Clone Project: Initiative

There are no initiative rules in the LBBs, that I can find. The alternative combat system doesn't mention who goes first in melee at all; the aerial and naval combat rules, which are more detailed, don't use initiative, but use written orders instead. I checked in Chainmail, and it gives a choice between written orders or rolling dice to see who gets to pick whether to move first or last. In the latter case, the order that players declare actions has nothing to do with whether the actions occur before or after other actions. Within the melee category, the order of attacks is based on weapon size rather than initiative roll, with smaller weapons going first.

Since the original rules are actually silent, I think I'll offer a couple options for initiative:

• written orders, encouraged for group actions
• high roller's choice, choose to go first or last
• choice in order of Intelligence scores, choose to go first or last (to simulate extra strategic options for more intelligent characters or creatures)

Any of these options can be combined with the following:

• simultaneous actions (opponents can potentially kill each other)
• actions in order of Dexterity (fastest reaction acts first)
• actions in order of weapon length (shortest weapon goes first, except on a charge or when outside the shorter weapon's reach)

I can include a simple weapon length chart, but it would mostly be a matter of interpretation. Heavier than normal weapons should be slower than other weapons of the same length.