Initiative

[Midnight_X2 164]

I run two Star Wars groups, both long term playing WEG d6. One of my campaigns is wrapping up soon and I'd like to make the jump to Fantasy Flight's Edge of the Empire. I have the beginner's game and I'm really excited by most of what I'm reading.

 

One thing that is going to throw my players is the strange way this game handles initiative. I don't understand how a player can go on a turn someone else rolled for. Due to the flak this is going to generate I'm strongly considering running initiative the conventional way where a player goes on whatever Cool roll he accomplished.

 

My question is: Will changing the initiative break the game from a rules standpoint? Is there a rule interaction that I should be aware of that may be affected?

 

Thanks for the assist.

[Hampulina93 33]

My suggestion would be to not see it as "Player A's slot" but rather the group's slot.

 

Instead of:
1. Player A
2. Player B

3. Enemy A

4. Player C

5. Enemy B

 

Note it down as:
1. Player
2. Player

3. Enemy

4. Player

5. Enemy

 

Then, don't present it as: Player A your turn, unless you give it to someone else?

 

But rather: You guys get to start, what's the plan, who goes first? (Action) Okay who's next? (Action) Hmm...I'll have the Stormtroopers return fire. (Action) Player C you're left what do you do? (Action) ...And finally the officer.

[Hampulina93 33]

And to actually answer your question: it won't break the game but it removes a planning element to combat. I suggest simply getting used to it, it encourages teamwork and planning which keeps players engaged on more turns than their own.

[Lathrop 838]

It won't break the game to change it, but locking players in will make things a bit more difficult.

 

For instance, let's say the group accidentally pisses a bunch of people off, and for whatever reason, they don't want to actually fight - we'll say there's a business deal they want to go through. Initiative gets rolled, and we'll say 2 fighter PCs get to go, then 3 enemies, then 2 other PCs - a mechanic and then the group's face.

 

So if we lock in initiative, the fighters have two options, they take a chance and just start killing enemies, or they duck into cover and wait until the group's face can try and talk them down. Either way, the likely squishy mechanic and face are stuck sitting out in the open until their turns roll around. Fighters don't want them getting killed, so now they start fighting, and the face's chance to try and end things peacefully and keeping the deal from going south, plummet. Also, now the mechanic needs to wait until after the enemies have a chance to call for backup before he can try and seal the door.

 

You keep it how it is though, and you can let the face give calming them down a shot, and if that fails, the group can decide to either start killing or first try and block off the chance of more enemies.

 

Similarly, group decides to plan an ambush and they do Cool checks. Well, the face character is planning on just being backup while the two fighters jump the guy they plan to kill, but now he's stuck with the first slot, while the fighters how got bad rolls need to wait until they can actually attack the guy they were ambushing.