Nuts & Bolts #167 - Multiple Action Dice (DCC& MCC)

 

Let's talk about multiple action dice, or multiple actions per turn. 

I've played a lot of games that dealt with this in many different ways. In games were its more common characters might act across multiple initiative passes, where each character acts once, then you roll through initiative a second time, and then a 3rd or even 4th until all characters have used all their actions. This can work well for those games where all characters have at least 2 actions as it spreads the in game action around the table more evenly, but might not work as well when some characters only have a single action and others have 2 or 3 or more. 

For DCC and MCC this could work well at higher levels once characters get second action dice. This would allow a cleric or wizard to buff a fighter and have that benefit be gained in the same round regardless of this initiative. It would also prevent a bad initiative roll for the bad guys to just result in an utter beatdown. There are other alternatives though...

Which is where a second option comes in. I use this for creatures in DCC and MCC as it works well at to spread a single creature or a group of creatures actions around those of the characters. In this case it comes up less often for players (though it can, especially lucky MCC mutants), and more often for monsters and other creatures. I'm of the mind that a good combat in these games should have at least 1 monster action for every 2 PC actions. That ratio has some flexibility but 6 players vs a monster with a single action is likely to be a very boring combat. In these such cases I roll an initiative die for each action die the monster has. So a creature with 3 actions will roll 3 initiatives and get an action at each point rather than 3 on a single initiative value. This does require slightly more bookkeeping, but it also ensures (usually) that the monster goes throughout a combat instead of multiple actions back to back. This makes the combat more dynamic, and can allow the creature to direct its attacks in such a way that clever players can react and potentially avoid getting repeatedly beat down. With groups I use a unique initiative for each member of the NPC/monster group in the same way. 

You might be thinking, that seems like a lot to keep track of at the table, and its true. If I were playing in person more often I doubt I would do so, but since I do most of my gaming online I can easily keep a roster of PCs and NPCs in an Excel (or other spreadsheet) file and then sort on their initiative values for an easy way to run through combats. 

It works for me, and I feel like it keeps the players on their toes a little more during combat.