So one of the big hurdles that stops me from running my own exalted game on RPOL is that I have no idea how to handle, in a practical manner, the initiative.

With the initiative order, player A can have initiative 12, player b init 7, npc A init 4, etc, everyone states and resolves their action in the correct order.
However this is impractical for Pbp systems, as everyone would need to wait for player A to start posting, before posting itself.

Further more complicating the fact is that if player A were to hit NPC A, then the initiative would further go down, and player A's would rise. Thus upsetting the expected posting order.
This can also heavily change the planned actions, so just having everyone post actions and sorting it out isn't the I want to do it either.

The initiative, sort of reflects your health and momentum in battle, so you can't just tack on another system for initiative.

Anyone have any thoughts or tried any solutions about this yet?
This message was last edited by a moderator, as it was the wrong forum, at 15:54, Tue 26 Apr 2016.

It's almost never a good idea to make players go in the order of their initiatives with regards to each other.  If the game makes individual initiative a big deal, then rolling it that way can still work.  Take an example case:

12 Player A
11 Player B
10 NPC X
09 Player C
07 NPC Y
06 Player D

Strictly speaking, player A should post, then player B.  However, my experience is that allowing Players A and B to go in the order they post is much better.  In essence, only break things up with the NPCs.

So, in the above case, you'd have player A & B, then NPC X (your post), then Player C, then NPC Y, then Player D (and if you don't reroll initiative, also Player A and B for their round 2 top of the order action).

This is a bit clunky, but saves you a little time.

More commonly, you'll have folks merge all of the NPCs together.  Then you get this case:

12 Player A
11 Player B
09 Player C
07 NPCs X & Y
06 Player D

In the common case, you then have A, B, and C post together, then the NPCs go, then player D (and presumably A, B, and C with their round 2 actions).

The problem is that neither of these systems work great with initiatives that shift around a lot during the course of the turn.  For those... good luck?

Another method:

Certainly allow people to post in any order - and simply use your narrative ability to make it fit as closely as possible.

I've never had a problem, myself, with PCs being in between NPCs in initiative order.  Treat NPC actions as subordinating actions (unless it really matters to the story like the Big Bad Boss).

Player A does X
NPC C does Z
Player B does Y

Player B wants to intercept NPC C and attack?  But, NPC Cs movement would cause Player B's "square" to become the wrong one?  No problem - simply move Player B to the right square, or better yet - have the final "position" be some where in between the two points (imagine a sports game where people turn in the middle of their run.)



So, let's say Player B declared "go to E1 and attack NPC C to prevent it from getting to squishy Player A.

But, NPC Cs action is to take cover behind E4 (let's call those trees).

No problem - when you post the NPCs turn - do a "results" turn instead.  And say that Player B winds up in E3


This message was last edited by the user at 15:17, Tue 26 Apr 2016.

Which is about as far as I was able to guess. And which brought me to make this thread. :)

I know this may make the board clunky, but you could try separate threads for each combat. As the posts come in, you post the round summary to the main thread in correct initiative order.

I'm not familiar with 3ed, but does it still rely so much on stunts for mechanical bonuses?  If anything, that's the biggest barrier to doing GM-interpreted turns since the whole thing about stunts kind of relies on you knowing exactly what is going on when you pull off the stunt.

Unless you (as the GM) want to do a whole lot of editing, I guess...

When you let players ignore initiative orders and when you separate scenes and so on, you're opening up for a disaster. The initiative order is fairly important from a mechanical standpoint and it's never a real issue with posting in order unless you have slow players who you can't rely on to post regularly.


I've never had any issues with handling initiative, and I've had lots of fights to test it.

I usually go like this:


ROUND 1

13: Player A
11: Player B
06: Player C


I keep a copy in my scratchpad. To keep track of what's happened, I put a blank space in between those who have acted and those who have not.


ROUND 1

17: Player A
04: Player B

06: Player C <---- it's his action now


Then next round, post the new order:


ROUND 2

17: Player A
06: Player C
04: Player B


Easy peasy
This message was last edited by the user at 15:26, Thu 28 Apr 2016.

It is still pretty stunt reliant as far as I can see. The rules for one type of attack specifically state "you should not ever say I perform this attack to steal initiative" which means the stunting at a basic level is now a requirement, not a bonus.

Initiative is MASSIVELY important in 3rd edition though.  Each withering attack a character hits with adds to their initiative and accounts for damage when they actually use a decisive attack.  If you change the way it works you are really messing with the system.

That too. I also worried that the initiative system made dexterity even more the god stat, but reading lower down made me decide I'd have to see it in action. You soak withering attacks with stamina, so though bricks have lower initiative, it's also harder to change... This being exalted though, I doubt much harder, so dex is still probably the god stat.