An Optional Idea for Dragon Rampant Activation

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

I still play the odd game of DR.  I have recently tried a different approach to get around the problem on an early failed activation completely ending one players turn.

Instead the failed activation ends only that units turn and transfers the initiative to the opponent who will keep activating units until he/she fails an activation.  Then the initiative returns to the original player and so on until each player has activated/failed to activate all units.  The turn then finishes.  Players dice to see who gets the initiative first and start over again with a new turn.
I play solo, but I imagine this would keep all players involved and not leave them with the feeling that there is nothing to do if they fail an activation early.

Bob activates unit A but fails with B.
Initiative moves to Sue who activates units 1,2,3,4 and fails to activate 5.
Bob now has initiative.  He has activated/failed with A and B but can now activate C, D, fails on E (his last unit).
Sue regains the initiative activating her last unit, 6.
The turn ends.
Dice for initiative.

I have a small marker by each unit, once it has been activated (or fails) the marker is removed.

This seems to work well but, having only used this in three games, some glaring problems may still appear.

[Hobgoblin]

That looks good. It's essentially the FUBAR activation system, I think. One twist in that game is that 'failing' units go on overwatch. That might work too - allowing missile-armed units to shoot at chargers, for example.

As I said in the Oathmark thread, I've never had a problem with the DR activation system in two-player games, but did encounter it as a major problem in a four-player game recently - exacerbated by the fact that we were playing Xenos Rampant (which has TMWWBK-style free activations for most units) with one side consisting entirely of DR units (so no free activations). The player for that side failed his opening activation three times in a row. The solution, in retrospect, would have been to have afforded all his melee-only units a free Move action.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

That's a pretty sound idea indeed. It'll require markers (which some may not be a fan of), but it sounds like a nice twist on the DR activation system.

[Gibby]

I like the sound of this amendment. Could end up being a vital house rule (same as ignoring the spacing between friendlies rule like we always do).

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

That's a pretty sound idea indeed. It'll require markers (which some may not be a fan of), but it sounds like a nice twist on the DR activation system.

It's a marker that doesn't need to carry any information.  Use a small stone, a large grass tuft, a banner.