The 5e rule I learned today

[Myrdin Potter]

I had not DMed for ages and ages before I came back just over a year ago and got my old
gaming group back together. We have been rolling initiative every round. With FG, I roll all initiatives as the DM and it takes 2 seconds.

Today I found out while DMing an AL game that it has been one initiative roll per combat for quite a while with roll each round a variant but not the main rule.

One place where FG makes it so easy to overcome the paperwork of a paper game that I would never had realized if I was not told.

My group prefers roll each round but at least I know the standard rule now.

[LordEntrails]

And I think one of the community devs has created an extension that automatically rolls init for everyone at the start of each round. You mihgt want to see if you can find it if you like that rule.

[damned]

Here is a small extension by ianmward to autoroll init after round 1.

[Myrdin Potter]

I just do it off the menu but will look at the extension as sometimes an effect gets triggered twice otherwise.

[vodokar]

I just do it off the menu but will look at the extension as sometimes an effect gets triggered twice otherwise.

The main issue with rolling initiative each round is that it makes it difficult for FG to track the length of effects. So, you'll have to account for that.

[El Condoro]

How do you handle spells like shield when you roll init each round? It would be possible for the mage to cast it when he is at the end of the round and then get a good init roll and go first the next, so he gets a greatly reduced (or even zero) benefit from the spell (it lasts until the start of your next turn).

[Myrdin Potter]

Or he goes first and then last and gets twice the benefit. Those things tend to balance out over time.

I would say he gets the benefit as written, a full turn for him.

[damned]

Sometimes the dice giveth with one hand and taketh with the other....

[Myrdin Potter]

Sometimes the dice giveth with one hand and taketh with the other....

Exactly

[Full Bleed]

I'm a huge fan of init rolled every round. Combat is messy with ebbs and flows and people acting "out of turn".

As for the 1 round/turn effects, players have the power in their hands. That is, if they are at the end of a round they might not want to risk winning init early the next round and shortening the length of the effect. Then again, it might not matter because getting two actions close together may be worth shortening an effect. It creates much more situational and chaotic combat.

The GM could also deploy an "event" token to a static position to indicate where spells and certain effects expire/increment at that position in the init.

[LordEntrails]

The GM could also deploy an "event" token to a static position to indicate where spells and certain effects expire/increment at that position in the init.

You can set spells like shield to expire at an initiative number, so if the wizard casts it at init 7 it will expire the next round on init 7. Or if he casts it on init 7 and his current init is 15, you can change it to 15 and then next round if he ends up at init 2, it still expires at init 15. All depends on how you want to handle it.

The way we currently use it (and because this was the default behavior or the effect we created and I've been too lazy to change it) is that shield lasts for one round from when cast, so it expires on the init cast. I should change that, but, like I said, I'm lazy. err, I mean I have other priorities!

[TMO]

I'm a huge fan of init rolled every round. Combat is messy with ebbs and flows and people acting "out of turn".

In principle I completely agree with you here. It invites a form of gaming the game which frustrates me as a DM. However, I have not decided whether playability can be retained by going in this direction. That is to say, I'm not (yet) worthy of rendering a thoughtful alternatively so I will concede to those with far more experience.

[Myrdin Potter]

FG makes it simple. In a physical game it means a lot more paperwork.

I emailed the group I DM and so far all of them like the initiative every round. I will experiment with one and done this week, but there is zero gaming of the system now because no one knows what their roll will be,