I is NOT for Initiative

   I have already chosen another thing for "I" but I want to talk about initiative so I will. There are a number of ways to do it such as a simple 1d6 team for OD&D or as complex as 3.5's everyone rolls 1d20 and gets their dexterity bonus to it. When I started learning about D&D I loved the very complex way that 3.5 did it because I felt it was more "realistic".

   I have been thinking about it and recently have changed my mind. The 1d6 for the whole team seems better now. I would do a single thing different from the generic way of 1d6 highest goes first. I would rule lowest goes first because then its first to last instead of a countdown. Honestly though it is because so many things are roll high that messing with it every once in a while is fun.

   My reasons for this is twofold. First doing it this way makes for quite a bit less work on my shoulders. Secondly it brings the players together. They rise or fall together. With one roll they all have their fate resting on a single person rolling a single die. It is simple, straight forward, and brutally direct. They have to decide who rolls it and then they would all gather around that one person.

   A simple 1d6 roll to a team also lets people get to the combat faster. Nothing against elegant and complex systems but this is the step that is generally most boring in combat and too complex a system means that any fight with more then a few combatants will find this step being dragged out to much. I don't know about you but the exciting part about a fight is The Fight. If the Superbowl can decide who goes first with a coin toss then 1d6 is just fine by me.