I Is for Initiative
Today’s post has two topics. Huzzah.
Initiative
The Boogie Knights of the Round Table (BKotRT) uses a standard deck of 52 playing cards to determine initiative, or who gets to act first in any given situation where it’s important to know who acts first and it isn’t otherwise obvious. The system is simple. Deal one card face up to every player and one card to every important foe or group of foes. Cards from highest to lowest run ace, king, queen, et cetera, down to two. In the case of ties, the suits from highest to lowest are clubs (duh), diamonds, spades, and then hearts. So, for example, the king of clubs beats a king of any other suit.
The player with the highest card gets to act first in the round. If the highest card belongs to a foe (or group of foes), the GM gets to act first. Actions are described and resolved as normal. The card belonging to the hero, foe, or group of foes that just acted is then turned face down to show that actions have been completed. The person who just acted, player or GM, then chooses who goes next. This choice can be tactical, whimsical, whatever seems best for the story, et cetera. This process continues until everyone involved in the conflict has acted, at which time the cards are collected into a discard pile and new cards are handed out.
Hero Points
As I mentioned yesterday, yesterday’s post was supposed to be about hero points. Since that ended up a bust, here’s the hero point information. I’m less committed to these rules at the moment, so consider these an even rougher draft than the other posts. In particular, I’m still dithering over how many hero points a her gets and how new hero points are earned.
As for the hero points themselves, I picture them being used for these effects:
1. One hero point adds one die to the hero’s dice pool. The added die has the same rating as the highest die currently in the pool. So, a player rolling 1d8+1d6 could spend a hero point to roll 2d8+1d6.
2. One hero point restores one category of hit points. The number of hit points restored equals one-half the ability score’s maximum value. Thus, a hero with Kung-Fu d6 would recover 3 Kung-Fu hit points.
I have some ideas for other possible effects, but I’ve not made the time to sit down and work out the details, consider the implications, et cetera.
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