D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Greyhawk Initiative

Greyhawk Initiative for this month's UA.

Discuss. :-D

I like it in theory, but think it would slow things down a lot at the table. It seems like it might work ok in play-by-post, though ;)

My kneejerk reaction without playing the variant is an immediate dislike of the system. It feels extremely taxing on spellcasting and feels backwards for the direction of the game (to me). It adds more crunch and math back into a system that was already pretty streamlined. It may make things seem more realistic, but at a first reading, it looks to sacrifice smoothness and fun just for the sake of realism.

At a table, it would definitely slow the game down, but I would argue Naat that it would actually make the already slow task of PbP combat even slower. With the current iterations of initiative (either side vs. side or RAW initiative), it's enough that people have to determine their actions and post. With the encouragement in this system to coordinate with party-mates before you even declare your actions or make your initiative rolls. Plus, add in the time for the DM to make the same judgments for the opponents, I can only see this stretching PbP combat to dull levels.

I'd be interested in trying to play out some mock combats using the model, more to see than anything, but I will admit a pretty hefty initial "burn it with fire" bias.

Drama, I was referring mostly to the style if initiative I did in my 1e game. Declare actions and DM adjudicates