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Loki_42
2011-12-13, 02:50 PM
Hello. As the title suggests, I'm looking for ways to make game-play faster. This is after a particularly bad session where it took 5 hours to run through what I designed to be about 1. The system we were using is 3.5, but I figure this is applicable to any rules light system. Things we figured out on our own and are going to implement are having multiple updated copies of sheets, which was indeed a problem, and the more radical change of making some slower, less plot-critical rolls(I.E. Initiative, Skills) in advance and just referring back to them instead of wasting time rolling dice. This is turning into a major problem in my group, and I'd really like some help working through it.

valadil
2011-12-13, 03:03 PM
This comes up a lot so I've saved my response elsewhere. These tips are meant for speeding up play with a large group, but I think they still apply. http://gm.sagotsky.com/?p=225

Loki_42
2011-12-13, 03:35 PM
Thank you, I really like some of those. The On-deck one is especially cool.

BRC
2011-12-13, 04:18 PM
Where are things slowing down? Are players spending too much time debating? is combat taking too long? Are you spending time looking up rules? Are the players getting off-track?

Some basic tricks I use
1: Don't sweat the little stuff. Things like mundane ammunition or exact weight for equipment just slows down the game in my opinion. Unless you're running a survival-type campaign where arrows are hard to come by, keeping track of mundane ammunition is just extra bookeeping.
2: Don't be afraid to fudge things a little to speed things along. I frequently work by a "Close Enough" principle, basically if the PC's are still all fairly well off, and a monster gets dropped down to 2 or 3 hit points (Assuming mid-high level play), I'll sometimes just say "Close enough" and kill off the monster, rather than stretching things out by going through another round of combat.
3: Time the players. If you have a big group, players may spend lots of time each combat deciding what to do or debating actions. If you find this is slowing things down, then institute some rules. Players cannot discuss what they should do outside of a quick in-character exchange, and each player has 45 seconds or so to declare what they are doing, otherwise they delay their action until the next person in the Initiative order has gone.

Loki_42
2011-12-13, 04:33 PM
@^ Things are slowing down in all those areas. Really it's all because of combat though, in rp sections, we're usually fairly quick, except for the debates, which don't take up to much time. But I run rp a lot more rules-light than I do combat, basically the roleplaying sections are just talking with the occasional Diplomacy/Bluff check thrown in. Combats where it slows down, because I have to look up all the rules, and nobody really knows what they're doing.

kyoryu
2011-12-13, 04:45 PM
My suggestion is actually pretty simple:

Get a timer. Try and figure out where the time is actually going. Start with the time, in minutes, per player turn, and the time it takes for you to handle the monsters. Break down further if necessary.

Once you know where the time is going, you can start to focus on what to do to speed it up.

Thrice Dead Cat
2011-12-13, 07:18 PM
If things are painfully slow, definitely go with a timer. Maybe talk to your players, too, as not everyone is tactically-minded. If people are browsing the net during fights, ask them to stop, possibly going into a full "no electronics/magazines allowed" deal.

Loki_42
2011-12-13, 08:39 PM
I am definitely going to pick up an egg timer. At first I would have thought timing everyone was a bit draconian, but I think it's what it'll take.

DropsonExistanc
2011-12-14, 01:59 AM
I've downloaded a timer app for my Blackberry for my 4e Encounters group, which will also be used during Lair Assault (mostly the same people). I've oddly found that the people who snort in derision during roleplay and play the game like a tactical miniatures game rather than an RPG are the ones who take 3 minutes to decide what to do on their turn. Then spend a further 4 minutes trying to think up a simple descriptive analogy for their attacks.

I've also experienced issues with people not having their dice out. At a D&D game. They pull out one at a time, then put it back when they're done... something I will be putting an end to if I have to collect all the bags and containers at the start of every game!

Velaryon
2011-12-14, 02:45 AM
All the advice that's been given so far is quite good, especially that link in the first reply which is a gold mine of ideas. In particular, the "on-deck" option should reduce the indecision time at the beginning of everyone's turns.

Surprisingly, nobody has said "Make sure people roll all their dice at once" yet. Maybe it's so obvious it goes without saying, but rolling attack and damage at the same time, or maybe even multiple attacks/damages at the same time if you have the dice for it, can speed up people's turns.

Anybody using spells/maneuvers/stances/soulmelds/any other sort of power that they can choose to use on a round-by-round basis ought to have a quick reference handy, whether it be notecards or printouts or whatever. A lot of time is wasted flipping back and forth between multiple pages, or worse yet multiple books, trying to decide what spell to cast. With everything in one handy location, that problem is reduced.

Also, I've seen a lot of situations where things get bogged down because somebody is trying to use a power they don't really understand. Maybe it's just my bad luck, but I frequently run into people trying to cast a spell when they've only read the one-line description in the spell list section, rather than the actual spell description. If you make sure that everybody understands their capabilities, you should have less time wasted on people misusing their abilities or asking for constant clarification.

zanetheinsane
2011-12-14, 03:17 AM
We have two rather large battlemats so there is always a little "dead room" at the ends for players to scrawl notes, add up attack modifiers, etc on.

I'm a little OCD but I use this extra room to organize my dice. I pick out a 3x7 area and arrange my 3 dice sets in columns so that they are easy to see. Way too many times I see other players rummaging around in a pool of dice looking for a certain die. This is especially helpful if you are the DM. You can easily glance over at your dice and pick out what you need immediately.

Kerrin
2011-12-14, 12:44 PM
...play the game like a tactical miniatures game rather than an RPG are the ones who take 3 minutes to decide what to do on their turn. Then spend a further 4 minutes trying to think up a simple descriptive analogy for their attacks.
In our group we call this "dithering" and razz each other mercilessly when one of us does it too much.


Anybody using spells/maneuvers/stances/soulmelds/any other sort of power that they can choose to use on a round-by-round basis ought to have a quick reference handy, whether it be notecards or printouts or whatever.
Something I do when I play a spellcaster is that I have a spreadsheet with information about each spell I've ever used for any spellcaster. I can then mail merge with a template in a word processing document just all the spells for my character. Then I can print out nice Avery cards with all the spells for that character, one per card. Having the cards on hand at the table not only makes the spell information readily available when casting the spell, but it also make it easy when selecting which spells to load up each in-character day.


I'm a little OCD but I use this extra room to organize my dice. I pick out a 3x7 area and arrange my 3 dice sets in columns so that they are easy to see.
I do the same thing. I lay out my dice with a couple of each type together in order from d20s down through d4s so it's easy to grab whatever kind of dice I need for a roll.

bloodtide
2011-12-14, 02:34 PM
1.The first thing to do is to get everyone together and get everyone to agree that they want the game to move faster. If you can't get everyone to agree, it will be a problem. If the people agree to do things to move the game along faster, it's much better then forcing people to move the game along faster. Though, note, you will have to force some players to play fast....

2.For the agreeable players, have them get copies of any rules they might need. The whole SRD is online, so you can print all that up no problem. They should have the skills, feats, spells, and so forth they will need right in front of them. And a couple seconds on a computer and you can even organize and arrange them. If you live in a computerless area, you can still do this old school and write all the stuff sown by hand. The DM can help out here too by making hand outs of the needed rules.

3.Once each player has the rules and information they might need for the game, they need to customize it. Add each unique character's modifiers to all the needed rules. The DM can help here, and e-mails during the week of 'downtime' work great. You want to be a detailed as possible. So for example, under Enlarge Person you would have all the needed stats for the character at large size.

4.Try to make combat 'less important'; have more small fights then big ones. Let everyone get used to fighting. When it's just some goblins players will just attack, but when it's Lord Doom they will get all fluster and feel they must do the perfect attack.

5.You will get the slow players that refuse to speed up. The best thing you can do is to simply skip them. When their action comes up, give them a set time to act. Should they waste the time, then just skip them. Fully offer to help the player make notes and battle sheets. But if they still say 'no I want to slow down the game and ruin the fun for everyone', then skip them.