Alternative title to this page: An arms’ race. HEHEHEHE
Holding is more useful than people give it credit for, especially in games where you can get some synergy between characters. In D&D 5e there isn’t a lot of that, so you mostly just want to have your turn and do your thing, but in games like Savage Worlds, Pathfinder, and also D&D 4e, teamwork is incorporated into the rules by allowing you to take actions that directly benefit other players, making the order of your actions very important.
Holding to attack is tricky, because you need a good Athletics check against your enemy in order to catch them before they act, but Holding to Support is, I think, better than just Supporting. You should wait until you see what your teammate is gonna do – and what if an enemy makes them Shaken before they act? – before you commit to the Support.
Initiative systems are a crucial factor in encouraging team plays. Compare the individualistic “you act when it’s your turn” in all of the previous systems with the likes of Edge of the Empire, or Burn Bryte, or Conan 2d20, or the one from the game I’m working on, in which every round the players get to choose how their entire group reacts to the situation before committing to anything.
Queerz! Kickstarter – Last 48 Hours
The super-sentai, super self-expression RPG based on the City of Mist ruleset is already super funded, and it’s your last chance to hop on the super wagon and get those yummy stretch goals included with your purchase! If you don’t want to buy a pig in a poke, good for you, it’s important to be a conscious consumer, so check out the Demo Game which is free to download and allows you to get a sense of the game’s production values, style and rules.
Full disclosure: I (Eran) am the chief editor for both Queerz! and City of Mist.
