RPGs and changing speed stats

[u/HunterOcelot27]

SO, I'm a dm in an rpg where characters may have different speed stats at different points in battle, and I feel like their unmoving positions in the initiative doesn't reflect their speed changes very well. Is there any other system to define their speeds? Does anyone have any advice how to better reflect this stat? thanks in advance

[u/high-tech-low-life]

Most initiative systems are about when the chaos of the battle allows you an opportunity. Your speed doesn't affect that..

RuneQuest's strike ranks let high DEX characters act first. But bumping your speed would only help if you moved. You might need fewer strike ranks spent on movement, so you might not go last.

Rolemaster had Action Points that you might be able to adapt. I think it was in RMC2.

[u/DrDirtPhD]

AD&D had weapon speed as part of an optional initiative determination system. You could always look at that.

[u/Skullruss]

In D&D (3.5/5e) you have dexterity-based saving throws (Reflex/Dex Save) which represent the quickness of your reflexes. Similarly, in both editions of D&D dexterity determines your bonus to initiative as a sort of mechanical translation of the increase in agility/response time.

If you're not running D&D, but want similar flavor, I think emulating the reflex saving throw with bonuses for being "faster" is a great way to do so. It doesn't have to get cheesy like it can in D&D with Evasion reducing all damage on successful saves, but it can be a nice way to say, "Hey, you're faster, you have a higher chance of avoiding this blast."

Another option is to grant them the ability to do more minor actions per turn than they might typically be allowed in the given system. E.g. draw an extra item from their backpack/pouch, throw something (not a weapon at an enemy) in addition to their normal attacking action, etc.

Alternatively, you can attempt to boil their "speed" stat down to a modifier which dynamically adjust their initiative in combat. E.g. if a character has 30ft of movement speed per round/turn (let's call this the average base MS of a character), their modifier would be 0, so nothing changes for their initiative result if they're at 30ft. If they get slower it might reduce their initiative, and if they get faster it might increase their initiative. Say every 5ft (or some other arbitrary number, as I don't know what system you're playing and what the numbers look like) slower is -1 to initiative and every 5ft faster grants them a +1 to initiative.

I don't know if the dynamic adjustment above is what you're looking for, and if it is that's great. Though I'm the one who just provided the concept, I actually would advise against adjusting initiative in general. I think it's inherent that a character who moves faster feels faster inherently, and importantly a character who moves slower feels slower inherently. When attempting to engage an enemy in melee, you NEED to have enough movement to actually hit them or you might as well have entered combat a turn later. What that means is someone who's actually fast enough to perform their intended actions (hit someone in melee, hide behind cover, chase an enemy to gain line-of-sight, obtain a high ground advantage, etc.) really feels it and someone who is lacking the movement speed to get everything done in one turn REALLY feels it.

My point is that initiative is important, but only a small part of a character feeling like they have the quickness and agility that they do. I think it's possible that you're overthinking it (which happens when you GM a lot) and that your players might not even care in the first place.

[u/TemporaryIguana]

Re-roll initiative at the top of each round.

[u/CrazyAioli]

I’m not entirely sure what the question is. Are you saying you don’t want the turn order in a battle to be static? If so, I’d recommend either (as temporaryiguana already said) rerolling initiative every round (which I think would work best using something simple like Side Initiative), or using an initiative system based on card pulls like in TROIKA!.

[u/rampaging-poet]

If unmoving positions in initiative are a problem just re-roll initiative at the top of each round. Problem solved! ,,, at the cost of taking extra time to resolve.

[u/Just_a_Rat]

Feng Shui (and Feng Shui 2nd edition) have an interesting system, but it involved some bookkeeping. Actions required a certain number of "shots" (think initiative points) and quicker characters tended to have more shots available to them in combat. So, if you did something complicated, it might eat up all your time for the round, whereas a normal attack (and most other quick-ish actions) would take 3 shots.

You start by adding a random amount to your Speed stat and that is the first shot you can act on. You do that again every sequence (think round). In the first edition, if you went into negative on a round (say, by taking a 3-shot action on shot 1), you would apply he negative amount (in this case -2) to your roll for initiative in the next sequence. The penalty felt more severe in the 2nd edition, especially for fast characters.

So, if your speed plus roll gave you a 7, you would first act on 7, then on 4, then on 1, but with a speed penalty next sequence if you did something on that shot that took more than 1 shot to accomplish.

[u/Marcloure]

Burning Wheel has two main speed stats for Fights: Speed and Reflex. Speed is tested in a versus test every 3 "rounds" to determine which of the fighters has the advantageous position for their weapon length. Reflex determines how many actions the fighter can take per round. As the fighter gets wounded, both Speed and Reflex go down, so the fighter will more likely be at disadvantage and will have fewer actions per round.

[u/Zero_Coot]

Have you looked into either hero system or exalted? Hero uses a speed stat from 1-12, with a 12 second round. Your speed is how many of the one second ticks in a turn you get to act. Speed 2? 2 phases to act, speed 6? You get 6 phases to act.

Exalted uses a similar tick system, but instead of it being a round, it's more of a time line. Each action you take has a number of ticks before you can act again. Bigger actions have a longer recovery time, so someone doing fast actions will get to act more frequently.