When I've run play-by-post I've been a fan of group initiative.
(example/explanation)
Normally initiative is in a strict order. For example
1. Bob 2. Alice 3. Blue Goblin 4. Red Goblin 5. Jerry 6. Miranda 7. Yellow Goblin
But when doing play-by-post this means if Bob has a busy day (while Alice was free) before he can get his post in and then Alice has a busy day it can take a while. So one solution is Group Initiative.
1. Bob & Alice 2. Blue Goblin & Red Goblin 3. Jerry & Miranda 4. Yellow Goblin
So now while Bob has his busy day, because he and Alice are grouped together, she can post when she's available. So when Bob's busy day ends and he can post Alice has already taken her turn so we don't have to wait through Alice's busy day too. And later maybe it's Bob that gets to post before Alice.
So there's more fluidity of when people can get their actions in, which helps speed things up.
However so far I've only used it (and been a player in a situation that used it) with regular monsters instead of legendary ones. And legendary actions seem predicated more on that strict initiative order.
The one solution I've thought of is "if some posts, do it then" but that also runs into the issue of if multiple people are able to post then I'd be putting in various legendary actions all at once instead of peppered throughout like they normally are. Another possibility being to put "might take legendary action here" into the initiative order to add a stopgap, but adds some more time to the round which group initiative was supposed to help with.
So I'm curious if there's others ways you've dealt with legendary actions when using variations on initiative. Or if you have experience using those possible methods that have worked well. (Or not.)
The fundamental purpose of legendary actions is to just split up the villain actions so they neither get overwhelmed by the PCs all coordinating their actions, nor overwhelm and instakill a PC with no opportunities to respond. It shouldn't cause problems to group up legendary actions as long as they aren't in the same group as the monster's primary action. In your example I would split it up as
Bob & Alice
Monster Main Action
Jerry & Miranda
Monster Legendary Actions (all three)
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When I've run play-by-post I've been a fan of group initiative.
(example/explanation)
Normally initiative is in a strict order. For example
1. Bob
2. Alice
3. Blue Goblin
4. Red Goblin
5. Jerry
6. Miranda
7. Yellow Goblin
But when doing play-by-post this means if Bob has a busy day (while Alice was free) before he can get his post in and then Alice has a busy day it can take a while. So one solution is Group Initiative.
1. Bob & Alice
2. Blue Goblin & Red Goblin
3. Jerry & Miranda
4. Yellow Goblin
So now while Bob has his busy day, because he and Alice are grouped together, she can post when she's available. So when Bob's busy day ends and he can post Alice has already taken her turn so we don't have to wait through Alice's busy day too. And later maybe it's Bob that gets to post before Alice.
So there's more fluidity of when people can get their actions in, which helps speed things up.
However so far I've only used it (and been a player in a situation that used it) with regular monsters instead of legendary ones. And legendary actions seem predicated more on that strict initiative order.
The one solution I've thought of is "if some posts, do it then" but that also runs into the issue of if multiple people are able to post then I'd be putting in various legendary actions all at once instead of peppered throughout like they normally are.
Another possibility being to put "might take legendary action here" into the initiative order to add a stopgap, but adds some more time to the round which group initiative was supposed to help with.
So I'm curious if there's others ways you've dealt with legendary actions when using variations on initiative. Or if you have experience using those possible methods that have worked well. (Or not.)
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The fundamental purpose of legendary actions is to just split up the villain actions so they neither get overwhelmed by the PCs all coordinating their actions, nor overwhelm and instakill a PC with no opportunities to respond. It shouldn't cause problems to group up legendary actions as long as they aren't in the same group as the monster's primary action. In your example I would split it up as