Side-Based Initiative

I resisted the concept of side-based initiative, or the approach that you roll initiative for each side instead of each individual participant, for too long.

Yes, the approach does reduce the cognitive load of managing individual turns during combat, as you'd expect. But, in practice, I found that using side-based initiative improved the flow of combat altogether. Players are all invested simultaneously instead of taking their turn and tuning out, which has resulted in combat that feels more immediate and maintains consistent pacing from beginning to end.

An adventurer not waiting for the monsters to take their turn (art by William McAusland)

I make one concession to the tradition of rolling initiative. When one side makes its move, I ask the players to make an opposed Dexterity check. They are trying to exceed 10 + the HD of the opposing leader. Those who do get to act first.

Once they do, turns alternate from that point on. So, the PCs who succeed take a turn, then the monsters take a turn, then all PCs take a turn, and so on.

I have used this hack during several combat encounters in my current adventure so far and I have been very pleased with the results.