Draw for Initiative

We've started the new game. Things so far have worked out pretty well. I expect to write up a double session repot for the first two sessions after the next session is over. Planning on trying to get another game in next weekend.

Things, generally, are going well. Like usual, I have a few new players who are new to the D&D.

On and off, for years I have been trying to find a good way to run initiative in my game. I want rolling initiative to be fun and gameable. In 2e and 3x rolling for initiative can be pretty fucking exciting. But since I've transitioned, happily, back to older style/OSR play, I've just found the initiative sequence to be kind of deflated and boring... roll a d6... and that's it. And I can see this kind of apathetic acceptance of un-fun initiative results on my players' faces.

I want the initiative process to be fun.

I've often considered hacking the 2e system into by BX/LoTFP mashup. But it poses some problems. First, it's pretty crunchy, even for me and I'm the one "making" the rules. Second, it would be difficult for new players to even follow and almost impenetrable to really understand as a gaming system.

So I'm going to try something totally new and different. This playing card initiative system will replace the regular d6 with a quick little mini game. It also gives me a chance to drag out these cool new zombie cards I've been waiting for a reason to use.

I am sure that this will ignite the initiative process in my games... making it exciting.