Morale as Initiative
Inspired by this wasitlikely post to use morale as initiative for old school type games. It is less sloppy drippy and therefore more boring but I think it fits in fine with your standard b/x type game.
On starting combat roll 2d6 against enemy morale as usual. Exceeding their morale means the players go first, rolling lower they go second.
For what enemy morale to use:
- The value from the enemy if one type
- If groups of multiple enemy types, use the higher morale between them, particularly if they are working together. Alternatively, you can check morale against each group, and make a kind of sandwich initiative.
- If the enemy group has a leader, use their morale (until they die). Re-roll at the top of each round, with modifiers accounting for anything that happened in the previous round, usually a + or - 1. For example:
- Killing an enemy leader.
- Killing half or more of the enemy.
- Acting especially intimidating (taking the time to get trophies from kills, special war cries or drums, acting sub-optimally for the purposes of intimidation).
- Use of fear magic, scary illusions, etc.
- Maintaining superior tactics (holding the high ground or forcing opponents through a chokepoint).
- If the enemy downs a player character.
Adjudicate as makes sense of course, increase the bonus or penalties for especially effective tactics. Especially reward things like ambushes, war cries, or generally acting like maniacs. Sides should be using intimidation tactics mid battle to try and gain the initiative through fear.
This method means that mindless creatures like undead almost always act first outside of being surprised. Unburdened with fear, such creatures act decisively and without hesitation. An unnerving thought to rational beings with a sense of self preservation (which may even incur a penalty).
Sandwich Initiative Alternative
I love me a sandwich initiative. To make this work, each player rolls 2d6 individually against the enemy morale target, adding bonuses or subtracting penalties based on their individual actions. Those that beat the enemy morale go before enemies, those that fail go after.