The Power of Fellowship

Roleplaying games are, by their nature, a group activity. With rare exception you cannot play them alone. In most circumstances, you're playing them with a group of friends - four or more. All but one of those participants is taking up the role of a single character that's part of a group. As a group you will face challenges and obstacles and as a group you will work together to overcome them. 

This sense of fellowship with other characters, and indeed the other players at the table, is a paramount theme in The Hero's Journey. You will face danger, but you will not face it alone. As a writer, you can state this over and over again in the text, but in the actual rules of The Hero's Journey, Second Edition, there are several rules to highlight this theme.

One of these rules changes is the way Initiative works in combat. In most traditional roleplaying games you roll a die (perhaps with a modifier) and the person with the highest roll or most successes goes first. This means that often times players (and thus characters) are restricted in acting as a team because they have to either wait until an ally has gone before they can perform some complimentary action, thus inhibiting the ability of the player characters to work together as a team.

In The Hero's Journey, Second Edition, each character still rolls a die for their initiative at the beginning of each combat round (in this case a  d12) and adds appropriate modifiers. However, when it comes their time to act, that player can choose to actually trade their own initiative roll total with any other player who has yet to act in a combat round. 

On its face, this seems counter intuitive. "Wait, so my Changeling Swordsman with a Finesse of 18 who gets +3 to Initiative just rolled an 11. So they go on 14. How does that translate to the Human Wizard with a Finesse of 10 going first in a combat round because of what I rolled?"

By the straight numbers it doesn't. But from a narrative point of view and by using those themes of working together as a group so that each character has a chance to shine and the group is able to become more than the sum of its parts, this is absolutely, 100% in line with the ethos of The Hero's Journey.

So yes, your ultra quick Swordsman could go first in the combat round, but by trading that Initiative roll of 14 with the Wizard (who sadly rolled a 4), the Wizard can act first and cast Lingering Starlight to blind the Goblin King with a Blinding Flash before the Swordsman moves in to deliver a well-placed blow. This allows both the Wizard to perform some helpful actions that both give them a chance to utilize their abilities and the opportunity to have a meaningful contribution to the Swordsman's impending battle with that Goblin King. In short, it promotes teamwork by permitting the group to effectively operate as a team.

And when players see that they have more opportunities to operate as a team instead of a group of individuals, then they will do so. Moreover, they will start to think like a team, and _feel_ like a team. Everyone has a chance for their worth to be seen in active play at the table, which creates a more enjoyable experience for everyone playing the game.

Thus each character's worth is more readily apparent and hopefully, the player characters will see just how valuable their fellowship with one another is, and thus a bond will hopefully be created.