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This is a mechanic from another game that I have really enjoyed in the past. Just throwing the idea out there for others considerations.

Instead of initiative that stays more or less static round by round of combat the DM instead asks the party for "Intentions?" The idea being that since these are supposed to be happening more or less at the same time anyway everyone decides what they want to do at the same time and then carry out their actions.

Each player takes turns explaining what they intend to do this round of combat and the GM decides the turn order based on that information. A few guidelines exist.

-Ranged combat tends to act before melee combat (It's faster to shoot somebody then it is to run up and attack someone).

-Those who want to act before moving (or just act because they are already where they want to be) go before those who want to move then act. (Someone already at arms length can generally attack before someone who needs to move and then attack. Someone who wants to stand still and shoot act before someone who wants to move into position and then shoot).

-Those who did damage last round tend to get to act before those that did not (capitalizing on their previous success and pressing their advantage).



Potential issues: This doesn't really work with the combat cards. Not a big deal, just saying it doesn't.

This doesn't really work with Feint but there are a couple solutions.
1) If you succeed at a feint the target automatically goes last this turn if they have not acted yet or next turn if they acted already.
2) If you succeed at a feint the target suffers a difficulty penalty to their next combat action equal to the successes of your feint (could be a defensive action or a attack... whatever).
3) If you succeed at a feint the target looses a single action on their next turn (if they intended to move and attack they would only be able to move for example).


It has the added advantage of speeding up some of the combat because players don't take time assessing the situation after the last player went and then deciding what to do. They all decided what to do already so they are already committed to doing it.

This is interesting. For sure it is something that I have observed in VtM games, but it puts some subjectivity on the table, which is not much appreciated if there are roll-players.

The way reactions works in the game might make this approach a bit more confusing when people start deciding if they want to dodge/parry.