How would you play Deadlands Classic's initiative system?

So, I got the Deadlands Classic bundle from Bundle of Holding, and I'm eager to play it. Now, one thing I'm not sure how to play in Roll20: the initiative system. It's different from Savage Worlds and Deadlands Reloaded (I think, haven't actually read the Reloaded...): I'm paraphrasing from memory, so excuse me if I get an attribute name wrong or something.. The GM has one deck, the players have one deck. At the beginning of the round, each player rolls Quickness which determines how many cards they draw for the round - each card represents one action they can take. Each major NPC does the same. Mooks and goons can be grouped to share a hand which ususally consists of one card. Player can hold on to a card, ie. hold/wait the action. Once cards have been dealt, the GM starts counting down from Ace to Deuce. Suit breaks ties, identical cards (from different decks, natürlich) act simultaneously. So, any suggestions on handling the bad guys? :) Keeping track of every big bad guy's hand is the big thing that I don't know how to solve at the moment, other than using a physical deck of cards for the GM and physically grouping cards on the desktop (you know what, that's a great plan B!).

Just in case someone follows this topic, or if someone's interest is sparked by this reply: I've been thinking this a bit, and I think that I have two options here Option 1: Turn manager API script This option would be me writing an turn manager API script. I'm pretty sure it could be done with simple chat commands. Utilizing the /direct chat option, it could even be decent looking. Maybe I'll undertake this at some point, but not before I've tried the game and established that I'm actually gonna play the game enough to warrant the effort :) Option 2: Cards on the virtual table Of course I could just draw on the virtual table each bad guy's and mook group's name, and deal cards next to the "labels". You know, use the virtual table like an actual virtual table . The PCs can sleeve their cards the same way, so provide a space for that too. It takes a bit manual work, but seriously, it shouldn't be an issue at all. My only question is at the moment is: can I peek at a card without showing it to all players? As a GM I can move the card to the GM layer, reveal it, and return it to the token layer. But a quicker option would be cool.. Oh, and plan B still stands: I don't think there's any real reason not to handle the Marshal's deck physically. That only leaves the sleeved cards of the PCs to require some virtual table space.

Admittedly I haven't worked with cards a whole lot, but couldn't you place the deck on a part of the map that isn't revealed to the players and keep the cards there?

I'd just have the decks set up for everybody and they should only draw from their own deck. You may want to have a different card back for each player and maybe set up the deck so that only certain people can draw from that deck, etc. The only problem I see is the table top will get cluttered with a lot of decks lined up. But if they draw the cards themselves, the cards will go to the players hand. Set the deck up so that they only the card backs are visible and then no need to do anything special to hide the cards.

they have card decks in the roll 20 system. Just use those. I love the classic system if you looking for players I'm well versed.

Decks and tables -> Playing Cards -> Deal them :-) It's easy, and a very "feely" way to do initiative. Also makes it very easy to keep track of initiative, have players "shuffle" their cards back into the deck when they take a turn. A deck for your huxter is useful too. You don't want to skew too many black jokers in there.... do you? :P If a player takes their action "up their sleeve", just have them rotate the card, put a hash near it, skip them, etc... Something so that it doesn't mess you up :-) Minions generally you'll want to group together, "big baddy" might get a separate action hand(Or not... depending on how fast things are flowing). It doesn't necessarily have to be secret, that's up to you... Also, rolling initiative isn't necessary for all minions or badasses. You can "assume 1" or "assume 2" actions, if gameplay is slowing, especially on minions. There's a rough guideline based on their quickness... I believe 2d8/1d10 is the mark for "averaging two actions". The (Q) roll for major villains shouldn't be handwaved generally; giving them the chance to explode into action is part of the suspense.

I hate using cards in either original deadlands or savage worlds here is what I use after the quickness check: 1.) use a D10+d5 ties go to flip a coin>players>majors>goons. This produces same number of 13. Use a double 1 as the ace. 2.) double roll quickness, first time for number of actions(as normal), second time for the order. both times are based of a TN of fair when a raise occurs in the second role it breaks ties

Forgive me if I am misunderstanding but the process would go like this: 1.Determine how many cards each PC, NPC, Monster, etc gets. 2.For each card an entity gets give it a turn on the tracker. For instance if Bob rolled and got two cards you would give him two turns on the tracker (right click his token then add turn). 3.Next get the deck of cards out from the side menu. 4.Shuffle them. 5.Click Deal. 6.Click Deal Cards to Turn Order Items. 7.Click the cog on the turn order window. 8.Then under sort click by card/suit.

The difficult part of this is that, in Original Deadlands, every player has her/his own initiative deck, and Hucksters get their own Spell Deck (in addition to the Initiative Deck). So, with three players and a GM, there would be a minimum of 4 Initiative Decks. Unless you modify how iniative works, things will get cluttered. Ok - so, having messed around with this a little, you could create a separate deck of cards for each player (again, I'd recommend changing the card back so it's different for each player) and the GM Deck could be hidden from the players. That's still going to create a lot of decks of cards on the table top, but it looks like it puts them in a box that is scrollable, so may not be as big of a deal as I initially thought. You'd configure the decks so that they are visible to players and so players can draw cards, that way each player can take their own initiative cards without GM intervention necessary. Then the cards are in hands and invisible to everyone (as long as you don't make the front's visible) and they can play the cards when it comes up by dropping them on the table. I realize this is very similar to what I wrote above, but I hadn't had a chance to mess around with the decks before I posted that and now I have, so figured I'd just reiterate and clarify. Oh - and after you set up the initial deck, you should be able to duplicate it to make subsequent deck creation easy--then you'd just need to change your card back for each player.

@Carl- The action deck is not generated individually in the Deadlands Classic in question(see pg. 115 of the guide). One for players, one for baddies. Huxters can get their own deck for hexes, or opt to use the initiative deck. Which, they won't... probably. If you're using the "nice" backlash table they might, especially if you've ever screwed a player with fate chips :-) A huxter using the initiative deck is basically reducing the chances of manitou on initiative rolls. The opportunity cost on which deck to use is either "Backlash" OR "Lost turn and give a fate chip to the GM", on a black manitou. The H&H backlashes are nice enough to make 1 deck for players a reasonable option... I'd leave it up to the huxter though. 2 decks isn't horrible; bear in mind that you can change the pixel size of the cards as well. Make sure the player deck is "drawable" by players, saves you the effort of dealing them out; they can manage their own deck. You should only really have to mess with the NPC action deck. "Rollable tables" is another option, if you dont want cards on the table. (/gmroll 1t[action]) as an example for a secret initiative, where [action] is your action deck. Make it into a button and click it :-P

heck, i think you can even change the look of the cards to match the deadlands poker decks. i have seen a pdf of the cards online somewhere, and they could be substituted for a classic deck. off topic a bit, i know, but still possible.

@Brad My bad...it's been about 13 years since I played DL:Classic and for some reason I remembered everyone having his/her own deck. And we palyed the first edition of DL:C so my page was 83. It could also be that we did play with everyone getting his/her own Action Deck, because the phrase was kinda ambiguous and could be interpreted multiple ways. I honestly can't remember and know how faulty memory can be... Ignore the old man; I've gone a bit senile. :) I'd recommend Decks of Cards as opposed to Rollable Tables, though, because Rollable Tables wouldn't take cards out of circulation and in theory everyone could end up with Jokers in a round rather than just one or two people.