Who's First

 

Lead Actors Focus

  Players go first, unless ...

Storyteller determines there is a narrative or situational reason to change.

NPCs expend resources to go first.

Reference: Modiphius 2d20 games like Dune and Startrek

 

Dice, Dice Baby

  Storypath & Exalted Essence characters use dice pools to go first ...

Appropriate Attribute + Skill (Exalted & Exalted Essence)

Appropriate Skill + Attribute (Storypath)

 
    Simple Online Alternative

1d10 + Skill + Attribute (or die of your system or choice)

This uses the dice pools as a static modifier instead.

This method is easier for some dice rollers to handle and faster for some players.

Reference: D&D / Chronicles of Darkness

 
  Complex Fog of War

Story teller keeps a secret pre-rolled set of initiative grids for player matched with the static initiative bonus.

This causes no-one to know when they go or who goes next.

Best suited for experienced storytellers and table play not online.

Reference: Homebrew

  Please note most times I will default to Lead Actors Focus for ease and speed, however at some point I will use all of these methods depending on the situation.

Who's Next

 

Narritive

  If the order of action is not critical to the scene I will let the narrative be the guide for as long as possible. Its all fun and games until everybody pulls out weapons, two warriors use haste, two cyborgs use wired reflexes or two Kindred use celerity.    

Fluid

  This is seems to be the method of choice for most recently released narrative focused RPG games. This method focuses less on which exact team member is next but allows a team to slot in who they want next. This eliminates the days of D&D with the cleric holding his action to see who was wounded, blowing up the initiative sequence at the end to heal wounded or fallen party members. This method seems to make more narrative sense but all the players need to be on their toes to decide who is next and to make sure their turn is not missed or skipped.    

Static

  This is by far the most widely known and used method for tactical TTRPG games like D&D and Pathfinder. It is also very straight forward for new Storytellers and there are a variety of aids and props for this method including dry erase magnetic rosters and digital aids. In this method the dice determine the order of initiative starting with the best roll first and moving through the ranks until everyone has acted with the worst roll.    

Ping Pong

  In this method initiative moves back and forth between teams until everyone has acted except ...

One side expends resources to hold onto the initiative allowing ...

A member to act again or their next member to act however ...

Initiative may not be held for more than one action and must be passed to the other team.

Please note the order is as the Fluid method above.

Reference: Reference: Modiphius 2d20 games like Dune and Startrek

  Storyteller Tips

Keep note cards or chips with the name of each participant and move them from one stack to the next as they act.

Use some digital aid to check off participants as they act.

  I will lean on a Narrative and Fluid approach first falling back to static when necessary. I am least likely to use Ping Pong as when the sides are not balanced in opponents or the number of teams this method tends to feel, well, unbalanced.