Block Initiative

Block Initiative is a house rule I use to make combat more cooperative without throwing out normal initiative.

Everyone still rolls initiative normally. The difference is that when allies end up next to each other in the turn order, they act as a block and can decide among themselves who goes first.

That small change has made combat noticeably faster, more dynamic, and more coordinated in my games.

The main downside was bookkeeping, which is why I later built the Block Initiative tool.

The Basic Idea

The system can be summarized in three steps:

Roll normally → Group adjacent allies → Let players choose their order

For example:

Initiative	Combatant
21	Player 1
18	Player 2
16	Enemy 1
14	Enemy 2
11	Player 3
8	Enemy 3

This becomes:

Player Block
Player 1 · Player 2

Enemy Block
Enemy 1 · Enemy 2

Player Block
Player 3

Enemy Block
Enemy 3

Player 1 and Player 2 are still at the top of initiative. They simply do not have to act in that exact order.

If Player 2 has an ability that would help Player 1, Player 2 can go first.

The enemy block still interrupts the players normally, so this does not turn the entire party into one shared turn.

Why I Started Using It

Traditional initiative can sometimes make players feel like they are solving combat one person at a time.

One player decides what to do, finishes their turn, and then the next player begins working through their own options.

With Block Initiative, players in the same block can instead ask:

What can we do together before the enemies act?

That has changed how combat plays at my table.

Combat Moves Faster

Players in a block can work out a short sequence together and then execute it instead of repeatedly stopping and starting between individual turns.

Players Coordinate More

One character can create an opening and another can immediately take advantage of it.

For example:

Wizard knocks an enemy prone → Fighter attacks with advantage → Rogue moves in

The players still need adjacent initiative positions for this to work. They can not move their turn across an enemy.

Turns Are More Flexible

Players do not have to abandon a useful combination just because two allies happened to roll initiative in the opposite order.

Their initiative rolls still determine when the block acts. The group only chooses the order inside the block.

The Round Boundary

There is one extra rule.

Initiative is really a loop.

The bottom of one round is immediately followed by the top of the next:

Top → Middle → Bottom → Top → Middle → Bottom

Because of that, the first and last blocks can sometimes belong to the same side.

Consider:

Initiative	Combatant
22	Player A
19	Player B
17	Enemy X
13	Enemy Y
10	Player C
7	Player D

At first, this looks like:

Players A/B → Enemies → Players C/D

But once the round repeats, the actual cycle is:

Players A/B → Enemies → Players C/D → Players A/B

The two player blocks are next to each other across the round boundary, so they merge.

Round One

Players A/B act → Enemies act → Players C/D skip

Round Two and Later

Players A/B/C/D act → Enemies act

The lower player block skips its first-round turn so that the party does not effectively receive two turns in a row during the transition.

After that, the merged block behaves normally.

If the first and last blocks belong to different sides, nothing special happens.

Enemy Initiative

Block Initiative works with ordinary enemy initiative rolls, but larger encounters can become fragmented if every enemy rolls separately.

I usually group enemies by their role in the encounter instead.

For example:

• Frontline enemies
• Archers
• Spellcasters
• Boss

This keeps the enemy side from being scattered into many tiny turns while still allowing different parts of the encounter to act at different times.

I have tried three general approaches:

Method	What It Does
Individual initiative	Every enemy rolls separately
Shared initiative	All enemies act from one initiative result
Tactical groups	Similar enemies are grouped by role

I generally prefer tactical groups because they provide a middle ground between the other two options.

The exact enemy initiative method is not part of the core rule. If you already have a method you like, Block Initiative can use it.

Running Block Initiative by Hand

You do not need software to use the system.

1. Roll initiative normally.
2. Sort everyone from highest to lowest.
3. Group adjacent allies into blocks.
4. Let players choose their order inside their block.
5. Check whether the first and last blocks belong to the same side.
6. If they do, skip the lower block's first-round activation and merge it with the top block beginning in round two.

A full encounter might look like this:

Initiative	Combatant
22	Alice
19	Bob
17	Skeletons
13	Necromancer
10	Carol
7	David

Starting Blocks

Player Block
Alice · Bob

Enemy Block
Skeletons · Necromancer

Player Block
Carol · David

Round One

Alice/Bob → Skeletons/Necromancer → Carol/David skip

Round Two and Later

Alice/Bob/Carol/David → Skeletons/Necromancer

That is the entire core system.

Why I Built a Tool for It

The rule itself is simple.

The bookkeeping is less simple.

While running combat, the DM is already tracking enemies, hit points, conditions, rules, positioning, descriptions, and everything else happening at the table.

Remembering which blocks have merged and which group acts next is one more thing competing for attention.

The Block Initiative tool handles that part.

You enter the combatants and their initiative, and the tool builds the blocks for you.

During combat, it keeps track of:

• the current block;
• the current round;
• round-boundary merges; and
• changes to the encounter.

It also supports different approaches to enemy initiative for larger encounters.

Players do not need to use Dorks & Dice character sheets or digital dice. The tracker can simply sit alongside whatever the group already uses.

Try the Block Initiative Tool

The Block Initiative tool is currently being prepared for beta testing.

The goal of the beta is not to replace the tabletop rule. It is to see whether the tool makes the system easier to run during a real encounter without getting in the DM's way.

The core workflow is:

Build the encounter → Build the blocks → Run combat

The tool handles the initiative structure while leaving tactical decisions and rules rulings with the players and DM.

The Goal

Block Initiative does not remove initiative.

Individual rolls still matter. Enemies still interrupt players. A poor initiative roll can still separate someone from the rest of the party.

It only changes what happens when allies are already next to each other.

Instead of treating those turns as completely independent, the players get a chance to coordinate.

That relatively small change has been enough to make combat faster, more dynamic, and more cooperative at my table.