Initiative is a concept that determines the order of turns in who does what first in a conflict situation in the “Milhamah” RPG. In many ways, it’s an abstraction for what happens in a stressful situation or real-time combat.
During combat, a contest or a free-for-all scrum, the Narrator may require Players to make initiative rolls.
- First, the Narrator must consider whether either side is surprised by encountering the conflict. If the element of surprise doesn’t make sense, move to the next step. If one side is clearly surprised, they get a penalty on successes for their opening initiative roll.
- The narrator may ask for the initiative state to be based on the attribute that applies most for the task: DOM, GRA or LIF for combat, or CRE, WIS or SHA for a test of wits, and BLE for contests of luck. The Narrator rolls initiative for NPCs when applicable. In case of a tie, the character with most DOM goes first, or for proceeding ties in descending order, more GRA, CRE, LIF, BLE.
- After a character’s turn is done, the character with the next-highest initiative score begins their turn. Once all players ended their turns, the cycle begins with the player character with the highest initiative.
Initiative rolls are made as follows:
- The Narrator picks one or two attributes that each player may use to roll initiative, based on the nature of the challenge. Here are some suggestions:
Exploring/Surviving: WIS, CRE, SHA
Socializing/Cooperating: GRA, BLE, SHA
Achieving/Creating: DOM, WIS, CRE, BLE
Combat/Destruction: DOM, LIF, GRA
- Each player picks X dice, where X is their chosen attribute’s number. The player with the lowest attribute number picks “low” or “high.” In case when two or more players are tied for lowest attribute, the Narrator picks instead.
- Each player selects the highest or lowest number on their rolled dice. Based on the call, the highest or lowest wins. In case of a tie, the next highest die is determined, and so on.