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Initiative

I am starting a new 5e campaign and I am planning to use randomised initiative.

I feel recording initiative take too long, for both my players and me. I tried grouping monsters and pre-rolling initiative, but even with a magnetic board I am not happy with the results. In addition, they tend to get into discussions about "I do X because the boss can't act until you are done", which I feel is a mechanical distraction to immersion.

I am planning to use shufflebag randomisation as initiative system:

• Each player gets a go stone with his or her name on it.
• I have go stones for monsters, numbered 1-9

At the beginning of each round, I will put all the stones in a bag. While there are stones in the bag, I will pull out the next one, and the selected player or monster then acts its turn.

This hope this will allow for a simple randomised initiative system without much overhead at the table.

Balance

I will not use the system if I find it changes 5e balance too much, or if it is specifically unfair to certain players/classes.

Known effects:

• Dexterity as a stat is slightly nerfed
• The 'Alert' feat is nerfed
• It is not guaranteed that a monster acts between two turns of a player

I am a bit worried about the third effect, but I am not sure how strongly this will effect gameplay and balance. And since it's randomised (no fudging by me), I think that positive and negative effects affect both monsters and players in a fair matter.

So my questions are:

• What (positive and negative) mechanical side effects do I have to take into consideration?
• How do these interact with balance between classes?
• In what ways does it benefit or disadvantage certain spells, class features or monster powers?

A good answer will explain the most severe changes to stock 5e balance and might potentially discuss how they could be mitigated. I am not looking for a discussion of how to use non-randomised initiative in a less time-consuming way.

Initiative

I am starting a new 5e campaign and I am planning to use randomised initiative.

I feel recording initiative take too long, for both my players and me. I tried grouping monsters and pre-rolling initiative, but even with a magnetic board I am not happy with the results. In addition, they tend to get into discussions about "I do X because the boss can't act until you are done", which I feel is a mechanical distraction to immersion.

I am planning to use shufflebag randomisation as initiative system:

• Each player gets a go stone with his or her name on it.
• I have go stones for monsters, numbered 1-9

At the beginning of each round, I will put all the stones in a bag. While there are stones in the bag, I will pull out the next one, and the selected player or monster then acts its turn.

This hope this will allow for a simple randomised initiative system without much overhead at the table.

Balance

I will not use the system if I find it changes 5e balance too much, or if it is specifically unfair to certain players/classes. I am mainly interested in a mechanical, theoretical, math/statistics/rules-based approach rather than personal experience at a gametable.

Known effects:

• Dexterity as a stat is slightly nerfed
• The 'Alert' feat is nerfed
• It is not guaranteed that a monster acts between two turns of a player

I am a bit worried about the third effect, but I am not sure how strongly this will effect gameplay and balance. And since it's randomised (no fudging by me), I think that positive and negative effects affect both monsters and players in a fair matter.

So my questions are:

• What (positive and negative) mechanical side effects do I have to take into consideration?
• How do these interact with balance between classes?
• In what ways does it benefit or disadvantage certain spells, class features or monster powers?

A good answer is based on math, statistics and rules text, will explain the most severe changes to stock 5e balance and might potentially discuss how they could be mitigated. I am not looking for a discussion of how to use non-randomised initiative in a less time-consuming way.

Initiative

I am starting a new 5e campaign and I am planning to use the following initiative system:

• Each player gets a go stone with his or her name on it.
• I have go stones for monsters, numbered 1-9

At the beginning of each round, I will put all the stones in a bag. While there are stones in the bag, I will pull out the next one, and the selected player or monster then acts its turn.

This hope this will allow for a simple randomised initiative system without much overhead at the table.

The main reasons for why I want a randomised system are I feel recording initiative take too long, for both my players and me. I tried grouping monsters and pre-rolling initiative, but even with a magnetic board I am not happy with the results. In addition, the tend to get into discussions about "I do this because the boss can't act until you are done", which I feel is a mechanical distraction to immersion.

Balance

I will not use the system if I find it changes 5e balance too much, or if it is specifically unfair to certain players/classes.

Known effects:

• Dexterity as a stat is slightly nerfed
• The 'Alert' feat is nerfed
• It is not guaranteed that a monster acts between two turns of a player

I am a bit worried about the third effect, but I am not sure how strongly this will effect gameplay and balance. And since it's randomised (no fudging by me), I think that positive and negative effects affect both monsters and players in a fair matter.

So my questions are:

• What (positive and negative) mechanical side effects do I have to take into consideration?
• How do these interact with balance between classes?
• In what ways does it benefit or disadvantage certain spells, class features or monster powers?

A good answer will explain the most severe changes to stock 5e balance and might potentially discuss how they could be mitigated.

Initiative

I am starting a new 5e campaign and I am planning to use randomised initiative.

I feel recording initiative take too long, for both my players and me. I tried grouping monsters and pre-rolling initiative, but even with a magnetic board I am not happy with the results. In addition, they tend to get into discussions about "I do X because the boss can't act until you are done", which I feel is a mechanical distraction to immersion.

I am planning to use shufflebag randomisation as initiative system:

• Each player gets a go stone with his or her name on it.
• I have go stones for monsters, numbered 1-9

At the beginning of each round, I will put all the stones in a bag. While there are stones in the bag, I will pull out the next one, and the selected player or monster then acts its turn.

This hope this will allow for a simple randomised initiative system without much overhead at the table.

Balance

I will not use the system if I find it changes 5e balance too much, or if it is specifically unfair to certain players/classes.

Known effects:

• Dexterity as a stat is slightly nerfed
• The 'Alert' feat is nerfed
• It is not guaranteed that a monster acts between two turns of a player

I am a bit worried about the third effect, but I am not sure how strongly this will effect gameplay and balance. And since it's randomised (no fudging by me), I think that positive and negative effects affect both monsters and players in a fair matter.

So my questions are:

• What (positive and negative) mechanical side effects do I have to take into consideration?
• How do these interact with balance between classes?
• In what ways does it benefit or disadvantage certain spells, class features or monster powers?

A good answer will explain the most severe changes to stock 5e balance and might potentially discuss how they could be mitigated. I am not looking for a discussion of how to use non-randomised initiative in a less time-consuming way.

Initiative

I am starting a new 5e campaign and I am planning to use the following initiative system:

• Each player gets a go stone with his or her name on it.
• I have go stones for monsters, numbered 1-9

At the beginning of each round, I will put all the stones in a bag. While there are stones in the bag, I will pull out the next one, and the selected player or monster then acts its turn.

This hope this will allow for a simple randomised initiative system without much overhead at the table.

The main reasons for why I want a randomised system are I feel recording initiative take too long, for both my players and me. I tried grouping monsters and pre-rolling initiative, but even with a magnetic board I am not happy with the results. In addition, they tend to get into discussions about "I do this because the boss can't act until you are done", which I feel is a mechanical distraction to immersion.

Balance

I will not use the system if I find it changes 5e balance too much, or if it is specifically unfair to certain players/classes.

Known effects:

• Dexterity as a stat is slightly nerfed
• The 'Alert' feat is nerfed
• It is not guaranteed that a monster acts between two turns of a player

I am a bit worried about the third effect, but I am not sure how strongly this will effect gameplay and balance. And since it's randomised (no fudging by me), I think that positive and negative effects affect both monsters and players in a fair matter.

So my questions are:

• What (positive and negative) mechanical side effects do I have to take into consideration?
• How do these interact with balance between classes?
• In what ways does it benefit or disadvantage certain spells, class features or monster powers?

A good answer will explain the most severe changes to stock 5e balance and might potentially discuss how they could be mitigated.

Initiative

I am starting a new 5e campaign and I am planning to use the following initiative system:

• Each player gets a go stone with his or her name on it.
• I have go stones for monsters, numbered 1-9

At the beginning of each round, I will put all the stones in a bag. While there are stones in the bag, I will pull out the next one, and the selected player or monster then acts its turn.

This hope this will allow for a simple randomised initiative system without much overhead at the table.

The main reasons for why I want a randomised system are I feel recording initiative take too long, for both my players and me. I tried grouping monsters and pre-rolling initiative, but even with a magnetic board I am not happy with the results. In addition, the tend to get into discussions about "I do this because the boss can't act until you are done", which I feel is a mechanical distraction to immersion.

Balance

I will not use the system if I find it changes 5e balance too much, or if it is specifically unfair to certain players/classes.

Known effects:

• Dexterity as a stat is slightly nerfed
• The 'Alert' feat is nerfed
• It is not guaranteed that a monster acts between two turns of a player

I am a bit worried about the third effect, but I am not sure how strongly this will effect gameplay and balance. And since it's randomised (no fudging by me), I think that positive and negative effects affect both monsters and players in a fair matter.

So my questions are:

• What (positive and negative) mechanical side effects do I have to take into consideration?
• How do these interact with balance between classes?
• In what ways does it benefit or disadvantage certain spells, class features or monster powers?

A good answer will explain the most severe changes to stock 5e balance and might potentially discuss how they could be mitigated.