Hey, all! Not long ago, I posted an article about narrative combat. You can find it here!

In that post, I discussed allowing player actions in combat encounters to emerge from the narration rather than setting them aside as their own minigame. This article is an update on this concept since I’ve just run a game where I used it to good effect.

Now, it’s worth noting that I still counted rounds (because d4 timers are life). However, there was one factor that seemed to change things: I didn’t call for initiative.

The Scenario

My players had been tasked by a local tribe of goat men to hunt down a goblin raiding party. They were directed toward the north to find their quarry and found tracks heading west from there, but were distracted by seeing a goblin fortress a few miles north. They decided to raid the fortress instead.

It didn’t go well, but as things started to get dangerous, I just started calling for rolls. If players wanted to act before something happened, they had to succeed on a speed roll (in my system I’m developing, Speed is one of the main ability scores). I started counting rounds and using timers (à la Runehammer/ICRPG style) for threats, and as the PCs fled, they had to make rolls to outpace the party of goblin soldiers that had sallied forth against them. One player character fell behind and people took actions such as diving in front of attackers, loosing arrows, etc. in an effort to save him and cover his escape.

Through it all, I simply went around the table, pointing at players and asking what they were doing each round. At no point was initiative ever called for, and it seems to have worked out really well.

Player Response

I chatted a bit with my players afterward, and they had some interesting input on it. One of the newer players felt that it helped him think of more interesting actions he could take. Others mentioned how calling for initiative changes the way they view the game. Actions feel limited to “move, attack, use power” and for some reason, it’s harder to get into more out-of-the-box thinking once initiative is called, at least for my players.

On the other hand, one mentioned that it creates a sort of “edge of your seat” vibe, so I may need to work on some alternative cognitive cues to spark that kind of excitement once violent stuff starts happening.

This is not to say that other groups wouldn’t be able to get creative with combat if it’s set apart with an initiative roll, but it seems to be a mental barrier for members of my group specifically. I suspect it might affect other groups as well, however, and I’d like to experiment with it more.

Adaptation to Other Games

Now, there are actually very few (if any) actual rules barriers to this in the game I’m developing (seeing as how I’ve written it from scratch myself). However, other groups playing more established/crunchy rulesets might find this unfair to player characters who can do stuff with initiative. The solution, I think, is to make initiative its own type of check or saving throw.

If a character has a bonus to initiative, they’d get that bonus on any attempt to act before an opponent does. For instance, a 5E character with the Alert feat would get +5 on this speed-based stuff.

Example: A dire wolf is rushing a vulnerable party member who’s near death. A character with Alert wants to intervene and strike it down before the creature’s attack lands on their friend. The DM calls for a Dexterity roll, and the player adds +5 more from their feat, increasing their chances of stopping their opponent in time.

Advantage on initiative would work the same way. Note also that this may require you to come up with DCs on the spot, but there are simple fixes to that (such as ICRPG’s room difficulty mechanic).

This could actually expand on the utility of initiative – any instance where a player wants to outspeed another character at doing something, call for an initiative roll from that player. Think of it like those western movies where a bad guy is about to do something nasty and the hero has to draw their gun fast enough to stop them.

Speaking of which, this would be a great way to handle pistol duels in a western setting!

Anyway, the point is you don’t have to treat initiative bonuses as useless with this style of play – you just have to repurpose them.

Minigame Combat Vs. Freeflow Combat

Of course, I’m sure there are advantages to using initiative as normal and treating combat as its own minigame. For instance, I’ve been using side-based initiative where it’s rolled each round, creating the possibility that one side might act twice in a row. It adds tension that makes combat more thrilling in its own way.

However, it seems to be (at least for my group) that the minigame format kind of impedes lateral/practical thinking. Could be it makes combat feel more regimented, and so players feel less free to do as they please. As such, I’m probably going to do this more since it seems to foster more creativity.

Should be a good time.

Thoughts? Questions? Aspersions? Let me know in the comments! Also, feel free to share this around with your friends, enemies, grandparents (late or living), etc. All proceeds go toward running shoes for helping dashing heroes outpace goblin soldiers on rugged mountainsides. Really.