My favorite method right now is the fourth one you mention, where each player picks who acts next. I first saw it in Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, and it cuts down on so much bookkeeping and time wasted with initiative determination. To me, an action/combat scene should always be about keeping the pace and pushing the game forward. In too many games (Shadowrun, Exalted 2e, and even D&D come to mind) rolling and figuring out initiative takes a couple minutes that could have been used for actually doing stuff.
I don't really see the appeal in random initiative scores, as almost every game with random initiative has some sort of way to make it so that you can change your turn order by delaying/readying an action, and I've rarely seen turn order matter dramatically past the first round of a combat.
If you're into actual play podcasts, I don't think you can get much better than One Shot and Campaign. They're both by the same team, and they are both of the highest quality. One Shot has a new game on for a one-shot RPG every few weeks and divides the game up into 3-4 weekly episodes, while Campaign is an ongoing Star Wars Edge of the Empire game. Both are enormous fun to listen to!
www.oneshotpodcast.com
It's been a while; I haven't touched FF12 since at least 2009, I think. I have a strategy guide bookmarked at the Archadian Border, so that's where I must have left off.
I'm curious, but I haven't finished a Final Fantasy game since FFX-2. I couldn't get into the characters in FF12.
3.5 was my gateway into D&D, but I've found that I've come to really like more story-driven and narrative games like Fate system (and I'm pretty intrigued by 5th Edition). 3.5 will always have a soft spot in my heart because it was what got me into RPGs in the first place, though.



Tabletop Game DesignRPG Initiative Mechanics: What do you prefer and why?Jun 10, 2016 at 4:47 PM

