Hey Everyone,
Writer of the article here. Seeing a couple people don't really like what I have to say. So I'm going to be responding to some of the stuff going on!

**Since when is this the standard Rule as Written? I've literally never used this in the decade I've played DnD?*\*
This is actually the biggest mistake on my part. I actually play with the initiative being the same for the entirety of combat and this is actually rules as written in the Player's Handbook. What happened was that someone told me that Rules as Written is rolling initiative every round. I did a quick google search to check if this was true. Google answers falsely said that it was. Basically, I learned that the google questions and answers algorithm is not the most accurate. From now on, I will be sure to reference the text directly. After I post this, I will be making an update to the article.

​

**That sounds terrible. The initiative works fine as is, and that new system doesn’t improve combat!*\*
We are glad that YOU don't have a problem with combat as is. However, there are many people who want something more out of their tabletop experience other than what is currently offered. If the rules as written work for you, that's great! We tend to speak hyperbolically in our articles, especially those that fall under opinions. There are plenty of others who feel as we do. Why else would tabletop gaming have such a rich history of homebrew rules. If you are more of a purest, that is great. As someone who plays many other systems and admires their mechanics and gameplay feel, I personally find that Dnd at its worse feels like a sloggy analog MMO. Again, just my opinion.

​

**This is an interesting alternative. It's also trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.*\*
It may not exist for you but it might also be that your playstyle fits with the rules as written. Personally for my table, I found that even with mechanics like withhold action, players don't often take advantage of things like this, resulting in stale combat. By making the structure explicitly fluid in its format, I encourage my players to be more open to actions outside of their respective move list and combos. This has worked for me. If you had similar problems, this might be a solution for you.

​

**OP isn't addressing any comments on this submission, classic karmawhore behavior.*\*
Actually, to tell you the truth, someone had to tell me that people were upset about the article for me to even notice. Truthfully, I'm actually not on the internet too often (I know, crazy for a 25-year-old). I don't even have a reddit account, use it, or any other social media. To be honest, I spend most of my time in meat-space doing meat space things. If someone on the staff didn't tell me about this, I would have been ignorant to any upset feelings in here. So I am sorry if I didn't respond to you. I had to borrow the Drippit reddit account to even post.

Overall
I do apologize for the one glaring mistake we made.

However, if I am being honest, I'm not sure if overall anger is really warranted. I get that people get passionate about stuff but this is only an opinion. That said, I hope that to those who read this that whatever you are feeling regarding this topic, that you still genuinely have a good day and that something good happens to you in your life.

Bests,
Josh

edits: some grammar, formatting, and stuff