I finally got to play BoL Mythic with the Bookstore Boys, and am digging the changes so far.  Everyone seemed to grok the new Initiative rule right out of the gate, but I got to wondering about alternate uses for the Initiative ability.  

For instance, I ruled that a hero's Initiative (alertness and situational awareness) could be added to rolls to avoid/partly avoid "reflex save" situations (sorry for the D&D-ism) such as projectile traps, explosions, etc.  I'm not sure whether to pair it with Mind or Agility though...

Any thoughts?  Have any of you come up with other uses for Initiative?

Because it's always fun to see what fun other folks are having!

To get the ball rolling...
Currently playing: nothing, too busy! 
Currently running: Barrowmaze (Labyrinth Lord) pick-up sessions at a local bookstore
Currently planning: "Caverns of Mystery" 1920s exploration/lost world adventure (system TBD, most likely Dicey Tales)

I wanted to re-post this because it was one of the most awesome posts I recall reading on the Lords of Lemuria board, and failing to include it in this area would be deserving of the Spell of "Forlorn Encystment."  In this thread, Korvargr wrote:

What is the function of Vancian spells in the fiction, the Dying Earth novels? 

The names are rather "baroque" like "Excellent Prismatic Spray". But what does it do? 

What such a Vancian spell acutally does in the story is to provide a kind of "wildcard" to put into ANYTHING that saves the magician's day! 

So having "memorized" 4 spells of rather strange and quite unspecific names (compared to more functional names like "Fireball" or "Finger of Death") is the equivalent of having 4 "magical Hero-Points" to "edit the scene" using a kind of magical "trapping" to describe the outrageous effects, by which the magician works his way out ouf trouble. 

If you put aside the actual misnamed thing that is D&D-like fire-and-forget-magic, and take a look at Vance's stories, then you'll see that those stories actually do NOT really use a kind of fixed descpritive spell system, but in fact only "talk about it", while actually leaving the reader for the most part in the unknown about what the hell this strangely named spell might do. 

When it is time, that the hero is in dire straits, unable to save himself by physical prowess or glib tongue or sharp thinking, those spells give him a kind of "flashback preparation"-moment (like in the TV-series Leverage). 

[color=#000000]Although the reader (or player) does not know, what magical effect might be needed in an adventure, the character SEEMS to know it in advance (though actually he doesn't, because even the author or the player couldn't see into the future). [/col

Gnombient aka Jason checking in.  This last summer and autumn I ran a drop-in BoL game at a local bookstore, the grade school and junior high age boys ate it up and are now running their own adventures.  Not currently running anything, but I'm planning a Dicey Tales-powered cave-exploration/"lost world" adventure for my nephew (largely inspired by our shared enthusiasm for the computer game Spelunky) that I hope to run next month when I see him again.  Also temporarily on the back burner but never fully out of mind are the Carpathia pulp horror project (on hiatus, pending the release of Mythic) and my own Pike, Shotte, & Sorcerie.