Initiative Tracker for Tabletop game

[Steve of the Red Fez]

Hey, folks. Here is another tool I made for use at a tabletop game of WFRP3E. It's elaborate looking because I use it at my public demo games. A little bit of production value never hurts.

The way the tracker  is used is pretty simple. the left half of the printout is the actual Initiative tracker. The right side are the color coded placeholders to be put on the tracker (green is good for the players, red is bad, grey is neutral). They are as follows:

Hero: I've given you six of these. This should cover most gaming groups.

Foe #1 to #9: These are meant to be the enemies in the combat. These can represent groups of henchmen or individuals. It is up to the GM to be clear about which is which.

Leader: If there is a major foe in the fight, this can represent him. It'll make it easier for everyone to have the leader clearly labelled.

Hazard: This one is totally optional. If there is a hazard that has a place in initiative then use this. This can be anything from poison gas (good thing those poison wind globadiers don't have any action cards, huh?) to a raging fire. 

Event: Like the Hazard shown above, this is for an initiative-related event, such as when a trap door will open/close.

Ally #1 and #2: If there are allies in the fight, use these.

These can all be cut out along the faint lines shown.

How do I use these? I printed it onto an 8"x11" magnetic sheet (you can get them cheaply at almost any office store; here is one that I found on Amazon for $9.98). I then cut it apart. I mounted the actual tracker on a stiff background that can be stood up, (I used foam core). I also sprayed it with sealing spray to make sure the printout doesn't get messed up or scratched (otherwise it probably will). 

During play I use the rest of the counters on the tracker by simply sticking them into their place. This also makes it very easy to change someones place in the initiative order due to a delay.

Let me know what you think and what changes you'd like to see! When we've got a good final candidate I can let Phillipe post it to his PHP board.

--Steve--

[Steve of the Red Fez]

Crazy thought... why don't I post the actual file? CRAZY, RIGHT?!?

[Steve of the Red Fez]

By the way, I thought I'd mention that I handle initiative a little differently from the core game. My method has no effect upon the tracker. I just thought it'd be interesting to discuss.

I disliked the extremely low variance of initiative scores in the RaW. Generally speaking, almost every combatant will roll between three to four dice for initiative resulting in an average initiative score of two or three for almost everyone. My solution was simply to add an extra bit as follows:

Initiative is determined by having each combatant (or group of combatants) make a roll using a number of dice equal to their agility scores plus an extra die for every player at the table.Each hammer is added to determine the combatants place in the initiative order. 

This slight change increase the variance of results by a considerable amount. Any thoughts?

[Philippe Boujon]

That's fine, it just create a greater spread. Obviously then, you cannot use the boons or banes to provide advantages or disadvantages to a character, or are you? In SW EotE boons also count toward initiative, creating a greater spread.

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[David Russell II]

I was reading on the forums where alot of people do initiative with. Agility+ hits rolled. It gives advantage to people with higher agility, but spreads out the initiative more. So if you have agility of 3 and rolled 2 hits your initiative would be 5. 

Also i read another custom rule I like is that when initiative is being chosen after the roll, a character cannot occupy an initiative slot that is higher than his agility.  This prevents  the slow character from all of a sudden being faster just because his high agile friend made the high roll for him.  So if slow guy has 2 agility he is forced to go on either 0,1, or 2 but cannot go on any higher initiative unless he delays for the first round. I kinda get where the guy is coming from, it is kinda unrealistic for it to be assumed that a faster character call all of a sudden allow a slower character to act faster than their means. 

Dave R--

Sent from my iPad mini

[Steve of the Red Fez]

Dave, I can see that working very well actually. The only concern I can see people having is that those characters with slightly higher agility would be almost assured they'd go first (bigger flat bonus plus more dice), but that isn't a BAD thing! Heck, if the player is all about being fast and agile then he or she SHOULD be able to do it. That's might be what makes the game fun for them.

Philippe, at first I used the boons as part of the initiative total but then I decided to just count hammers only. Mainly, it was because I didn't need the extra variance so much and it also allowed me to use boons as tie breakers when playing with groups in which the players insisted on having THEIR OWN initiative slot (i.e. not having a generic "hero" initiative). This was rare, but it did happen a couple of times when I ran games for the kids in the high school I worked at (during big encounters with major bad guys).

Your idea is VERY interesting though. I can easily see (as a GM) offering any character who achieves X boons to gain some special advantage (you're hidden in the shadows at the start of the fight, you draw your weapon/nock an arrow the second the enemy appears, you get one free movement maneuver, etc). In fact, it would've been a great addition to the core rules as talent cards. I'd be very interested to hear what ideas people can come up with for initiative boons!

Here are the ones I just came up with...

• You're hidden in the shadows at the start of the fight and cannot be targeted until you take an aggressive action or move into the open
  
• The instant the enemy appears you've already drawn a weapon and/or nocked an arrow and are prepared to fire. This does not count as your maneuver.
  
• The moment danger appears you're already on the move! You may make one free movement maneuver before the battle begins.
  

[John Condon]

Here's a few more, I'd expect all of these to be 2 boons to activate..Maybe quick and deadly should be 3

• Eyes in the back of your head (if you can overcome the mutation stigma) : You are pretenaturally aware of your opponent. Choose one of Remove a recharge token from a currently recharging active defense or your first active defense in the current round gains an additional misfortune die.
• Shit-head (you know like the dog from the Steve Martin film the Jerk, alternatively use the title "Old Yeller") : You sense the danger coming in time to warn you're allies. One ally in the same engagement as you may increase their initiative total by one.
• Quick AND deadly : You're blows land with such speed that your opponent literally does not see them coming. Reduce the Critical rating of the weapon used for your next attack by one.
• The eye is quicker than the sword : You are able to quickly evaluate the situation. One of your allies in the same engagement can benefit from your swift evaluation by adding a fortune die to their next action. (essentially a free assist maneuver)

[Philippe Boujon]

So would those be talents, so you would need to spend an advance to buy them?

I just allow boons and banes to be used on initiative like anywhere else for whatever fun effects a player wants. I thought it was in the rule already. All the ideas you guys listed, in my opinion, could be used on a couple boons on initiative. It is often not because at that moment players are still focused on "oh my god what's going to happen, let me review what I have and how I am going to fight that" and don't tend to think about what the roll for initiative check really meant, and certainly rarely actually interpret it.

Actually, overall, we rarely take the time to interpret a roll... it's too bad because it is how the system is supposed to be.

--

[John Condon]

I was looking at them more as pre-thought up uses for your boons on initiative.

Added flavour over added talents/cards.

The effect would need to be a bit better for it to warrant a talent..

Something like 

Talent - Better Quick than Dead : Whenever you take an initiative action that is positioned higher in the track than your opponent you may execute a free maneuver.

Talent - The Flashing Blade : Your combat technique relies on speed above all else. Melee attacks gain 2 boons:Add 1 to your initiative track position.

[Steve of the Red Fez]

I think using them as talents is a great idea and I'd make a universal rule of 2 or 3 boons equals +1 to your initiative total.

By the way, I don't have my book near me right now so tell me... do foes get tracked as general initiative slots the same as characters? In other words, if one foe generates an initiative slot of 4 then does that mean that any foe use that slot?

example... there are four groups of goblins and a black orc (the leader) in this fight. The goblin groups get an initiative of 2,2,2,and 3 respectively. The black orc gets a 1. Can the black orc take his turn at initiative 3, leaving one of the goblins to go at initiative 1 instead?

[Josiah Leis]

Yes, the Black Orc can go first.