For D&D/OSR games: do you prefer to have group initiative? Individual? D20+dex? D6? D10?  Something else?

7th Sea had the only Individual Initiative system I liked.

Otherwise, its all Group Initiative for me. (With rare modifiers)

Better Games (makers of Crimson Cutlass, Battleborn, Rogues of the Empire) had this great initiative system where you got to choose to act before the enemy or react to the enemy's action. Different actions would be easier depending on the phase of before or after so it became a tactical aspect to the game.

For D&D, I actually do prefer group initiative; I don't think that this combat system in particular is robust enough for a more tactic game, and works best when the combats are kept as brief as possible; group initiative helps doing so.

For more visceral fighting systems, I prefer individual initiative, but I generally don't like any system that is basically a separate minigame that does not use the actual events in the combat as a strong influence on the initiative order (Shadowrun comes to mind). Usually, I think, initiative should shift to the advantage of the more offensive and successful combatant, so that characters can press advantage and the combats become more dynamic.

Everyone and the monsters roll initiative individually each round.

I remember Zak once posting a cool spin on group initiative:

Roll a d6 for the whole group, then characters and foes alternate, beginning with a member of the group that won the initiative check. Who gets to act when in their respective group is up to them. All excess combatants act in a desired order until everybody got their turn. Roll for initiative again.

In general/in principle, I like group initiative.  I also think that "popcorn initiative" (after acting, you choose who goes next) looks interesting, but I've never actually tried it.

In practice, the D&D-alike that I've run most recently was ACKS, which has initiative bonuses as class abilities for several classes, so using anything other than individual initiative feels like it's handicapping those classes.

Either way, I tend to prefer initiative rolled each round.

My preferred initiative system: simultaneous!

Everybody writes their actions down on index cards, and then reveals them at the same time.

I was actually thinking of going to a group initiative.

I currently use the 5e RAW, roll d20 + Initiative bonus, act in order highest to lowest, repeat until combat ends. However, it takes a moment to order all the players, NPCs. All the bad guys usually go on the same initiative, with any leader acting as desired (before or after minions).

Hackmaster 5e's count up using "weapon speeds" was nifty. Maybe a bit fiddly, but the fact you could move every second until you faced an enemy kept everyone on their toes the whole combat.

I have looked over the weapon speed (action speed) rules in the DMG (5e), and I'm not sure if it gives me exactly what I'm looking for. I like the idea of "counting down" from a number and then having people act. Less tracking on my side.

I like some of the weapon length/size options in Legend/RQ. It adds complexity however, and I want things to run quickly/smoothly.

I think I am going to fiddle around with an optional "engagement" system that steals some of the elements I like but simplifies them. I would really like to get away from tracking initiative at the onset and keep the players engaged in combat, even when it's not their turn. I also think there should be some kind of advantage for polearms on initial engagement, but then I have to add something where the melee fighter can "slip in" thereby gaining the advantage. Some thinking on this is needed...

Most of the D&D games I have played in use individual initiative, roll 1d20 plus bonus (usually Dex). Typically, the enemy initiative rolls are shared by opponents of the same type (so five goblins and five orcs would be represented by two initiative slots where five actions occur at once).

Lately, I prefer systems where everyone rolls for initiative slots and each side decides who will use each slot as it comes up. It neatly allows players to "hold" actions and respond to changing battlefield conditions a bit faster. It also makes the enemy a bit more unpredictable. Some players even seem to focus more since their turn doesn't always come up at a set time.

I quite like that initiative system for pulp and Sci-fi games. But since this can make characters with certain abilities (buffing, debuffiing, area of effect) more powerful, so I haven't used it yet in a high-level D&D game yet. If anyone has, I'd love to hear about how it affects things.

I think Group Initiative is interesting and can be fun, but it does grate a bit if there is too much planning out combos and the like due to the OOC nature of it.

Generally individual initiative is preferred.  It can be every round or once, but if only once, then there should be a mechanic for "seizing initiative" or losing it.

Out of all the published initiative systems I think I like Hackmaster the best even if it is involved and takes some practice as a GM to really make flow well, but it allows for some really cool effects.

I usually prefer individual, with rolling it once for each combat.

There is something to be said for taking a more free form approach as well.

We're doing group initiative in the LotFP game we just started... at least for now.
I've been thinking of trying the initiative step from Confrontation (miniature skirmish game), write each participating character from both sides on a card, shuffle the cards and turn them over one by one. Each side can nominate one character to hold its action till anytime during the round... even to interrupting a character from the other side... the rest act in order the cards are turned.

Quote from: Cave Bear;819672My preferred initiative system: simultaneous!

Everybody writes their actions down on index cards, and then reveals them at the same time.

That kind of reminds me of how we did it in Earthdawn, but no cards, everyone just declared and the GM wrote it down in order of rolled init + speed bonus. A character could change it's declaration when it's turn came but at a penalty for changing course.
It did come out feeling fairly simultaneous, less action/reaction, but like everything else in Earthdawn it sounded cool but took too fucking long in play.

Like I said elsewhere: My favorite initiative system is "mostly none". Surprise rolls matter, haste/slow matters, those establish turn order, with ties going to the players. On first round, longer weapons go before shorter. After that, there's a couple places where order of action matters, but I mostly treat it as all happening at once.

Heck, you could even roll all the attacks and damage at the same time, and then if one combatant kills another, figure out if the death occurs before the victim is able to act. Here, shorter weapons go first except on tthe first round, and I compare rough weapon length in feet to spell level to see if an attack interrupts a spell.

It's not D&D/OSR so it guess this doesn't really address the OP, but for crazy, swingy combat group initiative rolled each turn is pretty amazing.  But you don't want very large parties if you go this way.

Quote from: Soylent Green;819733It's not D&D/OSR so it guess this doesn't really address the OP, but for crazy, swingy combat group initiative rolled each turn is pretty amazing.  But you don't want very large parties if you go this way.

Why? it would seem to work better for large parties than for small parties. In my experience individual initiative is slower than group initiative for large parties since you have to go turn by turn and most players wait to roll or even think about what they are going to do until it is there turn.