OK, yes, I'm an old timer. Not a lot of street cred but almost no notoriety either, so just as it should be. So, that being said I am in need of some assistance on possibly bringing an old (and LOONNNGGG used) house rule into 5th edition, if it's even possible.

Ever since 1st or possibly 2nd ed (can't remember which one) I've been using a house rule that was distributed in a collection for reworking Initiative. It reworked the Initiative Passes to work closer together while still allowing the really fast to shine but still allowing the slower characters to go, without the artificial feeling 'everybody gets a pass, even if you rolled a 1, before anyone gets a second action' mess brought in in 3rd.

Basically, every extra die to initiative you would reduce the number you subtract to get your second action/pass and gives you +1 Initiative score. Everyone rolls 1d6 for initiative. As follows:

Normal bloke: 1d6 + initiative, -10 for second action/pass (if at all)
Wired Reflexes lvl 1, Boosted Reflexes lvl 1, etc: 1d6 + initiative (+1 from Wired lvl 1) score and subtracts -8 from his total to get a second action/pass
Would have been : +2 initiative, 2d6+initiative and subtracts -10 to get a second action/pass

Wired lvl 2: 1d6 + initiative (+2 from Wired lvl 2) score and subtracts -7 from his total to get a second action/pass
Would have been : +4 initiative, 3d6+initiative and subtracts -10 to get a second action/pass

Wired lvl 3: 1d6 + initiative (+3 from Wired lvl 3) score and subtracts -6 from his total to get a second action/pass
Would have been : +6 initiative, 4d6+initiative and subtracts -10 to get a second action/pass

Move by wire lvl 4: 1d6 + initiative (+4 from MbW lvl 4) score and subtracts -5 from his total to get a second action/pass (don't even know if this is possible in 5th)
Would have been : +8 initiative, 5d6+initiative and subtracts -10 to get a second action/pass (IIRC)

I added Lightning Reflexes add +1 to initiative and subtracts -9 to get a second pass/action but could just as well use -8.

Anyway, I have several other games going on right now (all different systems) and can't seem to wrap my head around getting this to work in 5th. I don't think it will work as is because of how the score is so heavily tied in with interrupts and the like, but I still like the concept of it (and 20+ years of it working beautifully) over the current option or the variant in Run & Gun.

Any help is definitely appreciated. Also, any other long-in-the-tooth runners remember the supplement this came from? I remember the layout and each section had a single word centered on the page for a chapter heading. Dunno. IIRC, it predates TSS but not sure. Maybe from the ShadowRN days?

Anywho, thanks chummers.

Oh I loved this. The end result was that the faster people went first and last while the slower people went in the middle. Did a great job of getting everyone feeling involved.

Way it worked was for every extra die you rolled for Initiative after the 1rst, you would add those dice to 2 and subtract from 10. So Wired Ref 3 would be (2+3) 5-10. This would be what you subtract from you initial Initiative score to determine when you get more actions. And yeah, you rolled only one die otherwise.

Sadly I don't remember where I saw this first. Actually, I think it was here now that I think about it. But that was years ago. I don't see why it would not work with 5th ed. Only thing that would impair it would be the interrupts. Especially Full Dodge which in the above example would take away 2 passes. Maybe if you subtracted it from when the interrupt was taken instead of away from the total.

Yeah, the interrupts are what I was hoping to get some help with. LOL

Change the interrupt action penalty values. Basically the problem is the interrupt penalties are too high with your house rule so change them so they retain the same sort of impact within the smaller initiative range this system uses. Cut them in half perhaps. So full Dodge is -5 and the others are -2 or -3 (depending on which way you like to round). I think something like that should work.