Initiative Options

[evilgoattea]

Hello,

I just purchased the Shadowrun 4th edition and while I am new to the rules I am not new to the setting. I have been reading the book and like what I have read so far, but I am wondering: Does anyone here on this forum have a way to play Initiative in a less clunky way, or perhaps have a decent initiative tracking program?

Thanks

-Josh

[Nightwalker450]

What problems are you having with initiative, I've never really seen any problems with it (at least that aren't in every other RPG). Except for the multiple IP's, which you just need to keep track of how many IP's each person has.

Is it turn order, number of IP's, or something else that posing problems?

[evilgoattea]

No Problem really, it just seems like a lot of work to keep track of initaitves for pcs and npcs everyround + keep track of modifiers as well. But in all fairness i havent played it yet, so maybe it looks complicated on paper but in actuality it isnt so bad. I guess my primary interest in this thread is to see if anyone uses any computer programs to track their initiative in their games.

-Josh

[Nightwalker450]

Usually as a GM I put the NPC's in groups instead of each rolling their own initiative. So I might have drones in one group, mooks in another group, and then the liutenant gets his own. Basically if their base initiative is pretty close, just treat 'em as a group. I've usually done this with any other RPG as well, so I guess it was overlooked on my part.

The only modifiers for Initiative are wound modifiers. Since I group my NPC's, I don't apply wound modifiers on them (except for maybe the lieutenant). So that just leaves PC's that really need to be tracked, and usually the difference in initiative numbers is so variant that taking -2 or even -3 really doesn't change their position in initiative too much.

I haven't tried any initiative programs, but you could check the Community Projects to see if there are any.

[bibliophile20]

Aaron has a useful Init Tracker program over at his site: http://pavao.org/shadowrun/miscellany/ it's at the bottom of the page.

[evilgoattea]

Thanks ill check it out!

-Josh

[evilgoattea]

Usually as a GM I put the NPC's in groups instead of each rolling their own initiative. So I might have drones in one group, mooks in another group, and then the liutenant gets his own. Basically if their base initiative is pretty close, just treat 'em as a group. I've usually done this with any other RPG as well, so I guess it was overlooked on my part.

The only modifiers for Initiative are wound modifiers. Since I group my NPC's, I don't apply wound modifiers on them (except for maybe the lieutenant). So that just leaves PC's that really need to be tracked, and usually the difference in initiative numbers is so variant that taking -2 or even -3 really doesn't change their position in initiative too much.

I haven't tried any initiative programs, but you could check the Community Projects to see if there are any.

I was thinking about doing that actually. Thanks for the idea.

-Josh