One of my favorite things about Genesys/SWRPG was how initiative worked. For those unfamiliar, you rolled it much like other games, but rather than "Chewbacca goes first, then Greedo, then his henchman, then Han Solo," you generate slots that anyone on your "team" could use. So, in the example, it would go "Hero, Villain, Villain, Hero," thus allowing Han to Shoot First, and all is right in the Galaxy.

A clever group that paid attention could get quite an interesting dance going, especially if they controlled both the top and bottom of the initiative order. You could also take advantage of effects that last until the end of a particular character's turn. I was a little disappointed that they didn't use this system for L5R.

But would it screw things up too badly if we used it anyway? Yeah it could be "abused." But for the most part I would like to reward tactical thinking. For example, there's an ability that knocks your enemy prone, or deals extra damage if he's already prone (Rushing Avalanche?). Usually, your enemy will use his turn to stand up, so you have to knock him down again. However, if you go after him on Turn 1, and before him on Turn 2, you can make mincemeat out of the guy. Seems alright to me.

I think I would require that everyone act on their rolled slot on the first turn of combat, and obviously this wouldn't work in duels (bit you manipulate Initiative every round anyway). But other than that, nothing game-breaking jumps out at me.

I haven't played Genesys or SWRPG but I like the idea of coordinating tactics, it sounds fun, and it should be encouraged beyond "providing assistance". The "wait" action on faster initiative players could potentially achive this, no? But it would admittedly be clunky.

I don't think it would be broken, but the derived traits Focus and Vigilance get less love compared with Composure and Endurance, that I wouldn't necessarily want them sidelined after round one.

i think the "wait" action in L5R can do what you want. It is pretty abusable and tactical.

edit: granted, not as flexible as star wars, but it will allow for tactical thinking.
edit 2: make sure to get the "errata" version of it with the more precise wording, the original one was glitchy.

It's not a bad idea for skirmishes, but as noted, the wait action covers most of it.

Duels you play initiative games in the staredown (and it's a one-man-band show anyway), whilst intrigues have no real initiative except when specifically interrupting someone else, and mass battles already alternate between sides, with cohorts acting in an order determined by their commanders.

I must say I enjoyed the shared initiative system when I played SWRPG, for multiple reasons:

• It puts the emphasis on characters communicating with each other during an encounter, constantly discussing strategy. This is something you see a lot in cinematic gunfights, where allies will scream "cover me" or "get that guy behind the box" constantly.
• This is good for games where some characters are not combat focused (like social, intellectual and technical types) and they know/embrace it. It's still good for them to boost stats and skills that impact initiative, if only to enable their combatant friends. In this sense, this would apply well to L5R. In games where everyone is mostly combat-focused (like D&D), this might not work that well, as you can feel undervalued in the team if you're always picked to go last...
• It felt the system worked nicely with this overall. It allowed for nice strategy options, without making it impossible to recover from a bad situation.
• If I recall correctly, the time covered by a "round" was much longer in SWRPG, which means it didn't really break suspension of disbelief if someone would go twice back-to-back.

On the other side:

• This might allow abusing of the stance system, maximizing time spent in defensive stances and minimizing the risk of offensive stances. I'm not sure if this is game-breaking or not.
• I specified gunfights previously because I'm not sure how well this would work, both mechanically and cinematically, when most of the action happens at melee range.
• It's OK to allow your players to combo crowd-control and mincemeat-ing, but opponents might be able to do the same to them. In a system where combat can turn lethal (or at least have long-term repercussions like injury disadvantages) for the players relatively quickly, this might not feel as good.

I've never been much of a fan of "Wait" actions in games. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen anyone use one, except perhaps in Savage Worlds, which uses a pretty dynamic card system anyway.

I hadn't considered the effect on Stances, which actually seems bigger to me than special techniques. If the group controls both ends of the initiative order, a pair of Bushi could alternate going first and last, so they could spend the entire scene in Earth Stance, only switching briefly to Fire or Water at the end of the round, then back to Earth at the beginning of the next.

Very boring, and therefore bad. Maximizing cool attacks might even be more unbalancing, but it's also more fun, so I'm much more inclined to allow it.

I also hadn't considered that it would mildly nerf Vigilance and Focus, which don't get a lot of love as-is.

wait is different in L5R... you don't change your spot in the initiative order, and you only have 1 action to do during the wait time (not all your turn). also, if your trigger doesn't happen you still get to do one action of your choice.

its actually very tactical. but I can see it a bit weird if half the players and enemies start to wait most of the time. Could become a bit of a mess.

5 hours ago, The Grand Falloon said:

I hadn't considered the effect on Stances, which actually seems bigger to me than special techniques. If the group controls both ends of the initiative order, a pair of Bushi could alternate going first and last, so they could spend the entire scene in Earth Stance, only switching briefly to Fire or Water at the end of the round, then back to Earth at the beginning of the next.

You could pair this shared initiative change with a second change: Everyone must set their stance at the beginning of each skirmish round and stick with that choice for the round. But this would in turn remove adaptability for invocation, kiho and shuji users, who would be stuck with a subset of their techniques when they get to take their turn.