Building Bhakashal - INITIATIVE!!!!

I’m working a bit on the setting every day, so I spent some time today tidying up the initiative entry in Bhakashal. I thought I would share it here, as for some reason, initiative is still an issue today. I see threads on it regularly on Twitter, and there are a wild number of variants on how to carry it out. Many of these are ingenious and fun, but none really captured what I wanted.

I wanted a few things from my initiative, my "lucky 7":

1. Not too fiddly, most of the games I run are for 8-10 year old kids

2. Most of the work is on the players, not the ref

3. Individual, not group, to avoid “swingy” results for larger groups

4. Works with larger groups 

5. Tactical choices matter

6. Flexible enough to incorporate movement, changed actions and delayed actions

7. Hard to predict results, some “fog of war” element

I did a lot of research, and found that there were systems that met a few of these requirements, but not all of them. Then I found the 2e AD&D system, it had everything I wanted, and though it was a group system, it was easily ported into an individual system. But I had concerns.

In a game with magic, speed is SUPER IMPORTANT. A spell may take out the opponent in one round, or can impact a large group, so timing matters. My main concern with the 2e system was that weapons were so slow that casters would go first most of the time.  Say a MU was facing a fighter with a longsword, 10’ apart. MU casts lightning bolt, and on the 2e system, the MU goes first 72% of the time, this is exceptionally good as the magic user must stand completely still for 18 seconds to cast this spell, 10 feet away from the fighter!

If you switch to magic missile (casting time 1) they win 84% of the time, crazy. So that wasn’t going to work. For comparison, in 1e AD&D, the MU wins with lightning bolt against longsword 42% of the time. With a magic missile (CT 1) 47%, with web (CT2) 45%. The weapon speeds were far too high, weapons almost always lost versus spells on this system, which I didn’t want, and it gave larger weapons quite the disadvantage. Also, it used a base d10, which worked conceptually, but produced wild variance. 

I wanted SOME variability, not that much. So I played with the numbers, ran a bunch of simulations, and settled on two easy fixes, I roughly halved the listed weapon speeds, and reduced the initiative die to a d6. I ran it at the table and… perfection! 

7 years of playtesting and it just works.

Suddenly weapon speeds are important, so the weapon you choose to use matters, fighters who have the greatest variety and number of weapons benefit. Those who use faster weapons strike first more often, giving a small advantage to thieves who have lighter, smaller weapons

The system is simple, once in melee choose an action, roll a d6, add weapon speed or casting time to get your initiative score, your action culminates on the segment indicated by your initiative score. Simultaneous actions are possible. 

Missile fire is handled easily, if you are outside of melee range with a target then you get your ROF in shots against them per round until they reach melee range. Missile weapons have a weapon speed for in melee use or for opposing groups firing missiles or spells at each other

You can move around your initiative score segment, up to your per segment movement rate. Two caveats: if you move outside of melee range then you are exposed to an attack of opportunity, and if you are more than 10’ from your opponent when your action culminates you lose your melee attack against that opponent. You are also allowed to switch actions based on what happens earlier in the round, and you can delay your action to any time after your initiative score segment if desired. That’s it. Using this system has been a joy.

Process

Players all roll at the same time and add their numbers, some take more time to decide, and they tell me their initiative score. I record this on a tracking sheet. I then add the scores for the opposition, and they are recorded. 

“But that will take too long for the DM”. 

No. Generally with a group of players there will be  indecision, that gives me ample time to roll a bunch of d6’s. If you don’t like that, you can do one roll for the opposition, and let the players do individual, but I would recommend individual all around.

I go down the sheet from 1 to 10, if players want to move before their action, they tell me, otherwise the players roll their to hits and such when their segment comes up. Simultaneous attacks don’t require a roll to see who “goes first”, simultaneous is simultaneous

If I get to you and you want to hold action or change action you just say so. If the change is a big deal, e.g. sheathe your sword and take out your bow and an arrow, then I assign a 1 segment penalty to the switch, otherwise it is instantaneous. Since you can change your action, you can react to previous developments, and there is more room for tactical decisions. Because you can hold your action, you can coordinate with fellow PCs, and again, tactical options are expanded. The system is simple, my 8-10 year olds handle it with ease

It also makes magic-users/illusionists DANGEROUS, even at low levels, as they are VERY fast. Take that lightning bolt versus longsword example from above, on the Bhakashal system, the lightning bolt is cast (e.g. goes first or simultaneously) 58% of the time. 

That means that a low level magic-user with sleep can stare down a cadre of city guards (all 0-level, so 4-16 of them go down with sleep) and they will hesitate, magic-users are like wild west fighters on this system, sure, they have terrible HP and AC, but they are still dangerous. 

Clerics are NOT fast in combat with spells as their casting times are higher. I leaned into this for Bhakashal, clerics are free casters, they don’t pray for their spells ahead of time, but they take longer to cast, as they are praying for the spell from their god or god’s servant

Having a framework like this allows you to fine tune the deadliness of the game. Example: monsters and animals. Monsters and animals get a flat initiative modifier of 1 for S/M creatures, and 2 for large. So they are VERY fast, a longsword, by comparison, is weapon speed 3.

Also, the system handles multiple attacks in different ways for monsters than for PCs and NPCs. This was done to simulate monsters and animals as VERY DEADLY, they savage you when they attack, it’s supposed to be terrifying. Bhakashal makes it terrifying with initiative!

So PC’s and NPC’s with multiple attacks per round (e.g. bowfire, high level fighters and monks) attack first on their Initiative Score segment, second at the end of the round. For three attacks, first on their initiative score segment, then halfway to the end of the round, then the end, etc. 

However…

Monster and animal multiple attack routines (e.g. Claw, Claw, Bite) all culminate in the Initiative Score segment at the same time. So that big cat that attacks on segment 4 against your fighter, gets three attacks at once, if the first two hit, it gets an additional two raking attacks

So a maximum of 36 hp of damage delivered in one segment, with a 1 point initiative modifier for the big cat against the fighter. So there’s that. Monsters and animals fight DIFFERENTLY than PCs and NPCs other in Bhakashal, and they get some of their oomph back. 

I regularly run combat with a PC party of 6 -18 members (if you include henchmen, monster/animals etc.) and opposition groups of varying size, often including lots of “mooks”, e.g mercenaries, animals, low HD monsters, etc. The sequencing and the tracking sheet give you the framework for each round, then you just go through it. Yes, a big combat takes longer than a small one, so there is that.

But the system handles it all seamlessly, and you aren’t bogged down by corner cases and multiple modifiers to the rolls. The players have come to love having a baseline to work with, once the round is sequenced it all flows wonderfully. Weapon choices matter, tactical choices are possible, sequencing is clear and understandable.

And magic-users are badasses, which is exactly what I wanted. 

One of the goals of Bhakashal was to make magic-users (warlocks in the setting) badassess, make them the kinds of PCs/NPCs that would own a room, who would challenge opponents with confidence, magic-users who were like wild west desperados, quick draw killers who made their way by luck, skill and speed. This initiative system delivers that, and as it is individual initiative it keeps every round different, unpredictable and deadly.

Combat in Bhakashal has been epic over the last seven years of play, I can't wait to share it with you.