Hi, I’m Bob :) this is where we learn how
to have more fun playing D&D together, and wayyyyy back I made THIS rash
statement about speeding up combat... But now I’m older, wiser, my hair is longer, and
I’ve really put those “tricks” to the test... and I gotta say, I was WRONG! Well, not about
the dice rolling part-- I’m still convinced that unless you have a BIG, brand new group,
all playing high level paladins, then rolling attack and damage together literally only saves
you one minute for every half hour of combat. So yeah, I was wrong in saying that dropping
initiative altogether or using alternative initiative methods cannot speed up your combat
in Dungeons & Dragons, because I have now tried a bunch of methods, and I’m pretty sure I’ve
whittled down initiative to a simple technique that is easy to remember, easy to use, and
easy to adjust for different sizes of groups! So I’m going to walk through the best and worst
parts of the most popular ways to run initiative then share my solution with a couple tweaks
so you can find what works best for you! The goal of initiative is to keep track of
turn order, just like any board game. We only use initiative in combat because most
of the roleplaying in D&D doesn’t involve that many rules. Combat is where the bulk of D&D’s
actual mechanics come into play, so initiative is designed to maintain order, lest your combat be
controlled by the loudest, fastest-talking player! Furthermore, initiative order is important
because many spell effects and conditions end “at the start” or “at the end of a creature’s
next turn” so dropping initiative altogether or rerolling it each round forces you to rethink
all of those effects. But my main problem with initiative as written is that you essentially
have to pause the game at the start of each combat to set the stage. This has ALWAYS bothered me
because just as you’re getting into the excitement you have to wait... for everyone to roll, for the
DM to organize the turn order, and often for the first player to decide what they’re doing! Just
having EVERYONE roll makes it feel like we’re suddenly playing a different game! And keeping
that order organized has become kind of a joke with the fact that people like me have literally
built things or bought things to track initiative order! That’s a huge red flag that initiative
is more complicated than it needs to be! So the “no initiative” concept, popularized
by one of my favorite D&D-tubers, Professor DM of Dungeon Craft, is a really attractive idea!
Essentially, the group quickly devises a plan, everyone rolls dice together, then the
DM resolves all actions at once with a narrative description. It better-follows D&D’s
core mechanic of scene>interaction>resolution, but it still involves pausing the game for
EVERYONE to discuss and agree upon a group plan. And you the DM has to retain all of those
player actions and ALL of the monster actions to properly describe each round! Which, for me,
makes it a little bit too much to handle. However, using no initiative by simply going around the
table, like every board game you’ve ever played, fixes a lot of these problems! Tons
of games rely on this turn order because it’s intuitive for new and
experienced players of all ages! Everyone can easily recognize who’s up next and
when their turn is coming. And that’s why going around the table is actually part of my solution
for big groups! The only weird part is having your players change seats after a combat because
going in the same order every time can get stale. So my ideal method for initiative needs to smooth
out the transition from roleplay to combat; it needs to be easy to organize and track
turns through the combat without me needing to memorize a lot of actions; it needs to vary
the turn order from one combat to another; and it needs to be adaptable depending
on how many people show up to play D&D! This is a tough order, pun intended, but the
method I’ve been using-- works! And we can break it down with two simple phrases: 1) the early
bird gets the worm, and 2) monsters in the middle! The early bird technique is how we
grade our exploration and roleplay scene into a combat scene, without anyone noticing!
Squeeks: pushing your way through the underbrush, you stumble into a clearing, and immediately
lock eyes with a troll that was raising a deer’s leg to it’s open mouth.
Me: Ah! I fire an arrow! Squeeks: Okay! Do it!
Me: Aha- 17! Squeeks: Hits! Everyone roll initiative as
the troll takes the arrow in its shoulder, raises the leg like a club and
begins rushing toward your party! This rewards your quick-thinking players with
a kind of surprise round at the start of any battle! For example, since that troll saw the PCs
coming, so there’s no genuine surprise round with advantage, the quick-thinking PC just gets this
one free attack before you technically enter initiative, and if the players all hesitated,
the troll would have gotten that one free attack! So the early bird piece of this method is entirely
situational, but it always allows one player or the DM to roleplay a free attack like they would
any other non-combat action, to seamlessly move your party into combat! You can use early bird
attacks for any size group, and if your group is the right size for actually rolling initiative
(which I’m about to define) you can have the players roll and determine their order while
you describe the result of that first attack! Alright, point #2: monsters in the middle!
If you have only 1-3 players, don’t make them roll initiative, just let them choose an
order, “you go, then I’ll go, then she goes.” And the monsters go after all the
players, so you’re just alternating: players, monsters, players, monsters. If you
have a big group, I’m talking 7 or more players, don’t make them roll initiative! Just
go around the table or for online games, in order of their images, or alphabetically,
or whatever simple order makes sense for your particular VTT. The monsters go on the DM’s turn,
and assuming you’re using more than one monster because you should be for 7+ players, have your
main monsters go in the middle of your players. So it’s half your players, monsters, half your
players, monsters. And to switch it up (IF you can somehow do more than one combat
in a session with that many players), just go the other way around the table! This
is easy stuff! And for that sweet spot of 4-6 players, you do have them roll initiative, but you
never roll for the monsters! Your main monsters will always go on turn 11, and if you have a
couple minions in there, have them go on turn 1. On average, this keeps your monster’s turns “in
the middle” so it’s still about half your players, then monsters, then the other half of your
players, but here’s the added advantage-- You should absolutely tell your players that the
monsters will go on turn 11! That way, when they roll an 18 or even a 12, it feels like rolling
a successful check because they know they get to go first! You can even train the group to have
those high rollers state their initiative first, instead of everyone calling out at once.
And on those times when everyone rolls, a hush falls over the group, and they
realize... everyone rolled under 11, it’s a funny moment that still raises the tension. So let me know in the comments what you think of
the early bird attack and monsters in the middle, give this video a thumbs up if you like it,
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like David, Edmund, Nicholas, Jonathan, Solwizard, Jadon, and Curtis! Thank you
all for your support, and keep building! :D
