I give everyone their own blue slider and dry-erase pen, and when we roll everyone writes down their result (typically as S/A or S/T; so 3 Successes and 2 Advantage is 3/2, while 1 Success and 3 Threat would be 1/-3) and passes their slider in, making it much faster to set up and track initiative

Isn't initiative a simple challenge? Shouldn't be any threat in there at all or have I been missing out on a wasted opportunity to mess with my players for the past 4 years?

24 minutes ago, warchild1x said:

Isn't initiative a simple challenge? Shouldn't be any threat in there at all or have I been missing out on a wasted opportunity to mess with my players for the past 4 years?

Simple--as in 0 Difficulty--yes, but there can still be Setback dice applied. This can produce Threat.

1 hour ago, warchild1x said:

Isn't initiative a simple challenge? Shouldn't be any threat in there at all or have I been missing out on a wasted opportunity to mess with my players for the past 4 years?

Exactly as HappyDaze said .

Makes sense. I never thought to use setback. Always presumed it was always just a simple challenge. Though now that I think about it, you could upgrade the difficulty just like any other challenge. My mind is somewhat blown by this simple fact. Thanks.