Initiative

One of the key advantages of OD&D is its simplicity, which makes it very easy to modify. One of the areas I'm thinking of modifying is initiative, because I'm not really happy with any of the systems I've tried over the past year. I'd like something a little more complex, or at least that better takes into account things like weapons used, armor worn, and Dexterity.

As luck would have it, Judges Guild's Ready Ref Sheets already provides a system very much like this. As written, the system provides for a static initiative number for each combatant based on several factors but not so many as to make it difficult to re-calculate if, say, an archer drops his bow and starts wielding a sword. My only beef with it is that there's no random factor and I don't much like that, for reasons of both "realism" and esthetics. I'm tempted to add a small random factor (1d6?) to ensure that the initiative sequence isn't absolutely identical each round.

Here's my re-working of the JG tables:

Initiative Score	Weapon/Action
1	Read Scroll
2	Spell (Levels 7-9)
3	Short Weapon (Dagger, Hand Axe, Mace)
4	Medium Weapon (Sword, Hammer, Battle Axe) or Touch
5	Long Weapon (Morningstar, Flail, Pole Arm, Halberd, 2H Sword)
6	Very Long Weapon (Mounted Lance)
7	Spell (Levels 4-6)
8	Extreme Weapon (Pike)
9	Missiles
10	Spell (Levels 1-3)
11	Breath Weapon
12	Gaze

Armor Worn	Initiative Adjustment	Speed (for Monsters)
	+3	18+
Non-Metal	+2	12-17
Metal	+1	9-11
Plate	-	4-8
Encumbered	-1	3 or lower

Dexterity	Initiative Adjustment
3-5	-2
6-8	-1
9-12	0
13-15	+1
16-18	+2

As usual, Initiative is counted backwards from highest to lowest. In the case of ties, the actual Dexterity of the combatants is compared. For monsters, I assume no adjustment due to Dexterity unless the creature is either notably agile or I want to mix it up and grant a +1 or +2 bonus due to the creature being an exceptional example of its species.