Initiative (role-playing games)

In role-playing games and some table-top wargames, a character's initiative is a statistic (either derived or not) which determines the order in which player characters take actions, especially during combat or other forms of conflict resolution.

In most systems, the players who have rolled the highest number go first, in some other systems it is the other way around, with lowest initiative going first.

Initiative can be either fixed (the same every time, or at least during a whole resolution or battle) or can be recalculated at various intervals. Most initiative systems which are not fixed use dice, with the results forming a random element of the initiative result. Added to this random elements are positive and negative modifiers, which are caused by circumstances which make the player character react faster or slower, or are influenced by the length of task that he undertakes. For example, a lithe character (one with high dexterity) may react faster than others, while someone using a heavy implement or weapon may take longer.

Some systems allow only one main action (or multiple actions at the same time) when the order reaches the point of the character, other systems allow further actions 'further down' the initiative order.

ee also

*Turn-based game