When I was first reading the rules for initiative, I was thinking "oh cool. then if you're unprepared you can put a setback or two to the initiative check." Then I read the Vigilance/Cool rules and that didn't seem to make sense anymore. So now I'm wondering, when does it make sense to add boosts or setbacks to initiative checks? Should you even do it at all? Help!

I would add them depending on the circumstances. Their Charactersistic/Skill is how good they are at being responsive and a Boost/Setback are circumstantial factors.

Is it dark and the enemy is sneaking up?

Is it dark and they are sneaking up on the enemy?

Do they have some technological advantage?

Do they have good positioning to see what's going on around them?

That kind of stuff. I've rarely added Boost/Setback to initiative checks but I should use it more - it helps to remind me to add more narrative description to the scene and set it up better.

9 hours ago, Clarkio said:

Should you even do it at all? Help!

You can, and you can even increase the difficulty from Simple. Let's say you had a PC roll Leadership (or some other suitable skill) to set up an ambush...and they get a Despair. So there they are, waiting all night for the Sand People to come down the ravine in single file, and the day dawns...and the sun is right in their eyes. You can use the Despair to upgrade the difficulty, and an upgrade from Simple is Easy. Also, turns out dawn is that brief period of activity between after it's too cold and before it's too hot for the sand midges to swarm...setback for everybody.

The book makes it seem like resolving Initiative is special in some way, but it's not. The skills are resolved like any other skill, and you can mess with the pools any way you see fit. It's only the results that are interpreted differently.

In general, for initiative, I personally don't add setback or boost dice to initiative, but as the other two posters have already stated, there aren't any good reasons NOT to modify initiative dice pools based on environmental factors.

I am famous in my group for adding black dice for "darkness" with pretty much every skill check, but I'm also looking for other environmental factors (wind, rain, etc) that could be a detriment to that skill effort.

You could also add boost dice for the group that is going to benefit from an environmental factor (like the group ambushing the other from a shadowy alleyway).

Boost and setback dice are for any environmental factors that might influence the skill check. Are the PCs being ambushed? Add a setback or two—or even increase the difficulty once to Easy!

14 hours ago, whafrog said:

The book makes it seem like resolving Initiative is special in some way, but it's not. The skills are resolved like any other skill, and you can mess with the pools any way you see fit. It's only the results that are interpreted differently.

QFT. Basically this. Initiative is a skill check just like any other. The only thing "different" or "special" about it is what the results mean.

There are a ton of environmental dice that can be added. And ways that the difficulty may increase or get upgraded.

For being in an unfamiliar environment against natural predators or natives native to it, I increase the difficulty 1 die. Players could offset this by using survival or xenology skill ahead of putting themselves in said environment. Players will quickly adapt to doing this.

The above might also apply to different and alien urban areas.

For ambush situations I give the ambushing group extra boost dice, 1 or 2. Per Triumph rolled previous during their setup, one group gets an upgrade.

Remember many helmets and other gear will remove setback dice from vision environmental factors, but say there are extreme noise levels such as those found in stamping plants, probably 1 setback for initiative, but 1-3 setback for things like leadership and just communicating could require discipline checks to focus on trying to hear or properly understand hand signs or mouth movements over the din.

Being drunk, on some drugs, poisoned and infected with disease could adjust difficultly or add setback or remove boost dice from an initiative roll.

Improper gravity levels will easily effect either difficultly and/or boost/setback. Magnetic boots, grappling limbs would be advantages. This also goes for areas of geological instability, with an athletics or coordination just before initiative to see if it's more difficult or a player gains some boost dice.

I especially add Difficulty and Challenge dice to an initiative roll when it is a 'surprise' situation. I think it is the general rule that everyone roll Initiative when combat starts (either Cool or Vigilance). There really isn't a "surprise round" in which one side goes and the other does not. Sure, you can do that, but it seems to take away the spirit of allowing the players to make a roll. Threats, Failures, and Challenge dice simulate what may happen during a 'surprise round' that other systems use. All the negative dice results can cause the PC's to go last, cause them to lose a maneuver, or even cause them to lose and action (Despair). Add Setbacks and Boosts where appropriate, too. But I always like giving the PC's a chance to make a really difficult roll. As in, there is really NO chance of the PC's detecting this before it goes off, (3 Red Dice), but perhaps it is someone's day to make a great roll? I think that, in all rolls in FFG, the difficulties are adjustable based on situations.

Initiative should be rolled with no difficulty attached. Surprised? Vigilance. Surprising? Cool. They are different skills, dominated by different characteristics (willpower, presence) and that gives a fairly wide variance to them.

If setback or boost were to be applied, it should apply to all, as the situational reasoning for adding to the dice pool should/would apply to everyone. K.I.S.S.

My players appreciate the flavor and they can also reverse things on enemies. An example when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon get the drop on the droids escorting princess amidala and the her advisors. That's the best thing about RPGs, making them the groups own thing.

2 minutes ago, doktor grym said:

My players appreciate the flavor and they can also reverse things on enemies. An example when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon get the drop on the droids escorting princess amidala and the her advisors. That's the best thing about RPGs, making them the groups own thing.

To be fair, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan probably didn't actually need any Boost dice. The droids were only rolling 1 Ability die.

Doesn't contradict your point though. Adding Boost/Setback to Initiative is something I like, but I must admit I underutilize it.