Mystic portals are awesome. Beautiful, enigmatic, and alluring, they’re a classic trope for a reason, and I’ve run some variation of this gag countless times. They’re also a great example of how a little bit of finesse in your game mastering techniques can take good material and advance it into something amazing.

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A cap system is a mechanic or sub-system that’s designed to be used with many different roleplaying systems — either supplementing them or perhaps modifying them. (Not necessarily every RPG, though: It’s not unusual for a cap system to end up being fundamentally incompatible with some systems.) Dice of Destiny, a system for getting rich, non-binary information from dice pool resolution systems, is one example. The downtime system presented in the upcoming So You Want To Be a Game Master? is another.

This is a micro-cap system I’ve been experimenting with called miss-initiative, which is designed to replace the initiative system in your RPG of choice.

MISS-INITIATIVE

By default, at the beginning of combat, the PCs get to take their actions first. They can take their turns in whatever order they choose, but no PC can take a second turn until all of the PCs have taken their first turn.

If one of the PCs misses, however, this allows the GM to trigger one of the NPCs. Once the PCs’ turn is finished, one of the NPCs will take their turn for the round. (If all NPCs have already taken their turn for the current round, a miss has no effect.)  This is referred to as seizing initiative.

A miss is generally considered to be any missed attack roll or failed action check. This can generally be characterized as the character’s failure or screw-up offering an opportunity for the enemy.

SURPRISE

If surprise is achieved at the beginning of a fight, this overrides normal miss-initiative:

• If the PCs surprise the NPCs, then they do NOT lose initiative on their first miss. Only on the second miss are the NPCs able to seize initiative.
• If the NPCs surprise the PCs, then the NPCs have seized initiative. They take their actions until one of them misses, which allows the players to trigger one of the PCs.

After the end of the surprise round, combat continues normally (with the PCs going first, followed by NPCs, and with misses triggering NPCs).

VARIANT: SIDE-BASED MISS-INITIATIVE

Miss-initiative can be used with side-based initiative (in which a single initiative check is made for each side in the fight; e.g., using the highest initiative modifier on each side or a group initiative check or some similar method).

If the PCs win the initiative check, miss-initiative continues normally.

If the NPCs win the initiative check, however, then they have initiative and take their actions first, triggering PC turns when they miss.

An initiative check might be made once at the beginning or the fight or repeated for each round, representing the ebb and flow of the battle. (The GM might grant advantage, penalties, and so forth for each round’s initiative check based on the outcome of the previous round.)

VARIANT: THE MISS CASCADE

As a variant, when the NPCs seize initiative from the PCs, they retain initiative. In other words, NPCs continue taking actions, in whatever order the GM chooses, until one of the NPCs misses, which allows the PCs to seize initiative (and continue taking actions until they miss and allow the NPCs to seize initiative).

Remember that, regardless of which side currently holds initiative, everyone in the fight must take their turn before any character gets their next turn.

I have an article printed in Bayt Al Azif #5: “The Three Clue Rule!”

“Now wait a minute,” you say. “I’m familiar with the Three Clue Rule. In fact, I can read that article right here on the Alexandrian!”

That’s true!

But this particular version of “The Three Clue Rule” has been revised and rewritten. The original version of the essay was written in 2008. In fact, today is the 15th Anniversary of the Three Clue Rule! There are people reading this today who weren’t even born when the Three Clue Rule was published.  I’ve learned a lot in the last fifteen years and I wanted to bring the “Three Clue Rule” into accord with that. (For example, the terms “node-based scenario design” and “scenario structure” didn’t even exist yet in 2008.)

Now, to be perfectly honest, if you’re already a long-time fan of the Alexandrian, this new-and-improved version of “The Three Clue Rule” probably isn’t a good enough reason to grab a copy of Bayt Al Azif #5 all by itself. The new tools I’ve incorporated into the article are things you can also find lurking around on the site.

But Bayt Al Azif is just a fantastic magazine for Cthulhu roleplaying, so it’s worth checking out regardless! Issue #5, for example, includes:

• Interviews with John Tynes, Shanna Germain, and Sean K. Reynolds
• “Die Not Gloriously,” a Trojan War scenario by Rina Haenze
• “The Human Element,” a look at good starter scenarios by Lisa Padol
• “Dead Man’s Chest,” a Golden Age of Piracy scenario by Stefan Droste
• Shannon Appelcline’s “Designs & Dragons Next: Arc Dream Publishing 2007-Present”

And more!

FROM MACMILLAN & PAGE STREET PUBLISHING

COMING TO A BOOKSTORE NEAR YOU
OCTOBER 31st, 2023!

Long-time fans of the Alexandrian who have been asking to have the site’s incredible trove of GMing lore collected into a book: This is what you’ve been waiting for. It’s your complete guide to:

• Dungeons
• Megadungeons
• Mysteries
• Node-based adventures
• Raids
• Heists
• Factions
• Urbancrawls
• Social events
• Routes
• Hexcrawls
• Pointcrawls

Plus a huge selection of extra credit, including:

• Creating Your Campaign
• Campaign Status Documents
• Learning a New RPG
• The Open Table
• Quick-and-Dirty Worldbuilding
• Rumor Tables
• Running Combat
• Scenario Hooks
• Supporting Cast
• Splitting the Party

But these aren’t just your familiar favorites. The book is chock full of brand new material, too! And everything has been freshly updated into a comprehensive and cohesive volume — the most authoritative book ever written about being a Game Master.

FROM THE BACK COVER

Have you ever wanted to step into your favorite movie or book or television series? Do you want to take your friends on impossible adventures? Do you want to play a cunning elf, a daring spy, a brilliant detective, or a dastardly villain? Do you want to create new worlds?

Do you want to be a Game Master?

Millions of people have discovered the amazing opportunities for creativity, problem-solving, and — most importantly! — fun offered by tabletop roleplaying games. Do you have what it takes to join them? Whether you’re thinking about playing Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Vampire: The Masquerade, Cyberpunk RED, Star Wars, The Witcher, or any one of the countless other roleplaying games that let you go on adventures with your friends while playing characters of your own creation, this book is the key to unlocking the limitless vistas of your imagination.

ENnie Award-winning game designer Justin Alexander offers you the only true step-by-step guide to becoming a Game Master. In less than an hour, you’ll have all the tools you need to run your first adventure (including the adventure itself!). From there, Alexander guides you one step at a time, showing you how to create your own adventures along with the practical, actionable tips and tricks you’ll need to share them with confidence. With your friends you’ll explore dungeons, solve mysteries, steal priceless artifacts, unravel strange conspiracies, and venture forth on epic journeys!

And even if you’ve been playing for decades, So You Want to Be a Game Master? will level your game up with never-before-revealed secret techniques and a huge selection of extra credit lessons that will blow your players away.

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Also available in France, Germany, Spain, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and worldwide! Search your regional sites online or check with your favorite local bookstore!

Roy Batty from Blade Runner. Hannibal Lecter. Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now. Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men. You can’t handle the truth! I’m having an old friend for dinner! Greed is good! Nobody panics when things go according to plan!

This is it! The villain’s denouement!

But the players don’t want to hear it. They just want to shoot the bad guy in the head.

Find the big, dramatic moments with ENnie Award-winning RPG designer Justin Alexander.

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