Momentum Initiative: because combat can be strategic *and* fast!

The Initiative discourse is doing the rounds on Twitter again, but rather than chime in with a thread, I opted for something a little more permanent. Still, this will be a quick one!

Let's get the obvious out of the way: individual initiative feels like what @SprintingOwl aptly named dice clog. Side-based initiative, meanwhile, tends to sacrifice some tactical depth for speed. Popcorn initiative, while cool, can be easily abused. All of this has been discussed to death, but what about solutions?

Personally, I'm fond of what I've taken to calling Momentum Initiative. It's pretty simple:

• At the start of each round, roll a d6 to determine which side gets to act first (1-3, it's the PCs, 4-6, it's the enemies).
• If the player characters got the first round, they get to pick which PC will act first. If not, the Referee picks an enemy to act first.
• Whoever got to act first will then pick who goes next, regardless of side — a PC could pass the torch to another PC or to an enemy, and vice-versa.

"Wait a sec, V.V.", you might be thinking, "that's just a mix of popcorn and side-based initiative!". And hell, you'd be right... that is, if it wasn't for The Twist™ below!

• All enemies start the combat with a number of Momentum charges equal to their HD.
• Momentum charges can be spent to 1. act immediately, 2. inflict Disadvantage to an attack roll, 3. activate powerful abilities*, or 4. take an extra action at the end of the round.
• Enemies regain charges when 1. they get a critical, 2. they kill a character, 3. they succeed in a morale check, and 4. when they are attacked by multiple PCs in succession. Only a single charge can be recovered each round, no matter how many times this is triggered. Enemies can never have a higher number of charges than their HD.

The addition of Momentum is meant to prevent the players from abusing popcorn initiative and turning it into just another version of side-based initiative. In my experience, this actually gives them an incentive to avoid ganging up on a single enemy, lest they fill them with Momentum charges. 

Now, one might argue that these Momentum charges are yet another thing for the Referee to track, and while that is indeed true, the tactical depth they add to combat can be worth the extra bookkeeping. Besides, if you're already tracking HP, this shouldn't be such an increase in cognitive load, anyway.

* I'm very fond of making a d6 list of possible actions an enemy might take in combat, which usually includes lower odds for activating specific abilities than for attacking or doing some weird, enemy-specific shit. Momentum allows enemies to spend charges to trigger these abilities whenever they want, though, bypassing the bad odds. If you're not using anything even remotely similar to this, please ignore that option!

Orcs and goblins as enemies: V.V. Edition

The thing about the evil "races" debate is that I actually see a lot of potential in goblins and orcs as enemies, but not with the way they are presented in most D&D settings. Those feel incredibly icky for a lot of reasons, most of which y'all are tired of reading about.

So, in the interest of keeping them as enemies while excising the ick, here's some quick lore from my campaign setting!

DROWNED IN HELL

When people are drowned in the infernal waters of the Abyss, they emerge as orcs. Well, adults do. Children emerge as goblins, instead.
The reason why both orcs and goblins are so "violent and warlike", then, isn't biological predeterminism. They're basically possessed by infernal rabies.

And the best part is, they can be cleansed. Purging the Infernal Ur (tainted magic) that corrupts orcs and goblins alike is a campaign-long goal, and not an easy task at all. But it's doable.

If/when the PCs or NPCs manage that, the untainted orcs and goblins won't be called by those names anymore. They'll cease to be driven by rage and cruelty. They'll recover a lot of their former memories and personalities, and they won't need to drown others in the Abyss to increase their population anymore. For all intents and purposes, this will be the birth of two new Lineages of the Folk, embraced and treated as such.

That won't stop new orcs and goblins from being made in the Abyss, however. Shock troops are always useful. Callously killing them, however, won't be so easy anymore. That's the power of an informed decision.

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So, there are three main influences for this take on orcs: the Super Mutants from Fallout 1, zombies, and the Deadites from Evil Dead. The "dunking regular people in evil soup" aspect of it comes from the Super Mutants, obviously, and the possibility of a cure comes from zombies. Deadites were the key ingredient, though, with their penchant for self-harm, mindless abandon, gratuitous cruelty and thirst for violence being an inspiration for the infernal angle of it all, as well as a way of keeping what makes orcs cool without the offensive bits.

As for the goblins, most of the above also applies, with the addition of a wonderful blogpost by @sandromaycry. It's a must-read if you're at all interested in different interpretations of fantasy species.