New initiative idea!
Woo! After a long time of thought and rethought, I came up with a reasonable, working initiative system. It's gonna work a LOT like the ETUCS, only... Different. Here, see below for example:
There are two characters, Morro the Soldier (initiative +1) and Shadow the Ninja (initiative +7). So... The two combatants roll initiative.
Morro gets a respectable 18 on his initiative roll. Shadow gets a 22, however. Now... How does this new initiative system work? Well, let me show you.
To find out the character's actual initiative, you divide their initiative by 5, and round down. Morro now has a 3, and Shadow has a 4. You then subtract those numbers from 8, and you have their new Initiative. Morro's initiative is 5, Shadow's is 4.
So, at 4 (you count up, as in the ETUCS), Shadow chooses his action. He's going to throw shurikens at Morro. Now, I don't have a speed chart set up yet, but let's say a Shuriken costs 1 initiative to throw each. So, at 5, Shadow would throw his first shuriken.
At initiative 5, Shadow acts (throws a shuriken), and Morro also acts (whatever he wants to do). Now... Since their both at the same initiative, who goes first? Well, since Shadow had the higher initiative roll (22 v 18), Shadow goes first, and throws his first shuriken. Then, after that attack is resolved, Morro would then act. Since he's 30' away from Shadow, he's going to move towards Shadow.
Moving has a special initiative cost. It's based on your movement rate, as per the chart below. The max amount of time a move can take is 6 initiative.
Move Cost<br /> 60 1 initiative per 10'<br /> 50 1 initiative per 10' for the 1st 40', and then 1 initiative per 5'<br /> 40 1 initiative per 10' for the 1st 20', and then 1 initiative per 5'<br /> 30 1 initiative per 5'<br /> 20 2 initiative per 5' for the 1st 10', and then 1 initiative per 5'<br /> 15 2 initiative per 5'<br /> 10 3 initiative per 5'<br /> 5 6 initiative per 5'
Morro decides to charge, making his Move rate effectively 60', so it only costs him 3 initiative. He would then take his standard action at initiative 8.
At initiative 6 & 7, Shadow throws his other two shurikens. At initiative 8, it's his turn again, this time for a move action... And Morro's at the same time. Since, again, Shadow acts first due to the higher roll on initiative, he goes before Morro gets there. He decides to back up 30' (he doesn't suffer an AoO, since Morro hasn't arrived yet [Morro is basically 10' away still]), which costs him 6 initiative.
Morro arrives at his desired location at initiative 8, but his opponent is no longer there. He decides to keep moving, to catch up to Shadow (3 more init).
At initiative 11, he's effectively caught up to Shadow (while, yes, I know the exact dynamics of that movement aren't exactly perfect, D&D's wasn't even close to better, so hush). He decides to use his standard action, and attack Shadow. He uses his Long Sword (we'll say it has an initiative cost of 4), and then will slash at Shadow on initiative 15.
At initiative 14, Shadow's movement ends, and Shadow has no more actions left to take. He then rerolls initiative (getting a 14, which is turned into a 2, which is turned into a 6), and gets to act again at 20. At initiative 15, Morro slashes at Shadow with his Long Sword.
Here's what the initiative list looked like for that battle:
1
2
3
4 - Shadow (chooses to throw Shurikens)
5 - Shadow (1st Shuriken)
5 - Morro (charges 30' to Shadow)
6 - Shadow (2nd Shuriken)
7 - Shadow (3rd Shuriken)
8 - Shadow (moves back 30')
8 - Morro (continues to charge the remaining 30')
9
10
11 - Morro (chooses to attack w/ Long Sword)
12
13
14 - Shadow (rerolls initiative)
15 - Morro (attacks with Long Sword, and rerolls initiative)
Each initiative is equal to 1 second, so the battle has only lasted 15 seconds thus far. Spellcasting would have its own initiative cost, as would other things. That'd all be detailed in their respective descriptions. What does everyone think?
New initiative idea!
I think you lost me, after changing their initiatives to smaller numbers and then them making actions and then you switching back to big numbers all of a sudden i have no clue how that works, lol
"If knowledge is power, then to be unknown is to be unconquerable."
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New initiative idea!
I get it, its just...quite complex. You subtract numbers to see who goes first, and then build up gradually as they use IP (Initiative Points) to take actions. Perhaps you should institute AP (Action Points) instead of initiative gradually increasing? Then again, it would be little different, for now it makes sense but I think it'd bog down combat a hell of a lot as players are like "should I make a 30' run or a 40', do I have enough initiative left to attack after my run..." etc
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New initiative idea!
It is very complex....and for second there I was lost...but the way it sounds it seems like a good way...but I think you should go with AP then all this IP...it would make the understanding a little easier.
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New initiative idea!
It's logical, but it's a little bit too much.
I am fine with the initiative part really, it's actually interesting and unique. But you definitely went overboard with the movement system. All players will basically have to memorize the movement chart to be able to speed up the gameplay (unless you have a simple formula for it).
Now I just have one question? Will you be assigning initiative points to all the weapon/items used in battle?
I know you keep track of your battles very nicely, but still think about it, it could be very overwhelming for you (the dm) to keep track all these item's init costs, players, damage, rerolls etc etc (I am saying this because I know you are the kind of dm who tries to hold the battles without any mistakes by memorizing the cses, or looking them up every round, whichever method you use). Players obviously will be able to memorize their own weapon and item initiative costs in no time, so that's no concern.
I also think the combats will be time straining process, if you use this system, How much time do you think it will take in real life time? Because I think using this system and holding battles like cotv WILL be very complicated and will take forever (unless like i said, you have simple formulas or some magic trick up your sleeve).
Current Characters D
New initiative idea!
I did this only because Acid didn't seem to like my idea for init in the Final Fantasy Role-Playing System thread... So, I made this alternative. Yes, I agree with you; this would be HELL on a DM.
New initiative idea!
They can use as complex an init system as they like in games, because the computer calculates it all, but here we have to tone it down for efficiency unless someones going to code up an initiative monitoring program
"If knowledge is power, then to be unknown is to be unconquerable."
-Romulan Motto
New initiative idea!
O_o... the reason I didn't really like your init idea was because it was so arbitrary... and although there are good reasons for extra actions due to quickness, -25 to init just seemed too random...
The problem with ETUCS is that even in 2E, it's home plane, it's still complex and needs bookkeeping. But damn, nice conversion to 3E, albeit it's slightly even more complex O_o. The thing is, 2E had all those nice little charts for weapon speeds, movement speeds, spellcasting speeds... and whatnot... gonna take some work. But anyway...
*Applaud*
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New initiative idea!
Ok... I thought about this some more, and you're very right about the movement chart thingy, Dark. Far more simple to say that if you move your full movement, it costs 6 IP (or action points, whatever!) and if you move half or less, it costs 3 IP. I figured that a 5' step, while a free action, should cost a single IP. This would add some interesting tactical combat...
What I figured is, you could stick with standard D20 initative in all situations other than very small battles, such as, entire group against one enemy, or like 2 v 2 or something like that. As a 1v1 combat system, this would be the best ever... I swear, that'd be so neat.
Now... I still wish I could figure out an easier conversion method to get from, say, a 20 init down to so many IPs... Mmm... Any suggestions?
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New initiative idea!
First I have a question about the previous IP finding method you presented. What if someone rolls an init less then 5? Do you automatically count that as 1, since you are dividing by 5 ?
If so, How about assigning Base IP dividers to each race or class (The faster your race is the more base IP divider you get). Also your init mods will have to be added to this IP dividers instead of the d20 when rolling for init.
For example, lets say humans' Base IP Divider is 2 and Goblins' Base IP Divider is 1 (meaning generally humans are faster then goblins in this example).
Now lets say Morric the human is fighting Xarroc the Goblin.
Morric's init mod is +3, so his total IP divider will be = 3+2(Base IP Divider) = 5.
Xarroc's Init mod is +2, so his total IP divider will be = 2+1(Base IP Divider) = 3.
Morric rolls a 20 using a d20 dice for his init, and that will get him a total ip of = 20/5 = 4
Xarroc rolls a 20 as well, and this will get Xarroc a total ip of = 20/3= 6 (rounded down).
And if the human by any chance rolls a number less then 5, or the goblin by any chance rolls a number less then 3, the goblin and the human automatically gets 1 as their IP.
That's basically the general idea. It will need much tweaking and testing (especially the numbers) to get that to actually work.
But I really didn't have problem with your method either. I think in the small battles like you mentioned it will work just fine.
Current Characters D
New initiative idea!
methinks an init of less than 5 would result in 0 (as 8-0 = 8, they would effectively have 8 init) less than 0 would result in -1 (8-(-1) = 9) and so forth
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New initiative idea!
Holy shit, Dark's post was fairly recent. I totally didn't notice.
In regards to lower than 5, you still apply the formula. 5 would be 1, 0 through 4 would be 0, -1 to -5 would be -1... These are then subtracted from 8 to get 7, 8, and 9, respectively.
As to the divider thing... Ehhh... That'd be a bit hard to set up... And, while it'd make your init mod a lot more potent, it could easily get out of hand. Imagine an elf (+2 dex which means +1 to init) with the Improved Initiative feat. That's a +5 to the divider right there. Assume the character had a base 16 for dex (another +3), and the race had a divider of 2 (like the human), you're looking at a divider of 10. That's pretty obscene.
Also, look at it from the other direction. A character with a -1 or -2 initiative mod... That could be a divider of 1 (or 0, but we'd assume a minimum divider of 1)... That character would never act!
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Repeating this will totally get you laid.
New initiative idea!
Didn't think about the negetive Init Mod and yeah it's not gonna work.
But you can just make it a positive number and add it to the roll rather than subtracting from IP Divider.
Whats the reasoning behind that?
I have no clue..
But anyway, I don't find the init system that was first posted that complicated, I think that is the easiest way it can be done using the system you have in mind.
What you need to do is start some Beta sessions, so we can really test that thing out.
Current Characters D