I'm still here.  I suggest the following, which I've used before with much better results than true initiative:<br/><br/>Every PC gets to go.  After a few days, the DM takes another turn for the NPCs, and then the PCs all get to go again.  If someone didn't go before, they may get to take two turns if they have some reason for taking so long.  Or, you can just let them take two turns, with a max of two, but I don't recommend doing that if the monsters are going to naturally avoid the people who aren't posting.<br/><br/>A mix of this which allows for surprise is to roll init, the players who beat out the monsters then get to go first, then the monsters, and then all the players again.  It works like this:<br/><br/>Init:<br/><br/>Bob<br/>George<br/>Monsters<br/>Martha<br/>Samantha<br/>Bob<br/>George<br/>Monsters<br/><br/>Bob goes first and Samantha goes last, but since I threw this together in order to make a point, I repeated the initiative over again in order to display how it works.  After all, in most games, you keep your initiative throughout the combat.<br/><br/>In this example, Bob and George would go first, although George could go before Bob.  It would just be whichever of them posts first.  Then the monsters would go.  After that, Bob, George, Samantha and Martha could go in any order, whichever of them posts first.  If they start taking too long, the monsters can just go again.<br/><br/>Really, though, I think it's easier to just let the players go in whatever order they want, then the NPCs, and then the players again, until battle stops.