Dancing the Night Away

Players perk up when the DM says “roll for initiative.” Combat is interesting not because it is violent (well, not solely); but because something critical is happening, and time (and timing) are of the essence.

I have called for initiative in situations including (but not been limited to):

• Complex traps
• Natural hazards 
• Chases
• Sudden split-second interactions where a open-ended situation (like a conversation) suddenly comes to a specific action (like an attempted escape)
• Some social encounters (although a light hand is required there)

Initiative creates or enhances the stakes of a situation. Players who are happy to wait in the background during exploration or social interaction don’t want to “waste” their turn during initiative order, and start thinking about ways to move the group’s goal forward. Everyone is focused on the action at the table.

The Cosmic Quadrille

In our long-running 5E game that wrapped last year, the characters infiltrated a magical ship on the astral plane full of strange characters from various planes of existence. They were there to surreptitiously make contact with an NPC. For various reasons, they could not contact her directly or magically.

But they could attend a formal dance in the style of classic courtly dances, where the participants (including the NPC) would frequently trade partners as the dance progressed. As the PCs joined the dance and moved from partner to partner, they had time for very brief exchanges of conversation and interaction – six seconds with each dance partner, just like a round in combat.

The PCs made checks to maneuver to pair with particular dancers, and we used skill challenge logic to decide when the dance ended, tallying the PCs successes and failures.  

An Exotic Entourage

Coming up with dancers for an interstellar, multi-planar cruise ship was particularly fun. One part Planescape, one part Troika, one part Kill Six Billion Demons, one part “miscellaneous.”

• Durota, a Fleshcrafter 
• The Void Knight
• The Salt Devil Envoy
• Scratch, a Dragonkin Figment
• Effugium, the Astral Captain
• The Planet-Headed Prince
• A Moon Elf Horizonwalker
• The Mindflayer Chiurgeon 
• A Tabaxi (Displacer-type) Bounty Hunter
• The Ship’s Chronotician
• Kalix, a Void Trader
• The Chain-Veiled Lady of Virtues
• Ollie Glabnoodle, Gentleman Thief
• A Clockwork Counselor
• A Quantum Theologian 
• The Mythical Betrayer