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Thajocoth
2010-06-13, 05:38 PM
RPGs have a lot of math (mostly addition). What advice do you have for speeding up all these little calculations?

EDIT: I think much of what people have said below is specific to a system I'm not playing. I did not specify a system as I was looking for generalized answers. I've already done the maximum I can do as far as precalculating anything. See post #6 if you care to know what system I'm playing and what I've precalculated.

PId6
2010-06-13, 05:41 PM
Writing out all of your potential bonuses/penalties beforehand.

Calculators.

Pink
2010-06-13, 05:43 PM
Mentally? I hear good things about flash cards, or one of those brain teaser DS games.

Otherwise calculator. Doesn't get much quicker than that, unless you're forgetting things to add or what your bonuses are, which is just bad sheet notes which is something altogether different.

Ernir
2010-06-13, 05:47 PM
Just practice.

AslanCross
2010-06-13, 05:53 PM
Practice has indeed helped me a lot. I'm really bad at math, but D&D has really helped my mental computation. This even spilled over into my graduate studies.

A lot of my practice comes from adding dice. Tossing 10d6 dice and adding that up is good practice. What I usually do is add the dice that add up to 10 first, then just add the rest which don't.

Pre-calculating everything is also very helpful, especially in making monsters with say, power attack. Write out the attack line without power attack, then write down the Power Attack version with the subtracted AB and the enhanced damage.

Thajocoth
2010-06-13, 06:01 PM
I've found that a calculator doesn't really speed it up. It's a 4e game, if that matters to anyone, but I don't see why it would. All RPGs have a lot of math, so this is a fairly general question.

Of course I forget these bonuses a lot:
* Charge: +1 atk
* Combat Advantage: +2 atk
* Received heal (bonus from ally, handed to me on a card): +3 to next atk
* Action Point (bonus from ally): Choose +3 atk, +7 dmg or +14 dmg
* (Listed on Action Point power) Action Point: +11 radiant dmg to all attacks this turn
* (Listed on sheet) Target is aberrant: +6 dmg
* (Listed on sheet, and written on a card I give myself) Tattoo activation when I'm bloodied adding +1 to my next atk and +4 to my next damage

Those are really all my conditional bonuses, and I usually don't have any of them to add. I meant just, any tricks to adding more quickly. Like, one person suggested to me recently adding the 10s first, then the 1s, rather than the way I was doing it. If you look at the last page of this (http://www.gamecheetz.com/Cedarsting22.pdf), you'll see how I'm setting everything up ahead of time. Also, page 6 is always in front of me, and special things are listed in the lower right section there. I've optimized what I see for speed as best I could think of. It's just a matter of adding in the dice rolls and occasional conditionals, which I seem to be slower with on average than others are.

(The link is a printout for two levels + a wishlist, which is why it's so long. In front of me, I keep my character sheet and 3 sheets of powers with the margins cut off, which together take up about the same space as a character sheet. A beast form copy of my character sheet has the hit point box cut out & rests on top of my normal character sheet with all beast form bonuses already listed on it. Written in next to the relevant boxes are the results of a +7 to initiative, +1 to perception, +1 to passive perception and +5 to dungeoneering for knowledge checks, as well as the world "Climb" next to my speed, so I remember that I have a Climb Speed of my Speed.)

Myatar_Panwar
2010-06-13, 06:23 PM
If you are a rogue, keep a notecard or note next to your damage for whatever additional modifiers you may get when you SA.

If you are a barbarian, keep a flashcard near by with your to-hit and to-damage bonuses when raging. No reason to do the math every time you attack.

Basically, any class should just have an extra couple of sheets handy for circumstantial bonuses.

edit: For just straight up adding dice together in a quick fashion, get in the habit of pooling together sets of 10 and then just counting up how many sets you have and any remainder.

Gnaeus
2010-06-13, 06:29 PM
Not re math in particular, but setting a player to help keep track of initiative can help speed combat along.

Rixx
2010-06-13, 06:31 PM
Play a different system, really.

For dealing with multiple modifiers, having a little bar that reads from -10 to +10 with each number written down, and then using a little counter might help. That way you don't have to actually add the numbers, you can just shift around that little counter to the left or right.

Runestar
2010-06-13, 07:01 PM
Maximized effects don't require you to roll a fistful of dice or waste time adding them up. So you don't need to roll 24 d10s when your great wyrm red dragon uses its breath weapon, just tell the party (you take 240 fire damage, now roll for reflex). :smallbiggrin:

Thajocoth
2010-06-13, 07:15 PM
Play a different system, really.What system are you assuming that I'm playing?

I think much of what people are saying are specific to a system I'm not playing. I did not specify a system as I was looking for generalized answers. I've already done the maximum I can do as far as precalculating anything.


Not re math in particular, but setting a player to help keep track of initiative can help speed combat along.

We already do plenty of things to speed combat along. The only bottleneck is with the actual math.

Pink
2010-06-13, 07:51 PM
Considering charge only gives a +1 to attacks, and you're mentioning 'radiant' type damage, I think it's safe to assume you're playing 4e.

demidracolich
2010-06-13, 07:55 PM
It's a 4e game, if that matters to anyone, but I don't see why it would.

No, really?:smalltongue: He's definitely not playing 4e.:smallwink:

Pink
2010-06-13, 07:58 PM
No, really?:smalltongue: He's definitely not playing 4e.:smallwink:

Sorry, I don't go back to read posts to see if they've been editted.

Knaight
2010-06-13, 08:25 PM
If you have already pre calculated everything, then it is time to tweak mechanics. All those cases where you roll a handful of dice can be removed fairly easily. There are a few ways to do it, with varying leg work, shown below are examples from most work to least work.

1) Meticulously calculated curves. Every attack in 4e has a certain number of dice, and a certain number added. So, make a graph that correlates damage to probability of the quantity of damage or less, using percents, then roll a d100 and check the graph. No math at all except for in set up.

2) Curve and variation. Average damage, +/- a certain number of dice. A 100d10 attack would take forever to calculate. If you are willing to mess with the probabilities, you could even do something like 550+/-5d100, which involves adding far fewer numbers. Though it also allows slightly more damage in total.

3) Standardized curve, calculated percentage. Roll 1d10-1d10, to generate a number from -9 to +9. Multiply that by 10, and use that as a percentage of the total damage. Calculate the numbers for each of these percentages out before hand.

4) Double everyone's hit points. Maximum damage on every attack. Randomness is sadly reduced, and crits have to become x2, and it changes how some factors correlate a little, but it works.

5) Switch to a lighter system. Not all RPGs have a lot of math, I have no idea where that notion even came from. Savage Worlds is incredibly low math, Wushu and Risus even less, then there are lightweight dice pool systems. Not to mention quirky things like ORE. Sure, every game of D&D has a decent amount of basic addition in it, but D&D is not all RPGs. Thank god. And if you like complexity but still want basic math, use something like Burning Wheel, its heavy, but it is dice pool based and when lots of dice are rolled you simply count how many are 4+ (all dice are d6 in that system, and the above statement is a slight simplification.)

valadil
2010-06-13, 08:33 PM
The biggest thing you can do is plan ahead. If you know you're going to charge into a flank (assuming 4e for example's sake) mentally add the +1 and +2 to your attack bonus before your turn even starts.

The GM can help players do this by calling the next player when calling initiative. "Gorak, it's your turn. Torvald, you're on deck." Torvald would then have time to reevaluate the battle, plan his next move, and figure out all his relevant bonuses. He may even have time to look up rules (like how grapple works). Calling out who's on deck is also great if your players get distracted easily.

Thajocoth
2010-06-13, 11:45 PM
Sorry, I don't go back to read posts to see if they've been editted.

Yeah, it was an edit I added.

I was looking more for things like:
+9 is easier as +10 & -1
Pair up numbers that add to 10 together
Add tens place first, then the 1s place

Tricks for the addition itself, essentially. I'm the slowest in the group, and have put a lot into having as much precalculated as possible.

We already have the following streamlining things:
* One player handles all the mini marking
* Another sets up initiative, which rests on top of the DM screen so we can all see the initiative order and know when we're coming up
* I always plan ahead, though half the time I have to re-plan after the turn after mine.
* I have all my options visible at once and next to one another for quick lookup. I used to use cards, but printing from an Excel equivalent turns out to be faster in-game for me.

valadil
2010-06-14, 09:26 AM
Tricks for the addition itself, essentially. I'm the slowest in the group, and have put a lot into having as much precalculated as possible.


Play twenty four. It's a game where you take a set of four numbers and use addition to combine them into 24. You can buy cards with the number sets on them, but dice are just as good. I recommend using d12s.

For instance, I just got 6 12 7 12. The two 12s make it easy

(12 + 12) * (7 - 6)

I do this between rounds in combat. It really helps speed up your arithmetic.

subject42
2010-06-14, 09:33 AM
We have someone in the party who has similar issues, and for group bonuses, at least, we have a whiteboard with all of the various modifiers tallied up.

It can help if you have a buff-heavy party.