Apocalypse Initiative for D&D

So D&D initiative is rather boring turn based. Over the years D&D has used a variety of methods to manage it. But some of the games that I have been playing (Masks, Dungeon World, The Warren, Night Witches) use a different kind of initiative system. They all get the idea from the original Apocalypse World. The idea situation runs roughly like this:

1. As the story progresses, pick a character and put them in a situation and ask ‘What do you do?’
2. The character narrates an action which resolves the situation of escalates the issue
3. Based upon the narrative, select another character & put them in a situation…

So here is how I have been attempting to use Apocalypse Initiative in my current D&D game.  It worked very well for the adventure ‘Midnight on Blood lake’ which had the characters hunting/being hunted by a high level warlock. Think the characters trying to hunt the Alien in the original Alien movie. It went something like this:

• GM: Eion- You head the sound of movement to the left in the area with the large rock. (Its actually a minor illusion to distract the party) What do you do?
• Eion: I callout to the party that there is evil over there by the big rock and charge around the left of the rock
• GM: OK (looking around) Khatak, you hear the call, what do you want to do?
• Khatak: Drawing my sword I charge around the rock from the right
• GM: Right, so Etelion what are you doing?
• Etelion: I hang back and wait and see what happens?
• GM: Eion and Khatak you advance around the rock and find another there (Rolling dice) Etelion, you are hit in the back for 7 points of damage, by some kind of spell. What do you want to do?
• Etelion: Thats half my HP! I fall down on the floor and mumble an invisibility spell
• GM: sounds good, meanwhile (Rolling dice) Mordelinal you are also hit in the back at almost the same time for 3 points of damage. What do you want to do?
• Mordelinal: I spin around and charge whatever attacked me.
• GM: great, roll perception, (seeing the roll fail) you spin around and fail to see anything, there are a bunch of boulders around you but you have no idea where the attack came from. Meanwhile Etelion and Khatak you have reached each other when you hear the bolt of energy and a cry of pain from the others, what do you do?

Generally this worked quite well, everyone was trying different things, and it worked fine when the party split off trying different methods to hunt the warlock. I didn’t always require characters to make rolls when they acted and I still have problems with thinking about ways to increase the drama rather than say ‘nothing happens’ or ‘you miss’.

When the party was in a more normal battle I found that I was able to modify the method by instead of jumping from player to player I would work sequentially around the table, putting each player in a situation and asking them what they do? In essence breaking down the battle into a set of single character battles. It's important that in a strict combat, each player gets a turn. I went a little like this:

• GM: As the party go down the slope into the archeological dig the gnome suddenly shouts something out. Etelion, you hear a sound behind you and realise a pair of dogs are running towards you at top speed. What do you do?
• Etelion: Burning hands on the dogs as they approach me (dice are rolled, the dogs are injured but not killed)
• GM: (rolling) the dogs attack doing 5 damage, meanwhile Eion the workers near you heft their pickaxes and attack you, what are you doing?
• Eion: I hit them with my greataxe (rolling) 15 damage
• GM: Ouch! That cleaves one of the men in two, the other one (rolls) slices into your leg, 6 damage.
• Meanwhile, Mordelinal being in the middle of the party you are currently unengaged, in front of you Eion is fighting some of the workers, Khatak is going to be engaged in a second or two, meanwhile behind you Etelion is being mauled by dogs. Who are you going to help?
• Mordelinal: I unsling my bow and take aim at the gnome...

And as such the battle progressed, Etelion overcame the dogs and was then unengaged, so they had flexibility on their actions. Meanwhile the frontliners (Eion and Khatak) continued to carve through the workers, while Mordelinal got into a sniper battle with the gnome.

Right now the idea is not complete, and I’m still testing how it feels with my current group. Have a try and let me know what you think of the idea.

Enjoy you game:

Mark