CO M B AT F U N DA M E N TA L S
As a further improvement, use magnets that you can attach to the white board with characters’ and monsters’ names written on them. Moving these elements around is even easier than erasing and rewriting. A visible list lets everyone see the order of play as you go. Players know when their turns are coming up, and they can start planning their actions in advance. On the down side, a visible list involves erasing and rewriting, which can slow down the action in complicated battles. A variation on the visible list is having one of the players keep track of initiative, either on a white board or on a piece of paper the other players can see. This method reduces your mental processing load, freeing you up to think about the rest of what’s going on at the table. On the other hand, it can be hard for you to remember when the monsters’ turns are coming up! List Behind the Screen: You can also keep track of initiative on a list the players can’t see: either your own private white board or a piece of scratch paper. Some argue that this combines the worst features of the other two methods: Players have no visibility into the order, and it involves erasing and rewriting. However, some DMs feel that it keeps control of the battle where it belongs—solidly in the DM’s hands.
W I L L I A M O ’ CO N N O R
the combat card to the player and give him or her the responsibility of telling you when he or she is jumping back into the action. The players don’t have much knowledge of the order of play when you use combat cards. They don’t know where the monsters fall into the order until they act, which some DMs enjoy. On the other hand, they often forget when their turn is coming up. It can be helpful, when you call out the name of the character whose turn it is, to also mention who’s next so that player can start thinking ahead. Example combat cards, one for PCs and one for monsters, can be found on page 220. Visible List: You can use a white board to track initiative. As the players tell you their initiative check results, write them on the white board in order (highest results on top), leaving room between each name. You can either write the monster results on the list at the same time or add them to the list on each monster’s first turn. When a character readies an action, make a mark next to that character’s name in the order. When the character takes the readied action, erase the character from his or her old position on the list and add him or her back in at the new position. If a character delays, you can do the same thing, or you can erase the character from the list and let the player tell you when he or she is jumping back in.
CH A P T ER 3 | Combat Encounters
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