Post by Velaryon on Dec 14, 2011 3:13:14 GMT -5
We all know that D&D combats sometimes take much longer to finish than is reasonable, for example the final battle vs. the Eyes of Night guild had to stretch out over three whole sessions of practically nothing but combat.
As much as I sometimes depend on combat to eat up some game time when I don't feel like I have enough prepared, things definitely get too bogged down. So I've got some suggestions for ways to keep combats flowing smoothly and hopefully take up less time. Some of this is obvious, some of it we may already do to an extent, and much of it I swiped off of forums I go to, but anyway, please tell me what you think.
1. "On deck" - This one is on me to implement, but I think it's a really good idea. Basically, when one person's turn comes up, I look at the initiative list, see who's coming up next after them, and tell that person they're on deck, meaning they need to start thinking about their turn. If everybody was 100% focused on what was going on in the battle the entire time, this wouldn't be necessary but that's just not realistic. Sometimes you need to look stuff up, sometimes the mind wanders if there's a lot going on between your turns. So if, during the turn before yours, I say to you "hey, your turn is next so plan out what you want to do," I think that should help people make decisions faster. What do you think?
2. Have your dice out and ready when your turn comes up. This is usually only a problem early in the sessions, and I'm as guilty of it as anyone, frequently needing to find my dice bag the first time I'm called upon to roll a d20 for something. But the benefit here is obvious - if at the beginning of combat (at least), you have all the dice you are likely to need on the table in front of you, then things will go quicker. Not always possible, but when it can be done it does help.
3. On the subject of dice, rolling attacks and damage at the same time instead of one after the other. Some of us already do this, but it does speed things up especially when you have multiple attacks per turn.
4. Pre-rolling initiative. I've done this a couple times by pre-rolling for the enemies, and then just plugging you guys in wherever you land, and it does help. But we could take it a step further. You guys could roll your initiative ahead of time also, either at the beginning of the session or whenever you know you're heading into something that might have combat. Whether to do this I'll leave up to you guys, though it would take a group consensus to be useful.
5. Know how your stuff works. This applies for any spells, maneuvers, stances, or whatever you have, as well as feats or magic items that are use-activated rather than providing an always-on boost. It also means reading the full description of spells, not just the one-sentence rundown that is posted at the beginning of the spells chapter. Write it down if necessary, maybe even make notecards or something with your most frequently used abilities on them. I have notecards if anybody needs to borrow some.
6. If you have to be away from the table, whether it's to go to the bathroom, answer a phone call, or whatever, plan out your next turn. Either tell somebody what you plan to do, or assign control of your character to someone whom you trust not to get you in too much trouble while you're away. It seems like at least once a session we have to wait for somebody who went to the bathroom. It happens, especially in a setup like we have. But we can keep things moving better if everyone either decides their next turn before they leave, or assigns somebody else to decide for them.
I don't believe we have a big enough problem here to require extreme measures. I have heard of groups that use an egg timer and set a time limit for players to make up their mind on what their character does. We're obviously not anywhere near that bad. But I do feel like we could do some things to make combat flow faster and not waste as much time, so I've brought them up here for everyone's consideration.
Just food for thought.
As much as I sometimes depend on combat to eat up some game time when I don't feel like I have enough prepared, things definitely get too bogged down. So I've got some suggestions for ways to keep combats flowing smoothly and hopefully take up less time. Some of this is obvious, some of it we may already do to an extent, and much of it I swiped off of forums I go to, but anyway, please tell me what you think.
1. "On deck" - This one is on me to implement, but I think it's a really good idea. Basically, when one person's turn comes up, I look at the initiative list, see who's coming up next after them, and tell that person they're on deck, meaning they need to start thinking about their turn. If everybody was 100% focused on what was going on in the battle the entire time, this wouldn't be necessary but that's just not realistic. Sometimes you need to look stuff up, sometimes the mind wanders if there's a lot going on between your turns. So if, during the turn before yours, I say to you "hey, your turn is next so plan out what you want to do," I think that should help people make decisions faster. What do you think?
2. Have your dice out and ready when your turn comes up. This is usually only a problem early in the sessions, and I'm as guilty of it as anyone, frequently needing to find my dice bag the first time I'm called upon to roll a d20 for something. But the benefit here is obvious - if at the beginning of combat (at least), you have all the dice you are likely to need on the table in front of you, then things will go quicker. Not always possible, but when it can be done it does help.
3. On the subject of dice, rolling attacks and damage at the same time instead of one after the other. Some of us already do this, but it does speed things up especially when you have multiple attacks per turn.
4. Pre-rolling initiative. I've done this a couple times by pre-rolling for the enemies, and then just plugging you guys in wherever you land, and it does help. But we could take it a step further. You guys could roll your initiative ahead of time also, either at the beginning of the session or whenever you know you're heading into something that might have combat. Whether to do this I'll leave up to you guys, though it would take a group consensus to be useful.
5. Know how your stuff works. This applies for any spells, maneuvers, stances, or whatever you have, as well as feats or magic items that are use-activated rather than providing an always-on boost. It also means reading the full description of spells, not just the one-sentence rundown that is posted at the beginning of the spells chapter. Write it down if necessary, maybe even make notecards or something with your most frequently used abilities on them. I have notecards if anybody needs to borrow some.
6. If you have to be away from the table, whether it's to go to the bathroom, answer a phone call, or whatever, plan out your next turn. Either tell somebody what you plan to do, or assign control of your character to someone whom you trust not to get you in too much trouble while you're away. It seems like at least once a session we have to wait for somebody who went to the bathroom. It happens, especially in a setup like we have. But we can keep things moving better if everyone either decides their next turn before they leave, or assigns somebody else to decide for them.
I don't believe we have a big enough problem here to require extreme measures. I have heard of groups that use an egg timer and set a time limit for players to make up their mind on what their character does. We're obviously not anywhere near that bad. But I do feel like we could do some things to make combat flow faster and not waste as much time, so I've brought them up here for everyone's consideration.
Just food for thought.
