The Lantern Hall
Painting: an ancient lexicon open on a carved lectern in a dark chapel of books, glowing runes and symbols lifting off its pages like fireflies.
TermTabletop term

Initiative

The procedure that decides who acts first in combat and in what order, usually by rolling dice and adding a speed bonus. Rolling initiative is the signal that a scene has turned into a fight.

The procedure that decides who acts first in combat and in what order, usually by rolling dice and adding a speed bonus. Rolling initiative is the signal that a scene has turned into a fight.

Quick answers

What does "Initiative" mean?
The procedure that decides who acts first in combat and in what order, usually by rolling dice and adding a speed bonus. Rolling initiative is the signal that a scene has turned into a fight.

Nearby in the archive

Turn-based combat

General term

Combat in which participants act one at a time in a set order, as around a tabletop with Initiative. Standard in early computer RPGs, JRPGs and tactical games, it has enjoyed a revival in games such as Divinity: Original Sin II and Baldur's Gate 3.

Polyhedral dice

Tabletop term

The set of four-, six-, eight-, ten-, twelve- and twenty-sided dice used by roleplaying games, written in shorthand such as 3d6 (three six-siders added together) or d20. The icosahedral d20 became the emblem of D&D and gave its name to the d20 System of 2000.

Active Time Battle

Digital term1991

Square's hybrid combat system in which each character's gauge fills in real time, and the player must choose actions as turns come up while enemies keep acting. It added urgency to menu-based JRPG battles.