Alternate Types of Initiative for Old School Games

So, initiative.

In the older games, initiative is linked to Dexterity or some cognate. The faster you are, the sooner you react in physical combat. Nobody has any problems with this, and players patiently wait their turn when a fight starts.

But roleplaying is more than just combat. There are bargains to be made, information to be gleaned, drinking contests to be won, puzzles to be solved, and bars to be bent. For these, there exists no system for initiative, and players often pile on or cut in on other player's actions, often to frustrating results. In my experience, this is worse among young or newer players, who all want to be the grandstanding hero, and haven't yet developed the sense of roleplaying as a group activity, where each hero must shine at his own task for the entire party to succeed.

What if we used other attributes for alternate instances of initiative, especially those outside of mortal combat? Then we can delineate rules for the advantage this offers, as well as how to resolve these non-combat interactions in a way that favors party members playing their role.

Let's see where this idea takes us.

CHARISMA

Want to speak first, get a bargain at the shops, or parlay with the Queen? The highest CHA score has first choice to perform social interactions, and cannot be cut off by PCs of lower CHA.

CONSTITUTION

Intend to drink a monster under the table, or else taste poison for the King? The highest CON is first batter up.

STRENGTH

Do some iron bars need bending, or get challenged to arm wrestle some barbarians? The other characters will step back to let the highest STR do their thing.

WISDOM

Care for a game of chess, assemble the clues of a mystery, or choose the best road for the party? The highest WIS is the one all others naturally go to in any of these situations.

INTELLIGENCE

Need to speak with the sages, or else find a dusty tome in an abandoned library? With the highest INT, you are the only one that can be trusted with these tasks.

POWER

Is there some magic around, or some mind bending illusion? Only the highest POW could possibly understand what is going on.

RULES OF ALTERNATE INITIATIVES

1 The PC with the highest attribute can opt to go first, or may let others, but it is their choice alone.

2 Whatever result they get stands, and any other player attempting to overrule their result instead reduces the effectiveness by a level of the GM's deciding.

3 The GM alone decides if players can cooperate if circumstances permit, but not the players, unless their proposal makes excellent sense.

4 Players cannot spam a contest and kept rolling or retrying until they get a favorable result. Contests should thus only be held if there is both risk and reward, with the result resting on one die roll.

5 In the case of tied attributes, the most appropriate character background or interesting contest should be allowed, or else some player contest should decide who goes first if both want to.

ROLLING CONTESTS vs ROLE PLAYING INTERACTIONS

The final piece of the puzzle is how to resolve these situations. Basically, I identify two types of situations:

1 CONTESTS - If there is some risk and reward, then dice should be rolled if the player is willing to go for the glory.

2 INTERACTIONS - If there is no risk, just need to make an NPC connection, then role playing is suggested. If players insist on rolling to get an extra reward or result, warn them that they may also incur a drawback or risk losing their relationship.

Hereafter are sample Contests and Interactions for each attribute in older RPGs.

CHARISMA

Contest - Fasttalk or con the guards, at the risk of a sword to the guts or a night in the hoosegow.

Interaction - Prove to travelers that you mean them no harm, or show that you have the courtly manners required to attend the ball.

CONSTITUTION

Contest - Drinking contests, where failure means a day lost sick to your guts or pressganged onto the sweeps of a navy ship, but success can let you win renown, hear some vital information, or steal that key off their unconscious body.

Interaction - Stay up drinking with your host, or else shrug off the cold or heat to show that you are one of them and not some weak outlander.

STRENGTH

Contest - Bend those bars, or else they are too strong for anything but magic to move.

Interaction - Trying to impress the clan leader with your muscles so you will be chosen for a mission. 

WISDOM

Contest - A game of chess or trapped puzzles, with treasure at the end but death or damage also likely.

Interaction - Impress the druid with your knowledge of forest survival, or the king with your judgment in strategic matters.

INTELLIGENCE

Contest - Rushing to find the correct tome in a huge library, or recite the words of an ancient poem. Failure could mean a setback in the quest, or getting kicked out of the bookshelves.

Interaction - Discourse with the learned as an equal, be they wizard, sage, or noble.

POWER

Contest - Resisting a possessing spirit, or intuiting what kind of magic (demonic, sorcerous, alien, etc) is at play here.

Interaction - Conversing with the spirits or a medium as one who knows secrets and can be trusted.

NB: DEXTERITY can still be used for non-combat Contests (tightrope walking, etc) as well as Interactions (ie dancing well with a partner), the details of which I leave up to the reader.