When I first started DMing I did one initiative roll for all of combat, but later realized it was boring, and initiative order made a much larger difference when it changed round to round, winning initiative in a losing battle really can turn the tide. Plus it give initiative some importance.
I do something similar when it comes to PC’s Saving Throws. As part of the game setup, I have each of them make various dice rolls ahead of time & write them down in the order they were rolled.
Saving Throws, Surprise Checks, & other such things that the characters might not know about immediately, I just look at the list, use the next number rolled for that die-type & tell them the results.
Let’s face it, when a DM says, "Roll a Save against (something that’s not immediately seen by players), "that puts them on edge before they even know that they *should be* on edge. The players should only know what their characters would know at certain moments. For example, if something subtle happens to one character & no other character would have noticed, then why should the whole party know something is happening?
It really depends on how important initiative is in your game and how much initiative changes through combat actions being resolved. Used to play a game where high initiative wasn't that useful and there were lots of ways to lose (and some to win) initiative points, making turn order quite dynamic without rolling per round. Didn't bother rolling it more than once per combat.
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rolling inititive every round is stupid
start of combat inititive all the way my friends
Stupid? No. It was very exciting to occasionally win initiative.
to each there own i suppose
Yeah, and winning a round in the middle can change things from a win to a loss… wait, is that a good thing?
When I first started DMing I did one initiative roll for all of combat, but later realized it was boring, and initiative order made a much larger difference when it changed round to round, winning initiative in a losing battle really can turn the tide. Plus it give initiative some importance.
but rolling it every round makes combat so slooooow.
Indeed. It’s why I’m quite willing to let a computer do it for me behind the scenes. My D&D experience has been mainly digital.
I do something similar when it comes to PC’s Saving Throws. As part of the game setup, I have each of them make various dice rolls ahead of time & write them down in the order they were rolled.
Saving Throws, Surprise Checks, & other such things that the characters might not know about immediately, I just look at the list, use the next number rolled for that die-type & tell them the results.
Let’s face it, when a DM says, "Roll a Save against (something that’s not immediately seen by players), "that puts them on edge before they even know that they *should be* on edge. The players should only know what their characters would know at certain moments. For example, if something subtle happens to one character & no other character would have noticed, then why should the whole party know something is happening?
It really depends on how important initiative is in your game and how much initiative changes through combat actions being resolved. Used to play a game where high initiative wasn't that useful and there were lots of ways to lose (and some to win) initiative points, making turn order quite dynamic without rolling per round. Didn't bother rolling it more than once per combat.