Even a couple of questions can go pretty deep. There’s a solid look at initiative and order during confrontations, and some development of the “reverse mullet” problem observed in many role-playing texts.
Please check out the attached file to see our discussion at the Patreon. Sean identifies the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition / Dungeon Master’s Guide Rules Supplement / Campaign Sourcebook and Catacombs Guide as the smoking gun publication for story-told, curated play, which is very, very important. Alan Bradley rightly corrects me on some imprecision regarding order and action in D&D ’77 (Holmes).
One response to “March 2023 Q&A”
I don’t think this is particularly important, and honestly at this point I’m not sure how much roleplaying design has to do with what is called in general “game design” (perhaps a question for another q&a), but this immediately came to mind regarding the Circle of Hands initiative question:
The game design text *Rules of Play* would call this a difference between Constituative rules and Operational rules. That is, the math of how initiative is determined and implemented is the Constituative rule. One can take that and make of it a circle, as the text of COH does, or a line as the questioner suggested. These would be two different Operational rules both having as a base the same Constituative rule. The point is that how to put into operation a Constituative rule *is* a design choice with consequences for play, as Ron said in different words.