NARRATIVE INITIATIVE The following rules are for the Narrative Initiative system, for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. If a rule is not mentioned, then it is unchanged from the standard initiative rules.

Starting Combat

Advantage and Disadvantage

Whichever character or creature initiates combat acts first. Combat does not begin until someone initiates it.

Characters who would normally gain advantage on their initiative roll instead use the following rule:

Taking Turns

“When a creature initiates combat, you may elect to act first, interrupting their turn and forcing them to act after you.”

Players take turns for their characters in whatever order they desire, whenever they think it would be most dramatically appropriate or opportune. The GM also takes turns for creatures they control this way, though a player’s desire to take a turn always supersedes the GM’s own desire to do so. After a player completes their turn, they should do something to signify their turn is over. Examples include turning over your character sheet, flipping a card face-down, or handing in a token to the center of the gaming table.

Characters who would normally gain disadvantage on their initiative roll instead use the following rule: “When a creature initiates combat, you must act last during the first round of combat.” Characters and creatures that would gain a second turn during a round of combat, such as characters with the Thief’s Reflexes class feature, take their second turn at the end of that round of combat.