Roll Initiative
2010/03/30
In all the games I’ve played, and the many I’ve only read, I find that I like the older systems of initiative more appealing. With that said, I’ve modeled Sabotage & Suns initiative with them in mind. At the beginning of a battle, each PC declares an action and rolls dice (or tosses beans), this is their initiative for the turn. When a character wants to do something, there is a modifier associated with it. Attacking with a weapon uses the weapons initiative modifier. This modifier ranges from -2 for slow or cumbersome actions, to +2 for quick or easy actions, and changes a characters initiative for the turn. Each turn starts with the highest initiative for the turn and works it’s way down until each character involved with the battle has had a chance to act. After the turn is over, each character declares new actions, rolls dice, and the turn is resolved as before. For S&S, light weapons have +2 Init, medium weapons have +0, and heavy weapons have -2.
Example: John playing a street thug, Billy playing a priest of war, and Mark playing an archer, encounter a group of undead (two skeletons and three zombies) sent from a nearby necropolis to assassinate the king of this city. John decides he wants to take a slice at one of the skeletons, hoping to sever its head from its spine. Billy says he’s going to charge after a zombie. Mark takes a shot after another zombie. They roll dice.
John, rolls 3, adds 2 for using a dagger this turn, total 5.
Billy, rolls 2, adds nothing as he’s using a medium weapon, total 2.
Mark, rolls 2, subtracts 2 as he’s using a heavy bow, total 0
Zombies act together, rolls 3, but they’re slow and subtract 2, total 1.
Skeletons act together, rolls 4, adds nothing as they’re using medium weapons, total 4.
In order we have: John, Skeletons, Billy, Zombies, and Mark. Their actions are resolved in that order. When the Mark has taken his turn, the round is over, and the next round starts. The process is the same for each round.
Come back next week when we talk about Endurance!
Game on!
[...] Last week, we talked about initiative. Since then, we’ve done some testing and realize we [...]