Initiative (concept)

Initiative is discussed on the side-bar of page 71 of GURPS Compendium II for the staggering of multiple attacks rather than having the one who goes first getting to deliver all at once.
It is also the name of an idea discussed in a 2010 thread http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=71412
This is a term seen in other systems like Palladium Books. In GURPS characters act in the order of Basic Speed without any random element.
==Analysis==
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwXpXg78VQA Triangle C: 
I once saw an interview with the guy who developed the hand-to-hand combat system for the Green Berets. He was long retired and he kind of spilled the beans in a perhaps not the most patriotic way. What he said was very illuminating though. He said that military hand-to-hand combat systems are basically calculated bullshit. It takes about 10 000 hours of training to get good at something and modern soldiers don't have the time to train for the super rare, super unlikely case that they'll have a fist- or knife-fight in modern combat. Also all this "gouging out eyes, slitting throats and breaking necks"-stuff you always see special forces guys do in movies is unrealistic, he said. The rule of thumb is basically: "You can't do what you can't train." and you can't train all this "killing with bare hands"-stuff.
The only thing instructors and drill sergeants can do to increase the chances of their trainees in the unlikely event of a hand-to-hand combat is to boost morale.
Those military hand-to-hand combat systems are supposed to make the soldiers think they are good at it, because thinking they are good at it, even if they aren't, makes them more likely to be pro active and act first. If two enemy soldiers happen to run into each other on a battlefield, he who shakes off his shock and acts first, increases his chances to prevail enormously, even if what he does doesn't really make much sense from a combat-technical point of view. Just acting and taking the initiative away from the other guy usually decides the outcome and thinking you are some "deadly hands" killing machine makes you more likely to act first.
Of course that is something they can't tell the soldiers, or it would ruin the desired placebo effect.
Category:Rules