Initiative

Assumptions about the rules

The Cypher system assumes the default rules for initiative plus the optional rules that player characters act in order of their initiative roll (Cypher System Revised Rulebook, p. 214). Since this makes an initiative roll also a roll player vs. player, it also utilizes the Combat Between PCs rule (Cypher System Revised Rulebook, p. 222).

Taken together, this is how the Cypher system assumes initiative works: At the beginning of combat, every PC makes a Speed initiative roll against the level of highest NPC involved. Since player rolls are also compared, each easement and hindrance add and subtract 3 from the total, respectively. All characters then act in order of that roll. Example:

Anna and Bert start a fight against a couple of brutes in a bar. The brutes are all level 2, except for their leader, which is level 4. The brutes and their leader have an initiative of 12 (the highest level times 3). Anna rolls a 9, so she acts after the brutes. Bert is trained in initiative tasks, which eases the roll by 1 step. Instead of the usual reduction of the difficulty, Bert adds 3 to his roll. By chance, he also rolls a 9, but his initiative value is 12 due to his training, beating the value of the brutes. As a result, Bert acts first, then the brutes, and lastly Anna.

Optionally, each NPC can have their own initiative value and act depending on that value.

Implementation of that rule in the Cypher system

When NPCs, Communities, and Vehicles are added to the combat tracker, their initiative value is determined automatically, so no roll is needed for that. Their initiative value is (level × 3) + initiative bonus - 0.5. The initiative bonus can be set in the settings tab on the character sheet. The subtraction of 0.5 is the tie breaker since PCs act first when they have the same initiative value. 0.5 is not subtracted from Communities which are owned by players.

Companions and Markers don’t have their initiative value added automatically. Companions act on the initiative of their owners, but that is not programmatically coded into the system.

When adding PCs to the combat tracker, their initiative value is also not set. You can use the roll button in the combat tracker to make a simple d20 roll to determine the initiative value, and in many circumstances, that will suffice. But PCs also can define one or more skills are their initiative skill. This is done in the settings tab of the skill sheet in question. The player can then use that skill to do three things:

1. Add all tokens of the actor to the combat tracker (only if a combat is active and only if the actor has a token on the scene).

2. Make a skill roll, including all the modifiers and paying the costs associated with skill rolls.

3. Change the initiative value of the tokens to the roll result plus 3 for each easement and minus 3 for each hinderance.

Points 2 and 3 can be done when the actor already has their tokens in the combat tracker, it just pays the cost and updates the initiative value, then.

For easy access, an initiative skill is already prepared and can be found in the Cypher System Basic Skills compendium. Drag an drop that skill onto the sheet of a character and you are good to go.