What a good idea! I’ve never been wild about initiative cards, but I’ve never seen anyone use them that way, either. I like it.

Heh, funny Frank should mention Champions. I ran a Fantasy Hero campaign in the 1st/2nd ed. Forgotten Realms and used an alternate Hero rule for “initiative” to get some of that D&D feel. Roll your SPD (Speed) or less on a d12, you get to go this round. Miss, add 1 to your try next time. When multiple people get to go, use Dex order as standard Hero rules.

This is *very* exciting, especially when someone is dying. You’ve never seen so much excitement from not getting to act. It’s the germ of an idea that I’ve been exploring in a homebrew system.

What was left:
An Assasin that have tried to kill the party 3 times and failed (but escaped), so he was largely fleshed out already.

A Evil Wizardress that nearly slaughtered the party about halfway through. I basically recycled her because while the party took her on “Many Vs One” before, they had advanced enough where she was far less dominating now. (Unrelated: This battle led to one of the most enjoyable side-quests ever when one player failed to save and was banished to Acheron).

The Main Guy. Of course he was crafted for this very purpose.

The surprise guest: The Main Guys “Paladin” (Blackguard).

So, the short form was: I had to tweak two npcs that were already crafted, and create two. The guards were just stock monsters with a new paint job (some undead that I cant recall right now). My point is that it might be possible to build up your NPCs before the showdown (and if properly used, the Players will hate them all the more at that time )

Thanks for reading!

Player characters can be more complex because that is all the logistical overhead a player is going to be dealing with, while a GM might be juggling dozens or more of such characters. (assuming the classic GM/player roles, etc.). For a reasonable comparison, look at Tunnels & Trolls, in which the players have full-on character stats, while the GM need only concern with raw Monster Ratings, and establishing some Saving Rolls for special abilities.

If we’re talking raw tactics, between me and the players (without me loading the environment in my favor), the players always come out ahead. And it’s not because I’m a bad tactician- it’s because they have several sessions to experiment and master the abilities of their characters as individuals, and as a gestalt, as a group. For me, I come up with generally a new 2 or 3 encounters every week- I don’t get time to master the abilities of each beastie, or how they work together.

In this regard, functionally simpler NPCs work better- it’s easier to put them together AND easier to apply their abilities to play. The thing is- these aren’t “handwaved” NPCs, there’s rules there, and as the GM, I have to figure out how to maximize what’s there for the best challenge for the players. It’s just that I don’t have to go through the full Chargen process for what is arguably going to be a “throw-away” character at some point.

Chris

My normal method are laminated “initative cards” that I just go from top to bottom and then recyle for the next round. I felt obligated to use the whiteboard because it was there.

I was always frustrated by games where the PCs and the NPCs used very different rules.

I particularly would find it boring to GM a game where the NPCs were very robotic. One of the biggest parts of D&D I enjoy is the tactical aspect. Take that away from me, and I’m not really interested in the game. Of course I also enjoy the advancement process (both of these are also part of why I always end up having an NPC on the PCs side).

Frank

(As an aside: Chris, are you interested in writing a post or two for the Blogging for GMs project?)

For example, their Dread Sorcerer doesn’t have a spell list, or even use the same magic system as the PC- instead magical spells are simplified into abilities available for constant use such as the ability to shoot energy bolts, or raise the dead.

For the most part, we can look at older editions of D&D and see how many of the monsters special abilties functioned in exactly the same way. A lot easier than trying to track each skill point and spell.

Frank

Most of the time you can just go around the table and resolve actions.

I guess one could ditch the initiative roll, and just go round the table in D&D. AOO and such would still work. You’d have to get rid of the flat footed idea and have it that you’re only flat footed if surprised. This will somewhat weaken Rogues. It woulds somewhat weaken monsters that have improved initiative and people with high Dex.

Frank

My fix has been a laminated grid numbered 1-30, oriented vetically so that there’s plenty of space under each number. I write down everyone’s results under their numbers, and in the case of ties the higher Dex character goes above the lower Dex character. It works wuite nicely.

Don (Abulia) usually writes everyone’s results on the whiteboard in his gaming room, so it’s 100% clear who is on deck, etc.