Reworking iniative... Options

[Emrak]

Hey all,
Maybe I'm just still too attached to the d20 nipple, but as a newbie GM in SR4 it seems overly time-consuming to keep rolling for iniative every turn. Tell me, how many of you out there just roll iniative ONCE and be done with it?

Does it really affect the game that much to modify the rules in this way?

Thanks

[James McMurray]

We do it sometimes. It doesn't hurt anything. Rolling every turn is more dynamic, but also ends up with some situations where someone may get to act twice beofre someone else gets to act once. Not everyone thinks that's a bad idea though.

[Digital Heroin]

While rolling once is a simple timesaver, I don't really like the feel of it (as an active d20 player atm). In favor of saving a few minutes (which is an exhaggeration, really, even in a long battle), you sacrifice a certain bit of cinematics, and as James said, that dynamic quality.

That and the same initiative order over and over makes things just a bit dull if the battle goes long...

[Tarantula]

Everyone gets to act in the first initiative pass, then any additional passes act. How does someone get to act twice against another person without having ambushed them?

[Xenith]

Just roll initiative about 5 or 6 rounds at a time. It can work surprisingly well. Few combats last longer than this anyway

In fact, someone on this board was rolling about 100 or 200 dice ahead of time, before a session and using the dice rolls by crossing off what was needed. This could work well for initiative, or even just NPCs and secret rolls. However let PCs roll their own dice, as they like to do that (except for secret preception rolls of course.)

[ShadowDragon]

You're supposed to roll every COMBAT turn. If you divide the combat turn into 4 phases, it doesn't feel like reroll that often. When your players have PCs with 3+ IPs, combat doesn't usually last longer than a combat turn or two.

[Xenith]

I'll word it more carefully. You are rolling ahead of time to not have to reroll initiative every turn. Dice do not a combat turn make.

[James McMurray]

[Casper]

No sir. I don't like it.

[PlatonicPimp]

I do it, because my players aren't the type to appreciate the subtleties of rerolling every coumbat turn. They are still a little put out about the multiple passes per turn thing.

now, if you want to see a really good initiative system, check out 7th sea. Their system rocks, and if I were to give SR initiative a makeover, I'd do it that way.

[Lagomorph]

depending on the types of characters, rolling may not even matter anyway. With out spending edge, a mage with no cyber will always go slower than a wired 3 sam with reaction. with a wide spread team, you'll find that they almost always go in the same order.

You can also just average the results from their initiative rolls and use that if it's too painful to roll every time.

[Casper]

True, you could just average out the rolls but what about those times when the mage rolls well and the sam just comes up with nothing. Actually rolling gives the possibility that even though the Sam is wired to the max there is still times when hes caught flat footed.

[Eryk the Red]

The problem is that the initiative rules are designed so that there is little variation in initiative order. First you roll initiative, then you add the hits to the Initiative rating that determined the amount of dice you rolled in the first place. The mage in our group can rarely get enough hits to equal our wired troll's base Initiative rating, let alone after the troll has rolled and added the hits.

[Shrike30]

Considering how much of a pain in the ass it is to get a high initiative (usually involving taking drugs, getting 'ware, spending Edge, being online/astral, or having someone get at least 2 successes on a spellcasting test), I don't really have a problem with people who don't go to any of this trouble finding themselves behind on the curve. :P

I find that while the fast and the slow guys usually work out that way among my group (the fast guy usually going first, etc), it's the interactions with the NPCs that matter. Fast and slow NPCs go about the same time as their PC counterparts, with some deviation each turn based on randomness. Not too shabby...