RPG Forums - Initiative in 4E

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- - Initiative in 4E (https://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=6591)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegyrius (Post 90500)

I've been chewing on this and my inclination is to do away with the card system entirely and adapt the system from Five Parsecs From Home (which, admittedly, is one of my shiny new toys, and thus biases me more favorably toward it). Here's an untested alpha draft:

Each combat round has three initiative phases. In order, these are Quick, Enemy, and Slow.

At the beginning of every combat round, each PC and allied NPC makes a Coolness Under Fire check (adding unit morale if within LOS or voice/radio contact of an ally). This check receives a -1 penalty if facing enemies who predominantly have CUF A and a +1 bonus if facing enemies who predominantly have CUF D. The Combat Awareness specialty's effect becomes a +1 bonus to initiative.

Quick phase: every PC/ally who succeeded with the CUF check
Enemy phase: every opponent
Slow phase: every PC/ally who failed the CUF check

In each phase, characters may act in any order.

I've been running with this house rule since I started my current campaign (1e timeline, 4e rules) in January. We're currently 12 sessions and about 8 combats into it and it seems to be working fairly well. The final version is a bit more streamlined - I dropped the modifiers for enemy CUF:

Quote:

At the beginning of each round, each player rolls Coolness Under Fire (adding Unit Morale if the PC is within voice or visual contact of a teammate). With success, they act in the fast phase, before all NPCs. With failure, they act in the slow phase, after all NPCs. Characters in each phase may act in any sequence and players may (briefly) discuss tactics and order of operations before declaring actions.

My observation in play is that this incentivizes keeping the team close (no lone-wolfing), rewards both individual proficiency (Coolness Under Fire) and team cohesion (Unit Morale), and allows the sort of coordinated action that we see in both documentary and cinematic examinations of small unit tactics.

- C.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegyrius (Post 94596)

I
My observation in play is that this incentivizes keeping the team close (no lone-wolfing), rewards both individual proficiency (Coolness Under Fire) and team cohesion (Unit Morale), and allows the sort of coordinated action that we see in both documentary and cinematic examinations of small unit tactics.

- C.

Agreed.

I have some observations on initiative coming up soon, from my own play experience.

I should note that in our last combat scene, two PCs were detached for sniping and recon. They subsequently separated from one another before combat began. The PCs have no radios and I ruled that the two who'd gone solo were effectively out of voice communication with one another. The difference between using only CUF for initiative and using CUF + Unit Morale was starkly illuminated.

As an additional benefit, this system still works in Forge/Foundry (my group's virtual tabletop of choice) with no software tweaks.

No one has taken Combat Awareness, but the easiest way to integrate it with this system seems to be a flat +1 bonus to initiative checks, in keeping with the functionality of most other specialties.

- C.