PDA

View Full Version : [Whatevs] Speeding up games with lots of players



Pollip
2009-02-05, 10:15 PM
Dear you people,

I'll be the dungeon master of a game pretty soon that will have nine players. I've had lots of trouble with six and seven people playing, so I'm a bit worried about having even more.

I started thinking of ways I could speed up stuff like combat. I figure I'll divide the party into three parts: the high dexterity scores, the medium dexterity scores, and the low dexterity scores. That way, instead of keeping track of nine initiatives plus any monsters, it'll just be three rolls. Everyone in the high group goes in descending order of dexterity score, or any way they decide to do it.

And I know about rolling your attack roll die with your damage die to speed the process up. Other stuff like that though, that people have figured out over the millennia, would be helpful not only to me, but to everybody looking at this thread.

Well, thanks.

ShneekeyTheLost
2009-02-05, 10:23 PM
*Purchase a two-minute hourglass. They aren't too hard to find. Failing that, something that can time two minutes and beep when the time is up.

Every player has two minutes to describe his character's actions. He may plan his actions during the other player's turns. At the end of two minutes, your turn is OVER. Your character froze in panic, and couldn't figure out what to do.

*Declare everyone and everything 'takes 10' on their initiative check. Thus, arrange players clockwise in order of Initiative Bonus, and go 'round the table.

*50 DKP XP penalty for talking when it is not your turn.

Nohwl
2009-02-05, 10:38 PM
when i ran a big group i had them roll for initiative once. it would always start with whoever won, and then it would alternate between clockwise and counter clockwise. everyone knows when they are going, and you dont have to keep track of it. i also gave people 15 seconds to start their action. if you wanted to cast a spell, you had to say the name of the spell you were casting in the 15 seconds. you didnt have to have the book opened to the page in those 15 seconds, but you had to know what spell you were casting.

Prometheus
2009-02-05, 11:13 PM
I dm'd a group for a very long time that oscillated between five and seven players. I kept track of initiative, but whenever a block of PCs were next on the initiative count, I let them all act at the same time (or whatever order they preferred) before going to the next group on the initiative count. I asked all PCs to plan their actions in advance and trusted all players to be honest about their dice rolls, so they could right down all their rolls while other players were going, which helped especially with the hasted unicorn riding paladin and the hasted flurrying monk. Likewise, I would usually have the moves and the rolls of the NPCs/monsters rolled in advance (not only combat rolls, but also hp and treasure). It did take a little bit to record the initiative in the beginning, but the PCs were real good about asking each other and sorting themselves out while I recorded the order.

Speed and description are trade-offs when it comes to combat. Generally, I would only describe in detail pivotal actions of the PCs or the actions of the monsters. Out of combat, of course, could be quite more descriptive, but you still have to sacrifice some when it comes to large groups. In a large group, you just won't be able to keep all of everyone's attention all the time - that's okay as long as they are having fun.

Also, I recommend using a computer. It can be useful keeping notes about the rolls, initiative counts, and status effects so that the book-keeping goes quicker. I also had an automatic die roller which I would use for a horde of monsters (or occasionally, a PC would request I roll a fireball or the like).

valadil
2009-02-05, 11:24 PM
I use initiative cards instead of a list. I have a card for each character plus me1, me2, and me3. Players call out initiative and I sort the cards accordingly. Each turn I call whatever name is on the top then move that card to the back of the queue.

This is better because the card stack holds the state of whose turn it is. I don't worry about losing my place. It also becomes infinitely easier to change the order if players delay their actions.

For larger games (mine is only 4 players) I recommend calling out whose turn it is as well as who is up next. This is especially helpful if your players get distracted (which happens often in bigger games with more time between combat). Players who are on deck should think about what their action will be. 90% of the time, players should know their plan for the turn before the turn starts. This helps ensure that that happens.

Pollip
2009-02-05, 11:29 PM
To Schneekey: I apologize in advance if you were joking, I'm really bad at detecting sarcasm transmitted via forum post. Assuming you were serious: Dang, man! That seems pretty harsh! I bet your players learned to organize themselves pretty quick with those consequences. Did you warn them first? I'd be pretty angry if that happened to me without first getting a stern talking to, at least.

To Prometheus: That's something I never thought of, having them roll while others' turns are happening. It would save a lot of time, and if people cheat during my games, I usually don't care too much, so that wouldn't be a problem either. The only thing I can see wrong with it is if the player wants to make a big deal about his roll. Y'know, like "Okay bros, if I don't get 13 or higher, I get turned to stone. Hi-Ya!" Maybe it's just me and the people I play with who like to dramatize stuff like that.

To Valadil: Cards are a good idea. We write our initiative on a white board, and it takes forever, because we rewrite it for every encounter. Thank you, and everybody.

To everybody: How about speeding up Non-combat situations? I've considered using a timer to keep town nonsense (Townonsense) to a minimum. We're pretty bad about the no talking rules, though. Everybody (me included) has to add their own hilarious retorts.

Knaight
2009-02-06, 12:22 AM
You might want to switch to a faster system. D&D is too slow, switch to Savage Worlds, Fudge, Fate, or the like. Combat in those moves fairly quickly, so its less of an issue(Savage Worlds is probably the slowest of the three). My personal favorite is Fudge, as its a great system, but there are a lot of systems you can use.

Who_Da_Halfling
2009-02-06, 01:41 AM
I've used the card system and it works great. This is especially true since I have a large group (6 PCs) and they often fight crowds of enemies. I even put some basic info on the cards (HP and AC, generally) so I don't have to look at my notes for much of the combat. I also make a point of indicating which PC is next to act (i.e. who has the turn after the current player). This way people get their act together and prepare a little bit so they don't drag things down. The only one who it's really a problem for is the wizard, who isn't that experienced (really, only one or two of the players are), so she has to look up a lot of spells. I try to give her more warning than anyone else.

The group does have a hard time keeping the in-battle planning to a minimum, but they usually decide something quickly when i loudly ask what they're doing. I hadn't thought about instituting a time-limit, maybe if the next combat drags too much I'll start that.

Anyway, to recap: Initiative cards, great idea. On-deck PC circle, also great idea.

-JM

Jimbob
2009-02-06, 08:25 AM
The one minute rule, you cant go wrong with it. If a player has not already thought of what they are going to do, they have a minute to think/act. It has helped our games run much quicker and to this day no one has gone over which is a good thing because I dont know what would happen after that.

Another good one we do, is if we are fighting lots of monsters to create cards rather then using figures, these have AC, HP and some times for bigger/tougher monsters saves. The players can write on the card when they hit if it does not kill them and its less information that the DM has to try and keep up with. Or if you want even less controll is let the players run the monsters if they are from the MM or bog standard monsters, obviously special monsters or bosses the DM has controll over but its a good way to keep the players focused on the battle.

Or if area effect spells are also slowing down the combact then there is metal spell frames you can get (with different area effects sizes) these can be put onto the mat and it speeds things up again.

Triaxx
2009-02-06, 09:36 AM
Nine? Easy. Tell everyone that to aid the speed of combat, you want them to write out a set of cards with basic options for combat. Charge would have speed, weapon type, damage die, and critical modifier. AoE spells should have two cards. One with the details, and the other which is a cut out of the size and shape of the spell.

A Co-DM is also an option, using the most experienced player to gather up the other players selections. That way you can concentrate on rolling the die and recording results.

valadil
2009-02-06, 10:46 AM
Regarding non combat situations, I fast forward through most trivial encounters. Haggling, hotel rooms, etc can all easily be bypassed unless there's a specific plot point attached or if a player has something in mind. Usually I'll tell my players "unless anyone has anything they wanted to do I'm going to fast forward to the next morning." I'm sure there are some roleplayers who object to that but I don't play with them.

Jimbob suggested metal frames. We've been doing something similar - pipe cleaners. I picked up a bag of them for $3 at an arts and crafts store. Contorting them into shapes that don't interfere too much takes a little practice, but now that we have them I'd never go back. We mostly have 10' squares for grease and 20' spheres for fireball. It's also nice that they come in a variety of colors so your stinking cloud and black tentacles don't end up looking the same on the board. These help speed up the game in two situations: if you're players are spatially challenged they can line up the pipe cleaner to see where their AoE will hit and if you have casters dropping lots of persistent AoEs these are easier to manage than constantly redrawing and erasing areas.

TheOOB
2009-02-06, 11:47 PM
Organization has already been mentioned. Unless the player is one of those people who can memorize their character sheet, they need to have a list of all the abilities they are likely to perform and all associated die rolls.

Have people roll attack and damage rolls(and such) at the same time with different colored dice.

And make sure people are planning their action before their turn. If the player is looking up spells or abilities on their turn something is wrong. They should know before their turn generally what they are going to do, and should be ready to take their action as soon as you announce their turn. Occasionally something dramatic will happen right before their turn which will cause them to have to change their plans, but generally you can have an idea what you are doing your next turn long before that turn comes up.

I actually ran a game of 7th Sea to help deal with this. In that game everyone gets a number of actions at different initiative counts (between 1 and 10), by rolling dice, and the GM starts the round saying "1...2...3...ect" Its your job as a player to stop the GM on the count you want to act on and declare your action. If you can't figure out what to do, then you just delayed your action.

You can do that is most games as well. If a player can't figure out what to do, delay their action until after the next guy, they'll get the message.