INITIATIVE

Every round, each combatant gets to do something. The combatants' initiative checks determine the order in which they act, from highest to lowest. At the start of a battle, each combatant makes an initiative check. The players each roll for their heroes while the Narrator rolls for everyone else. An initiative check is a Dexterity check.

Initiative Check = d20 + Dexterity + Miscellaneous Modifiers

The Narrator finds out in what order heroes act, counting down from highest total to lowest. Each character acts in turn, with the check applying to all rounds of the combat. Usually, the Narrator writes the names of the characters down in initiative order to move quickly from one character to the next each round. If two combatants have the same initiative check result, they act in order of highest Initiative modifier first. If there is still a tie, roll a die, with the highest roll going first.

Flat-Footed

At the start of a battle, before you have had a chance to act (specifically, before your first regular turn in the initiative order), you are flat-footed. You can't use your Dodge or Parry, if any, while flat-footed. The Uncanny Dodge feat allows you to retain your Dodge or Parry while flat-footed.

Opponent Initiative

Typically, the Narrator makes a single initiative check for opponents. That way, each player gets a turn each round and the Narrator also gets one turn. At the Narrator's option, however, he can make separate initiative checks for different groups of opponents or even for individual foes. For instance, the Narrator may make one initiative check for a villain and another for all of his minions.

Joining a Fight

If characters enter a fight after it's begun, they roll initiative and act whenever their turn comes up in the existing order.

Surprise

When a combat starts, if you are not aware of your enemies but they are aware of you, you're surprised. If you know about your opponents but they don't know about you, you surprise them.

Determining Awareness

Sometimes all combatants on a side are aware of their enemies, sometimes none are, and sometimes only some of them are. Sometimes a few combatants on each side are aware and other combatants on each side are unaware.

The Narrator determines who is aware of whom at the start of a battle. The Narrator may call for Notice checks or other checks to see how aware the characters are of their opponents. Some examples:

The Surprise Round

If some, but not all, of the combatants are aware of their opponents, a surprise round happens before regular rounds begin. The combatants aware of their opponents can act in the surprise round, so they roll for initiative. In initiative order (highest to lowest), combatants who started the battle aware of their opponents each take a standard or move action, not both. If no one or everyone is surprised, a surprise round doesn't occur.

Unaware Combatants

Combatants unaware at the start of battle do not get to act in the surprise round. Unaware combatants are flat-footed because they have not acted yet. Because of this, they cannot use their Dodge or Parry.

The Combat Round

Each round represents about 6 seconds of time in the game world. In the real world, a round is an opportunity for each character to take an action. Anything a person could reasonably do in 6 seconds, your hero can do in 1 round.

Each round begins with the character with the highest initiative result and then proceeds, in descending order, from there. Each round uses the same initiative order. When a character's turn comes up in the initiative order, that character performs his entire round's worth of actions.

For almost all purposes, there is no relevance to the end of a round or the beginning of a round. The term "round" works like the word "week." A week can mean either a calendar week or a span of time from a day in one week to the same day the next week. In the same way, a round can be a segment of game time starting with the first character to act and ending with the last, but it usually means a span of time from one round to the same initiative number (initiative count) in the next round. Effects lasting a certain number of rounds end just before the same initiative number where they began.

One Round = Span of time from one initiative count to the same initiative count in the next round