Does anyone have advice on running initiative for larger groups w/5e? I have 7 players and I usually use the "tent on the GM screen" method with their names written on the front and back. But 7 people is a lot to process.🤨#DnD #DMTip #GMTip @satinephoenix @matthewmercer pic.twitter.com/vcchTX1Elu
— GM Travis (@ender07) March 18, 2018
With big groups, i start with player to my left and alternate PCs and monsters. Next fight, start at my right. Works well enough.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) March 18, 2018
I created Passive Initiative explicitly for large groups and for groups that have many combat encounters during a session. It’s the initiative process in reverse for 1 static result.
Passive Initiative
This custom rule replaces all normal Initiative rules and substitutes them with the following.
Your Initiative is equal to your natural Dexterity score.
Any further bonuses to your Initiative are doubled & added to this score.
-If the creature has advantage on Initiative, add 10. Disadvantage subtracts 10.
-If a creature has the Rakish Audacity feature, the creature adds their Charisma Score minus 10 to their Passive Initiative Score.
-The DM decides the order among tied DM-controlled creatures, and the players decide the order among their tied characters. The DM can decide the order if the tie is between a monster and a player character. Optionally, the DM can have the tied characters and monsters each roll a d20 to determine the order, highest roll going first.
One should record their Passive Initiative score in parenthesis under their standard Initiative score. When DM’ing using Passive Initiative, you can keep a largely unchanging sheet of your player’s turn orders and simply insert creatures where they would fit (preferably before the session ever began), and jump right into the action without the several minute break of immersion!
This was created before we had the Gloomstalker Ranger and the War Mage Wizard, so for their Initiative boosting features, do the same as you would as if it were the Rakish Audacity feature of the Swashbuckler Rogue archetype.