Troll Lord Games

Am I correct in my understanding that every round of combat all participants roll for initiative? Or is it like D&D where you just roll once for the whole combat?

According to the RAW, yes, each participant in combat rolls initiative each round. The PHB does say that in particularly large combats, the CK may have group (usually the PCs as one group and the opponents as the other) initiative rolls.

Having said that, I think a fair number of folks around here house rule one initiative roll at the beginning of combat that carries through the whole combat.

I used to do individual initiative, but even with just 5 players I've found it to be a giant pain in the ass. I tried using individual initiative, but only rolled every few rounds. Last session I just went with group initiative rerolled every round. That worked better than anything else I've tried. I plan on sticking with that indefinitely.

I do it every round as the written word in the PHB. I think this is one of the factors for why combat doesn't get stale. Round-to-round, the churning of battle fixes no position, and placement is not guaranteed. Keeps you on your toes and makes for more excitement IMO.

~O

Thanks for the insights. I'm preparing to run my first game next week. I hope to get others as excited as I am about this game system.