Tipsy Turbine Games

The game of Chicken is a classic; two cars driving at each other at breakneck speed. If you flinch, you lose, but if neither of you flinch, you both die. Oh, and did I mention that if both of you flinch in opposite directions, you’ll both still be in the same lane and both of you will still die?

RPGs have a problem when it comes to initiative in particular. Namely, once you take your turn, there’s this long lull where you can’t do anything until every. other. player. has. acted. I swear I’ve seen more smartphones come out in combat than during roleplay because players know they won’t be relevant to the encounter for several minutes. Can this be fixed by turning initiative into a game of chicken?

Well, yes and no. It requires custom mechanics which precludes a simple drag and drop system hack.

Selection: Strategic Roleplay uses a hold and spend AP initiative. When your turn comes around, you receive action points. If you have too many AP, you must spend them immediately or lose them when you pass turn to the next player. But other than that, you can spend them any time you want, buy whatever action you want, and there’s no penalty for doing so. If you have the AP, you can act.

Reacting to an opponent creates a Bind, or an imaginary stack of actions. The last player to declare a reaction has his or her action occur first.

He who Flinches Last Acts First. That’s Chicken Initiative in a nutshell. It’s straight out of Magic: The Gathering‘s Stack, and it will change gaming forever.

James Hinds

Lead Editor, Tipsy Turbine Games