Initiative (who gets to go first in combat) is one of those things that is endlessly discussed in RPG circles. If you haven't read an excellent roundup of initiative systems, read this one and then this one, and then come back to me. I will wait. That's because I have the BEST initiative system for you to use.*
*choosing initiative systems is really a matter of personal taste, but bear with me, this system is GOOD, and different. I call it 'chaos speed sandwich initiative', or the chaos sandwich, for short. I have playtested it over 40+ DnD sessions, and I can say it is fast, fun, and dynamic.
Let's start by asking questions:
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Simple question 1: Why do we need initiative AT ALL?
Answer: Initiative's greatest usefulness is deciding who acts first, the enemies or the heroes. Beyond that, it can be useful in resolving which simultaneous actions occur first. If the heroes are all charging an opponent on a narrow bridge, who gets there first?
But once combat has started, I find limited value in re-rolling initiative in subsequent rounds, as it injects randomness and slows play, without providing significant strategic returns.
Twist: It's never good fun when a player surprises the kindly merchant by telling the GM, "I draw my dagger and stab him." and you say, wait roll for initiative and the fighter, who is like 60 feet away haggling with the sheep seller, gets to go first. Now, it has to be a clear case of surprise to skip initiative, but...
Resolution: If it's already obvious who shot first, you don't need initiative to start combat. In 1977, Han Solo shot Greedo and completely surprised him. Greedo would go second, but wait, he's dead. Moving on... Point is, you only need initiative in this case for everyone else. The initiating actor goes first, then everyone else (Greedo, the bar patrons, etc.).
Chaos Sandwich Rule #1a: Roll initiative AFTER resolving the first action of the combat. BUT if both sides (enemy and hero) were expecting violence to break out, then instead roll initiative to see if the enemies or heroes go first.
Chaos Sandwich Rule #1b: Roll initiative ONCE for the whole combat.
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Simple question 2: Why do we need formal turns at all?
Answer: Well, if we already know the enemy is going first or last...no, not really, we don't need turns. Reasonable people can be kind and quick and decide who gets to go first. No you go. Oh no, I insist, you go. Oh, the humanity. Everyone deserves a chance to speak and act in a combat round, and we should all respect that. But do we need formal turn orders to achieve that basic goal?
Twist #1: The argument in favor of taking formal turns is that they are fair and don't require discussion. It's also boring to wait for your turn, leads to stilted combat, and is SLOW. It's like doing all your six loads of laundry in one washer, when there are six laundromat washers in a row, all unused.
Twist #2: The argument against getting rid of turns is that groups can bicker on timing and endlessly debate the group tactical choices. Furthermore, even where parties quickly agree on what needs to be done and quickly act as a coordinated group, side initiative (where either all the enemies or all the heroes go, in two groups) is super-swingy. Either the monsters curb-stomp all the heroes before they act in round 1, or vice versa.
Resolution: Speed sandwiches fix the side initiative problem by breaking up player actions into BEFORE or AFTER the enemies. If you roll higher initiative than the enemies, you go in the BEFORE "pack"--and if not, you go in the AFTER "pack". Each pack can coordinate their own actions, and individuals can take formal turns within each pack if they want to, based on their initiative roll. This system is widely used, and rocks. At the very least, small packs resolve who goes first more quickly.
Chaos Sandwich Rule #2: All the enemies roll initiative together once, as one group. PCs that rolled higher than the enemies go first together, in any order, as a pack. Then the enemies act, then all the other players (that rolled lower) as a pack. In rare cases with multiple factions of enemies (fighting each other), each has their own initiative, and there may be more than two packs of players acting together.
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Simple question 3: Is this solution a speedy one?
Answer: Well, no. We haven't really sped up combat at all yet. We have just made determining who goes first clearer (Rule 1a), eliminated needless re-rolls (Rule 1b) and broken up player actions into subgroups (Rule 2), making it possible to ignore turns if we want to. But a formal group could still take formal turns in this speed sandwich framework, based on their initial initiative roll, and do six loads of laundry ONE. AT. A. TIME. Excuse me while I go doomscroll and wait for my turn for half an hour.
Twist: You want faster? What you are modeling? The chaos of combat. Actions are simultaneous. Information is limited by the fog and chaos of war. Discussion is limited, at best, and comes with risks of enemy action while you think. To hesitate is to go last.
Resolution: Ask all members of a pack to declare their actions at the same time, and to roll for success at the same time (for DnD-alikes, all players should roll attack and damage together, folks). Imagine a two-person pack, going before the enemy. The hero who declares first, attacks 'first', but the other hero can't wait to find out if that attack was successful. They need to decide what to do now, then their pack rolls as a group.. Most crucially, if they truly delay, the enemy acts, and the player slides to the AFTER pack for that round.
Chaos Sandwich Rule #3a: Everyone in a pack declares actions simultaneously and then rolls together to see the outcome simultaneously. Initiative order is only used to resolve the order of conflicting actions, like if several PCs rush onto a narrow bridge.
Wait. Does this system mean that two people may shoot the same weak monster, and kill it twice over? Yep--that's what happens in the chaos of combat, right? In general, I allow players to react to sudden deaths and switch targets if they are in melee, but not if they are at range--arrows and bullets and spells take time to fly across the battlefield.
Chaos Sandwich Rule #3b: Players in melee range may switch targets if they see it die before they attack.
Double wait. What do you do if a pack decides to discuss at length what to do? Well, an easy solution is to verbally press the players to play, but if they don't respond right away, I roll dice. Specifically 2d6. When a 1 comes up (or honestly, when I am sufficiently irritated by delay), the monster acts out of turn, immediately.
Chaos Sandwich Rule #3c: Characters that truly delay their action go last in a round. Packs that delay their actions with excessive discussion risk the GM rolling 2d6 to determine if the monster attacks out of turn, immediately.
Triple wait. How does the GM and players resolve what the hell happened, if each pack is moving and attacking simultaneously?
Chaos Sandwich Rule #3d: Once the players have resolved their rolls, the GM decides the order and manner of what happened. Just like you would do when all the monsters attack at once. If two players rush and attack a single monster, the first to hit is the player who first decided what to do.
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Now we have rules 3a-d, the chaos sandwich initiative system is FAST. It's easy to run. What's more, if a GM doesn't run it well, it defaults back to a speed sandwich with formal initiative turns--fair and clear.
And cherry on top? If you are in speed sandwich mode, it's easy enough to jump back into a chaos sandwich the following round--just say "No, remember your pack goes all at once, initiative only matters for ties and to make sure we don't forget anyone." You can tune the chaos up and down, scene by scene.
Chocolate sauce on that cherry? This system simultaneously rewards players who have built fast characters to win initiative as a tactic (via the speed sandwich) AND rewards players who decide quickly on their turn (they get to go/talk first in their pack, even if their action is simultaneous). This second reward is psychological, but it ain’t nothing.
And in this system, it's especially fun to interrupt a player who just declared their action and rolled and say, sorry, but the enemy attacks you a second time before you can act Giving challenging enemies another turn to act is especially visceral here, because it interrupts simultaneously resolved turns. Everyone else got to go, but I got hammered first before I could go?
See? Da BEST initiative system!** Da Best!*** For everyone!****
**yeah yeah, I know it's all to taste. But this one is fun. Give it a try! I run six players in a DnD 5e game with the chaos sandwich and we can do multiple combats in game sessions <2 hours long.
***and maybe the most important thing is to remember initiative rules should be flexible, and responsive to player perceptions of what is happening (the 'fiction'). They are not meant to punish players, just make games fun and fair. Even when rushing players into simultaneous actions and deciding which one lands first, it's fun to then pause and ask each player in turn to narrateu/ what happens.
**** On Reddit, u/Onslaughttitude was concerned that slow, shy, or quiet players would always be upstaged by fast players in this system. I clarified the ‘chocolate sauce’ paragraph as a result. I have new and quiet and slow players at my table and they like this system. They don’t feel pressured to hurry since the spotlight is off them while they think, instead of everyone staring at them to go if they win initiative. Since all is technically simultaneous, you may have to wait on them anyway before resolving the action, but less than before. Like in parallel processing, speed is limited by the slowest processor—as it should be, to be fair to everyone. The game can’t progress without everyone weighing in, and if I feel a player is being upstaged, I slip back into speed sandwich ordered initiative for a while, until they find an alternating group rhythm. Normally, I call on players in rapid fire to simultaneously decide on actions, and I make it a point to check the slower players first, then come back to them if they need more time. Rewarding the fastest players to speak is 100% optional—you should resolve actions in any order that makes sense.
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Image: jefferyw, CC-BY-.20
Here's all the Chaos Sandwich rules, gathered together:
Chaos Sandwich Rule #1a: Roll initiative AFTER resolving the first action of the combat. BUT if both sides (enemy and hero) were expecting violence to break out, then instead roll initiative to see if the enemies or heroes go first.
Chaos Sandwich Rule #1b: Roll initiative ONCE for the whole combat.
Chaos Sandwich Rule #2: All the enemies roll initiative together once, as one group. PCs that rolled higher than the enemies go first together, in any order, as a pack. Then the enemies act, then all the other players (that rolled lower) as a pack. In rare cases with multiple factions of enemies (fighting each other), each has their own initiative, and there may be more than two packs of players acting together.
Chaos Sandwich Rule #3a: Everyone in a pack declares actions simultaneously and then rolls together to see the outcome simultaneously. Initiative order is only used to resolve the order of conflicting actions, like if several PCs rush onto a narrow bridge.
Chaos Sandwich Rule #3b: Players making melee attacks may switch targets if they see it die before they attack (within reason).
Chaos Sandwich Rule #3c: Characters that truly delay their action go last in a round****. Packs that delay their actions with excessive discussion risk the GM rolling 2d6 to determine if the monster attacks out of turn, immediately.
Chaos Sandwich Rule #3d: Once the players have resolved their rolls, the GM decides the order and manner of what happened. Just like you would do when all the monsters attack at once. If two players rush and attack a single monster, the first to hit is the player who first decided what to do.
****You know what really delays an action? Getting knocked out. If a PC is hors de combat at any point, and then recovers, they act last in every round from that point onward. If a players goes to the bathroom mid-combat and doesn't leave instructions, same deal.
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