Thinking about Intiative

[leonpoi]

Originally Posted by simonmark6

As for bulk, I generally use it either as a penalty in CQB situations or as a tie-breaker between equal initiatives. To refine it I might assign an initiative penalty to characters who are using a weapon whose bulk is higher than their Strength and Constitution averaged to represent that it is too big and awkward for the person carrying it. Even that seems necessarily complicated.

This is basically the approach that I use.

And just curious; we have a growing consensus that the Init system is fine but which version to you use, 1, 2 or 2.2?

[Legbreaker]

Any system isn't perfect and all of them work to some degree - could be a simple coin toss to see who goes first right up to the complex calculations and player decision making required in the Phoenix Command system.
For pure fast paced action, 2.2 is probably the better of the three, but for gritty detail, 1.0 is the way to go (especially the realistic healing times compared to 2.x). 2.0 appears to be a decent balance of the two, provided the rules are used in full.

[Adm.Lee]

I had another thought about this as I prep for a v1 game at Origins this year. I just wrapped up a pair of Savage Worlds games last weekend, where we use poker chips (red=wound, white=shaken, blue=benny) a lot.

My thought is to hand each player 6 chips, white ones for their hesitations, blue ones for actions. Say, someone with a CUF 2 has 1 hesitation, so he gets 5 blues and 1 white. Each round, as I the GM call it, each player advances a chip to show whether he's hesitating or acting, and can name the action. When they get hit, I substitute red chips for additional hesitations caused by wounds.

Opinions?

My apologies if I'm not clear, I'm short on sleep this week, and long on red wine tonight.

[Legbreaker]

I had a V1 character once with CUF of 8. How's that going to work with 6 chips?

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

I had a V1 character once with CUF of 8. How's that going to work with 6 chips?

Don't have my rules in front of me, but IIRC, hesitations = 1/2 of CUF.

[Badbru]

I remember back in the day myself and my players hated rolling for the initiative stat during character generation. A high result could make a REMF into a combat god and a low result could kill off any enthusiasm for a previously considered decent character. Everyone hated the arbitrary nature of it the most I think.
So I devised an alternative based on character stats.
It went something like this...
Add your Agility stat, to represent speed of action, to your Intelligence stat, to represent speed of thought, giving you a number from 0 to 20 as stats are 2d6-2. Divide by 4, rounding down if civilian and up if military. Add any career based additions to initiative as noted in the bonus section of careers.

Most characters ended up with 3 or 4. One had 5 from memory due to a career bonus.

And as allways, remember it's a game with the goal being for your players to have fun.

[Targan]

I like that houserule, Badbru. Clever yet simple.

[James Langham]

I like that as a method but a bit complex for larger fights for the poor GM.

Originally Posted by Adm.Lee

I had another thought about this as I prep for a v1 game at Origins this year. I just wrapped up a pair of Savage Worlds games last weekend, where we use poker chips (red=wound, white=shaken, blue=benny) a lot.

My thought is to hand each player 6 chips, white ones for their hesitations, blue ones for actions. Say, someone with a CUF 2 has 1 hesitation, so he gets 5 blues and 1 white. Each round, as I the GM call it, each player advances a chip to show whether he's hesitating or acting, and can name the action. When they get hit, I substitute red chips for additional hesitations caused by wounds.

Opinions?

My apologies if I'm not clear, I'm short on sleep this week, and long on red wine tonight.