Quote from: SpikeConsider, say, Silcore, where you have a balance issue. Perception is important for combat (to remove munchkining stat points) and a seperate skill is needed... a fairly major investment for a combat worthy character.  That guy is gonna be PISSED when you just handwave away the Combat sense checks and declare he goes 'whenever'.

Unless you're like me and you replace most Notice rolls during combat with Combat Sense rolls. Someone with Combat Sense 5 is much more likely to get more detailed and relevant information ("Joe is pinned down behind a piece of concrete and it looks like the enemy is going to flank him soon.") than someone with Combat Sense 1 ("You don't know where Joe is, everything is too confusing.") That's much more useful to a PC than when they act during a combat round.

Well I'm currently running Big Eyes, Small Mouth 2e.  In that game, most everything is 2d6 roll-under.  Initiative, however, is wonky...  being 1d6 + Attack Combat Value (ACV is also your to-hit stat), going in order of highest roll first.

I was considering using the Cinematic Unisystem method, which is, "whoever acts first goes first, unless a character has an initiative-boosting Quality in which case they always go first."

However, after reading Wil's article, I think I'll just call for initiative rolls at the last possible moment (i.e. after a hostile action and the reaction to it is declared) instead.

Another good way to do it, which I believe that d20 does this in some iterations and Exalted 2e is similar, is that initiative is not rerolled unless something happens that would change that order. What that "something" is depends entirely on the game being played, but it could be a particular manuever, a feat, power, whatever.

For example, in SilCore I only call for roll s once per combat. That roll is the character's initiative count, which determines the timing of the character's actions. Characters at a lower initiative count can try to interrupt a character with a higher count, but at a penalty to their action. Characters with a higher initiative count can choose to hold their action and act at a lower initiative count, with the new lower count becoming their initiative. There is a mechanism in place to allow for characters to try to "hold on" (or not) to any new initiative count as well as to force rerolls on the next combat round. I've used it in the past and it works well when the players really want to get nitty gritty about who goes when.

L5R uses a cyclic "roll once" method, but there are a lot of things that can add or subtract. Taking wounds during the round can lower your init, not getting hit at all lets you bump your init a little, and many others. It's a pretty simple system but allows for a very dynamic feel.

That is something I felt was an improvement going from AD&D 1e/2e to 3e, that you only rolled Init once at the start of combat. Potentially again if something new joined (forget the specific rules), but that was relatively rare.  And yeah with 3e we usually just lumped all opponents together into one roll unless there was something that was a lot faster than the rest of the NPCs.  You do change order though based on waiting for other things to happen and so on.

That is a possibility to not even bother rerolling between combats, although I guess how much better that is depends a lot on long your combat tends to run.

Quote from: WilAnother good way to do it, which I believe that d20 does this in some iterations and Exalted 2e is similar, is that initiative is not rerolled unless something happens that would change that order. What that "something" is depends entirely on the game being played, but it could be a particular manuever, a feat, power, whatever.

For example, in SilCore I only call for roll s once per combat. That roll is the character's initiative count, which determines the timing of the character's actions. Characters at a lower initiative count can try to interrupt a character with a higher count, but at a penalty to their action. Characters with a higher initiative count can choose to hold their action and act at a lower initiative count, with the new lower count becoming their initiative. There is a mechanism in place to allow for characters to try to "hold on" (or not) to any new initiative count as well as to force rerolls on the next combat round. I've used it in the past and it works well when the players really want to get nitty gritty about who goes when.

I already adopted that, because initiative rolls every round were horribly distracting.  What I may also use is a rule from OVA where those with a lower initiative count can try to "refoot" by rolling initiative again in subsequent rounds to get a better place in the order...  perhaps by sacrificing an action.

Sounds like refocus from 3.0.

Yeah, a refocus manuever of some kind is always good to have. One thing I messed up in my current house rules is that the refocus forces everyone to reroll...I'm going to amend that so that it only affects the character doing it. I also need to decide if I want to force them to take the new roll, or be able to keep their old score if the roll is lower.

You could let the refocus add instead of reroll. How much and whether it's random or not depends on the rest of the system, although making it a flat number will speed things up. Not only do you lose the time spent rolling, you also lose the time spend contemplating whether to do it or not, because the "should I risk it" factor goes away.