Play By Post Combat Initiative

[Joey Virtue]

I was discussing with a few people about starting a PBP game and they said that init should be done were each side gets to roll an initiative and then play from there. I would be running Mutants and Masterminds so I would be dealing with speedsters and things with very high init modifiers, so this seems flawed. How is the best way to do PBP Initiative?

[Swordwhale]

It depends. as everything else, really :-)
...
It depend on your group's posting rate.
--> If you are very fast (like 3+ posts per day per person) you go with the raw way.
--> For anything slower, I'd recommend to split the group and enemies into two blocks each: the fast-ones, the slow-ones

Imagine the following rolls: (PCs first)
- Speedster#1: 8+14=22
- CC-Mage: 12+12=24
- Cleric: 6+2=8
- Babarian: 10+3=13
- BBEG: 17+10=27
- BBEG-right-hand: 12+7=19
- Evil-Minions-Group #1 (four undead goblins): 4+1=5
- Evil-Minions-Group #2 (three mind-controlled Orks): 7-1:6

Grouping them into blocks:
Fast-PC: Speedster & CC-Mage
Fast-NPC: BBEG & BBEG-right-hand
Slow-PC: Cleric & Babarian
Slow-NPC: Evil Minions #1#2

Now in which order you let the groups act depends on your preference.
You could build the average score of each group and let them act according to that number.
Or use the highest init modifier of each group for ordering.
Go player blocks first if you are generous.
Or players blocks last if you want to kill them.

Either way, grouping helps to keep waiting in check (at any time, a couple of people can act, not only one guy) and still allows high-init chars to out-wit the ork-fighter with his -1

[Andostre]

What I've found works well is if the GM rolls all initiative rolls, and then creates blocks broken by when the enemy or enemies go, and then a player can go at any time within that block.

For example:

Initiative for PC 1: 1d20 ⇒ 13
Initiative for PC 2: 1d20 ⇒ 16
Initiative for PC 3: 1d20 ⇒ 12
Initiative for PC 4: 1d20 ⇒ 10
Initiative for PC 5: 1d20 ⇒ 12
Initiative for goblins: 1d20 ⇒ 12 <--one roll for the whole group
Initiative for hobgoblin commander: 1d20 ⇒ 3

So, PCs 1, 2, 3, and 5 would go in any order they want; probably in whatever order they post to your gameplay thread. Then the goblins would go, then PC4, and finally the hobgoblin commander. Honestly, most GMs I've seen who do this wouldn't even split the goblins and hobgoblins out into separate rolls. If there was a PC who went last in the initiative order, they'd effectively be rolled over into the first block once the second round starts.

With speedster superhero characters, the PCs would naturally almost always be in the same blocks, depending on what initiative the antagonist rolls.

[djdust]

Andostre wrote:

What I've found works well is if the GM rolls all initiative rolls, and then creates blocks broken by when the enemy or enemies go, and then a player can go at any time within that block.

For example:

[dice=Initiative for PC 1]1d20
[dice=Initiative for PC 2]1d20
[dice=Initiative for PC 3]1d20
[dice=Initiative for PC 4]1d20
[dice=Initiative for PC 5]1d20
[dice=Initiative for goblins]1d20 <--one roll for the whole group
[dice=Initiative for hobgoblin commander]1d20

So, PCs 1, 2, 3, and 5 would go in any order they want; probably in whatever order they post to your gameplay thread. Then the goblins would go, then PC4, and finally the hobgoblin commander. Honestly, most GMs I've seen who do this wouldn't even split the goblins and hobgoblins out into separate rolls. If there was a PC who went last in the initiative order, they'd effectively be rolled over into the first block once the second round starts.

With speedster superhero characters, the PCs would naturally almost always be in the same blocks, depending on what initiative the antagonist rolls.

This is what I do, with the addition of: when its the baddies' turn to go, I resolve all PC actions in order of initiative. At the end of each GM post, I'll post initiative order with PCs who can go highlighted in bold. Also a good means of tracking dmg, spells, and conditions as well.