DwD Studios
Game report and initiative considerations
Sat, 12/28/2013 - 11:29pm | 
bigjawhite
Friends:
I GM'd Barebones Fantasy RPG today with my gaming group. Including me, there were four of us. One ran two PCs. Their mission was to escort supplies to an advanced team of scouts spying on a goblin keep. The party fought goblins, a 3-ranked evil Ranger spy and his 3 cruel hunting dogs, and a goblin shaman with an Ogre and 16+ goblins at the edge of a cliff.
PCs were creative with the use of Charm spell and stealth, and made good use of second and sometimes third attacks. Descriptors were observed.
Toughest encounter was an avalanche trap set by goblins. The PCs took more damage from the trap (2D) and falling climb checks than they did from combat encounters.
During encounters, PCs had an incentive to go last. Going last, makes the decision to take multiple actions safer. If no monster goes after you, you may as well take two or three actions. The penalty for doing so ends with the end of the turn.
Also, several of the benefits offered by the Leader to his friends are rendered moot unless the Leader acts before his comrades.
We are thinking of houseruling initiative to have only one roll at the beginning of an encounter. Scores are kept throughout the encounter and effects such as -20 for taking second actions and the Leader's stuff would be in effect until he goes again.
Your comments? Thoughts? Did we miss something?
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BareBones Fantasy RPG is not associated with Skaldcrow Games' Bare Bones Multiverse, despite similar names. Check out Glenn's products by clicking here.
The battle commander skills work before initiative is rolled:
Battle Commander - before initiative is rolled make a skill check, if successful choose one below to be in effect until turn ends. Doesn’t count as an action.
The warlord skills work on the pcs turn, so initiative rolls count there!
Hmmm...I've been running games for over a year now with this system and my players have not come to that conclusion. Too many things change in every combat. Sometimes they wait, sometimes they go right away. Waiting can be dangerous if the enemy gangs up on you.
But I think that is a seperate issue from having one initiative roll that you keep for the encounter. If everyone is fine with it, there you go.
I prefer rolling every turn. Although rolling once and keeping your roll is simpler, it frustrates that player whose concept is a quick-draw high initiative scout or something if he just rolls poorly at the beginning of combat. Additionally, I feel it better represents the chaos of battle; things just don't run in an orderly fashion. If rolling every turn can get confusing at the gaming table, I suggest using cards instead. Normal playing cards work fine, but there are also some initiative cards we're prepping for sale. Just deal out a number of cards equal to INIT score and let them keep whichever one they want. Then just glance around the table and count down in order of Aces to Deuces. As long as cards are returned each turn and fresh ones dished out, it becomes easy to track initiative