Some tricks and advice to make D&D alot easier

[Emperor Tippy]

These are mostly process tricks, things you and your group can do to drastically speed up and streamline play.

1) Give every player a 1" binder (they cost about a buck each at CVS).

Have them make a character sheet for every single level, when they level they simply take out another character sheet and fill it out with the new information. This makes dealing with things like negative levels and feat/skill reorganization go a ton faster (it's literally just flipping back a page).

2) Make a page (or several) of every single rule and source reference that the character uses. Basically take your book, scan it into your computer, crop out everything but what you want, make the page, and then print it out. Are you making a two weapon swordsage? Then you should have every single rule regarding two weapon fighting on that page(s). A caster should have the full text of every spell that they use remotely regularly (and of every spell that they know if they are something like a Sorcerer). This drastically decreases both the number of books that must be on the table but also the amount of time that you spend verifying whether or not something is legal or possible.

3) In conjunction with the above two points, separate your items out onto another list. They inevitably end up cramped if you put them on your character sheet and they end up destroyed or altered often enough that keeping them separate is just easier.

4) As a DM, get a few binders. One will be your campaign binder. This should be filled with all of that campaign background/plot specific stuff. Whenever you introduce a persons, place, or thing, mark it down and simply put it into the binder (and at the end of the session go back and organize all of it).

Another binder should be filled with character sheets. Every time you stat up an NPC, monster, enemy, ally, or anything else go and make a copy of the sheet and put it in here. If you have the time go and stat up things like sheets for thieves, guards, bar room patrons, low level nobles, and everything else. As in step 2, put copies of any special information needed to use that individual with the sheet. Over time you will build up an entire stable of random characters that you can basically just drop in anywhere at a moments notice.

A third binder should be like the above but with maps and locations. Every map you make should be copied into here. Eventually you will be able to pretty much create an entire castle or city whole cloth in a minute or two by mixing and matching your maps and character sheets.

5) Pre-roll several hundred of each type of dice roll. These are to be used for your monsters and the like. Simply go down the list crossing out the next die roll in line as you use it. The only time I recommend actually rolling is if the monster has an ability to reroll or alter the dice roll. This drastically decreases the time it takes you as the DM to run your part of an encounter.

Do the above five things and you will find your games going alot faster and smoother, and that you can roll with the players actions alot easier. After a bit of play you will end up with a binder or two filled with characters and locations that you can simply drop in wherever as needed. This let's you treat the world as a sandbox with much greater ease and allows you to really build the world on the fly around the PC's.

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Feel free to comment or post your own tricks and advice to make DMing (or play) easier and smoother.

[Spuddles]

I really like the making a new character sheet for each level. I play my char maybe 3 times a month, so I find myself having to backwards engineer frequently.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_D_Z-D2tzi14/S8TRIo4br3I/AAAAAAAACv4/Zh7_GcMlRKo/s400/ALOT.png

[Crow]

6.) ****ing relax. It's just a game. I find this to be the #1 source of problems in D/D.

[Yawgmoth]

{{scrubbed}}

[Larkas]

7{{scrubbed}}

Wow, great advice!

Seriously though, great advices, Tippy! I'll be sure to give them a try, specially the one regarding having lots of pre-rolled dice ready! Rolling dice really DO take a lot of time and attention from the game.

[nedz]

Generally solid advice - I do most of this already

As a player: I pre-level my characters so that levelling up means I just turn to the new page and roll 1 dice for HP. My char sheets also contain shorthand notes about spells, but I don't bother with most general rules - only ones I'm not that familiar with which are relevant to the character.

As a DM: Re-using NPCs is a great idea, but in the past I've tried this but have rarely used old ones again. So I have tried this, but the milage is low.

Pre-rolling dice is just wrong I'm afraid. I link rolling the dice to performing the action; also I want random stuff to suprise me - I don't want the temptation to metagame.

As for Crows point: well this stuff does help to make life easier, less stressful, and more fun.

[Roguenewb]

I like it all, but in general not great advice for new players, who have no idea where there characters are going. But then again, some of us don't play with new players.

[Techsmart]

Personally, I found Initiative cards to be incredibly useful to me as a dm. It gives me a quick, one-glace access to what I need to know about my players. I personally created my own initiative cards that I use for all of my campaigns, so they include things like
Name, Class
HP (Current and max)
AC
Saves
Ability scores
Skill modifiers for skills that I roll (such as spot)
Anything functional about the character I need to know (Like if they have a class feature that gives freedom of movement, so that there is a second reminder that the web cast on the melee character doesn't bother him) This shortens time lost due to errors.
A little bit about the character
This lets me look at player, and in less than 10 seconds, know the basic crunch of a character without having to mull through a character sheet (especially when a player brings one of those 4-pagers).

[nedz]

Personally, I found Initiative cards to be incredibly useful to me as a dm. It gives me a quick, one-glace access to what I need to know about my players. I personally created my own initiative cards that I use for all of my campaigns, so they include things like
Name, Class
HP (Current and max)
AC
Saves
Ability scores
Skill modifiers for skills that I roll (such as spot)
Anything functional about the character I need to know (Like if they have a class feature that gives freedom of movement, so that there is a second reminder that the web cast on the melee character doesn't bother him) This shortens time lost due to errors.
A little bit about the character
This lets me look at player, and in less than 10 seconds, know the basic crunch of a character without having to mull through a character sheet (especially when a player brings one of those 4-pagers).

Yep, I use these too - albeit with less information. Old business cards are ideal - you just hand them out to the players, collect them in, and then sort.

What else do I use thats useful.
Numbered counters for mooks - I prefer figures but these help.
Coloured counters for some status effects - Invis mainly but stuff like webbed also.
Flying bases for flying, markers for walls of force/whatever.
Floorplans and Figures.
Dice, ...

[sol_kanar]

Iff you players are at least a little "computer-savvy" (as is sometimes the case for people who play D&D), you could substitute/integrate binders at points 1-4 with GoogleDocs or some other shared document. In this way, the players could share their character sheets with the DM, and the DM could share handouts and the like with the players when they get them.

Also:

8. A laptop with the complete 3.5/PF/whatever SRD HTML document (the whole site can be downloaded). Searching on the SRD instead that browsing through PHB, DMG and MM has changed my life.

[JoeYounger]

We like to use nickels as bad guys. Get $3 worth of nickels and then pick up a pack of those little colored stickers they use for marking prices at garage sells. Works like a champ. Who am I attacking? I'm attacking blue number 3. Oh, what's that? Yellow 4 provoked an attack of opportunity?!

[elonin]

I have found myself printing out a new character sheet every couple of levels from mythweavers, but am toying with the idea of having a progress sheet that tracks character progression. Think I might also include notes for xp earned each session and a recap of what happened.

I also second the idea of the dm having a status card for each character.

[killianh]

Another good trick (and I've had a problem player I've had to use this one for quite a few times) is put a turn time limit in. What they players are doing on their turn in combat is suppose to take up no more than 6 seconds, so I give the players a time limit to think on their toes like there characters would have to.

Usually I give about 30 Seconds because I play with a group of 6 mid range optimizers and they had everyone else's turn to put a plan together for their's. Not every group would agree with this but if streamlining and at table time wasted is an issue it works well

[Urpriest]

I like those suggestions, and have used milder versions of a few of them (I tend to print out any PrC I'm using, for example). I agree with one of the above posters that pre-rolling is a bit dangerous though. It's tricky to make sure that you never see the next roll, and if you see the next roll then it's hard to avoid letting that influence your actions. Having an electronic dice-roller is almost as fast and avoids that problem.

[Aeryr]

I like to keep a campaign journal, or a player journal of the campaign that I am playing. If it is done publicly it works wonders for plot hooks it allows the DM to see what the players think. For example, in one game we were tasked to search for a jar, finally when we found it the jar was wet, the player writing the notes wrote "so.. what the hell is supposed to be kept inside this jar?" that ended being a plot hook, even if at the beginning it was not going to be. It also makes it much easier to recap past games.

In our group, it's a bit large, we normally task a person (normally the healer) with keeping track of everyone's HP so it is an info quite easy to handle and also all the loot or stuff that we are carrying (total party wealth) sometimes someones forgets that he has the mcguffin.

[Grod_The_Giant]

2) Make a page (or several) of every single rule and source reference that the character uses. Basically take your book, scan it into your computer, crop out everything but what you want, make the page, and then print it out. Are you making a two weapon swordsage? Then you should have every single rule regarding two weapon fighting on that page(s). A caster should have the full text of every spell that they use remotely regularly (and of every spell that they know if they are something like a Sorcerer). This drastically decreases both the number of books that must be on the table but also the amount of time that you spend verifying whether or not something is legal or possible.

3) In conjunction with the above two points, separate your items out onto another list. They inevitably end up cramped if you put them on your character sheet and they end up destroyed or altered often enough that keeping them separate is just easier.

These. Oh god, these. I think the vast majority of "wasted" time I've seen in RPGs comes from people being not quite sure how an ability works, and having to look it up. At the very least, have book and page reference numbers.
I would add that players should have a sheet or two with brief descriptions of what their various feats, spells, and class abilities do-- not the full text, but something like "Smite evil: standard melee, +Cha to atk, + level to damage." Enough to know what the ability does without having to look at a book, except when there's a real rules argument.

Oh, and one more very simple thing that, I swear, I've seen more people do... add up your %^@%# numbers! Write out your attack bonus. Write out your save DCs. Write out your saves. Write out what they are with current buffs/debuffs. Don't hold up the game while you try to remember every ability score and feat affecting the roll.

[Deox]

One nifty little thing I've stared at our table is to make card "tents" of on going buffs / debuffs / effects.

My swiftblade, for example, whenever I cast haste, I (as the player) just plop my haste card in front of me which states the bonuses it grants (albeit in a very abridged form).

Makes it a lot easier to see, "Oh, we're hasted and we've all got a death ward active, cool!"

[rot42]

Solid advice from the Emperor. D&D is definitely a game that rewards preparation and planning.

* I keep a spreadsheet open for three dimensional combat. The Ogre Mage is 15' North, 15' West, and 20' up - can it be sneak attacked? (yes, at 29.15'). Terrain features get a reference height marked directly on the game board, and all flying creatures get d% to show how high up they are. The same sheet can be used as a dice roller.
* I have my characters pre-roll a couple of checks (mostly Spot and Search) at the start of the session so when there is something to find I can just look at the floating table and say "you and you get to act in the surprise round" or whatever.

[Chronos]

If we don't have binders available to put those pages in, can we substitute a shadowcaster or truenamer? :)

As for point 3, it never would have occurred to me not to do that. I usually have multi-page equipment lists anyway (you can buy a heck of a lot of mundane items with level 2 or 3 WBL).

[Roguenewb]

One nifty little thing I've stared at our table is to make card "tents" of on going buffs / debuffs / effects.

My swiftblade, for example, whenever I cast haste, I (as the player) just plop my haste card in front of me which states the bonuses it grants (albeit in a very abridged form).

Makes it a lot easier to see, "Oh, we're hasted and we've all got a death ward active, cool!"

I really like this. A lot. I will be stealing this for my JPM.

[Agent 451]

I'm sure that many of you have seen those plastic elevation meters in old Dragon issues (Dr. Wizard’s Elevation Indicator). We do something similar (and cheaper!). What we use is an empty toilet paper roll with ends capped off, and elevations written on in sharpie. It works wonders for tracking elevations. The only downside is that it is slightly too large for standard 1 inch grids, and in reality that isn't too big of a problem.

Edit: We also have one that is painted blue and has inverted elevations for tracking depth in water, but it sadly has never been utilized.

[Wookie-ranger]

I my old group we had a way to:
-make a 3D dungeon as be go.
-make a dungeon a head of time that the DM would reveal when we got there
-keep the
-create different enemies that look different,
-adjust equipment of mobs and players.
-Adjust pc and mob 'look'
-Show elevation

-it was essentially for free, since we had most of the stuff already.
-we could buy additional supplies at every toy store
-those supplies can always be reused, and a perfectly compatible

tiny down side:
it felt a little childish at first, but that didn't last long. It worked great and I would love to play like that again!

Answer:
Legos :smallbiggrin:

[Answerer]

Legos are a great answer.

The best answer to the 3D issue is to kill it with fire and never look back. There is nothing to be gained by attempting verisimilitude in flight or swimming; even when I play 3.5, I houserule away flight simulation. Abstraction is necessary for gameplay, at least with the materials that I use.

[Vegan Zombie]

Anything functional about the character I need to know (Like if they have a class feature that gives freedom of movement, so that there is a second reminder that the web cast on the melee character doesn't bother him) This shortens time lost due to errors.

I need to mention this to my GM. I swear next time he tries to Power Word me when I have Magic Circle Vs Evil cast he is going to throw a book at me :smallbiggrin:

[Man on Fire]

This is a trick I once read about. Give every player two coins. One you put next to his skill with highest bonus and second to his skill with lower bonus. Once per game, when he fails important skill check in skill with highest bonus, take the coin and allow him to reroll. He imagined his character to be great singer, this way the illusion won't be shattered by one unfortunate roll. But it comes with a price - also once per game, if he succedes in his lowest ranked skill, take the coin away and order him to re-roll. If he wanted his character to be terrible climber, he needs to pay the consequences.

[Andorax]

Home improvement stores sell full 4' x 8' sheets of abbitibby, or "shower enclosure board"....basically, a thin sheet of masonite with a white dry-erase friendly surface.

Buy one, cut one table-sized piece out of it, chop the rest into smaller boards (1' square works).

Using an exacto, a long metal ruler (4'), and a LOT of patience, score a 2" grid into the surface of the big board. Dry erase marker will accumulate in the scorelines, providing you with a huge dry-erase board with a permanent 10' square grid, which makes for quick and easy room drawing.

Hand out the other boards to players. Let them track hit points, effects, spell slots expended and such on the dry erase boards.

Task one of the players with tracking initiatives and calling out the "who's nexts"...then just insert your NPCs into it on their own respective turns.

Use another 12" square board (or just write on the main board) the damage totals of the critters you're running...add 'em up as you go. Jot down status effects as you go along.

You can also draw extra rooms that you can plunk down instantly into the fray, upper floors, rooftops, hidden chambers, ships, flying machines, or even use them to create "bad art" to depict what the heck is going on.

Hooray for a stack of small whiteboards and a bag full of multicolor dry erase markers.




If you have the technology, and the time, make a powerpoint presentation out of the major monsters and scenes...scan the module pictures directly from out of the module, edit out the text, and put them on screen. Surf for images you can use on the internet, pull monster pics out of the MM and other sources, etc. It's about a thousand percent better than trying to hold up the module and awkwardly cover up the text.



Take the time to print out those letters, notes, scrawled maps, and other handouts. Players LOVE handouts, and you'll never have to repeat that same three-paragraph long prophecy again (and again, and again, and again).

[Kazyan]

Have a list of your 'nope' buttons on hand. Immunities, resistances, panic buttons, utilities, whatever.

That time in which I got blasted by a lightning bolt, lost initiative, got blasted again, failed on both saves, and was dropped to -37--and then halfway through the next round, noticed my electricity immunity? That's what you have the list for.

[Lonely Tylenol]

These are mostly process tricks, things you and your group can do to drastically speed up and streamline play.

1) Give every player a 1" binder (they cost about a buck each at CVS).

Have them make a character sheet for every single level, when they level they simply take out another character sheet and fill it out with the new information. This makes dealing with things like negative levels and feat/skill reorganization go a ton faster (it's literally just flipping back a page).

It helps also if you have a "master binder" with which you can keep a copy of all relevant character sheets on your own (as I have done). At any given point, there should be two at least two copies of any single character sheet at the table--the player's personal copy, and my "master copy"--so that should one be lost, there is always a backup.


2) Make a page (or several) of every single rule and source reference that the character uses. Basically take your book, scan it into your computer, crop out everything but what you want, make the page, and then print it out. Are you making a two weapon swordsage? Then you should have every single rule regarding two weapon fighting on that page(s). A caster should have the full text of every spell that they use remotely regularly (and of every spell that they know if they are something like a Sorcerer). This drastically decreases both the number of books that must be on the table but also the amount of time that you spend verifying whether or not something is legal or possible.

I've found that it helps to simply have a short list with the basic relevant information as far as spellcasting and maneuvers are concerned (especially if there are a lot). Each of my players has a written copy of their spells/mysteries/maneuvers known list, which devotes 2-3 lines to each with the following:

Line 1-2:
Name of spell, mystery, power, or maneuver / Short-form description (usually found on the spell lists themselves; for example, the short-form description of the core Sorcerer/Wizard spells is found here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spellLists/sorcererWizardSpells.htm)); sometimes, the description may take up two lines / Spell, mystery, power, or maneuver level
Line 2 or 3:
Casting time or initiator time (written as "standard", "swift", "immediate", "1 round", or "x rounds/minutes" as appropriate) / Range (written as "personal", "touch", "close", "medium", "long", or "x ft." as appropriate) /
Touch? (written as "N" for "no", "M" for "melee", or "R" for "ranged") / Save? (written as "N" for "no", "F" for "Fort", "R" for "Reflex", "W" for "Will", and "part." for "partial") / SR? (written as "N" for "no" and "Y" for "yes") / Duration (written as "conc" for "concentration", "1 rd/lvl", "1 min/lvl", "10 min/lvl", "1 hr/lvl", or as appropriate) / Components ("V" for "verbal", "S" for "somatic", "M" for "material component" [with an asterisk for expensive component], "F" for "focus" [with an asterisk for expensive focus], "X" for "xp cost"; expensive component, focus, and xp costs are listed on a separate sheet)

Some modifications are made to these, of course, but for the most part this is the formula that you undertake (for variances for things such as maneuvers, you simply adjust it to include the information in the information block of the maneuver as opposed to spell information).


3) In conjunction with the above two points, separate your items out onto another list. They inevitably end up cramped if you put them on your character sheet and they end up destroyed or altered often enough that keeping them separate is just easier.

I haven't had the opportunity to do this yet, and my party is hurting for lack of ability to remember their own items and what they do. (Their character sheets also do not include a space for this.) They have blank paper in each of their binders, but nobody has thought to do this themselves... Harrumph!


4) As a DM, get a few binders. One will be your campaign binder. This should be filled with all of that campaign background/plot specific stuff. Whenever you introduce a persons, place, or thing, mark it down and simply put it into the binder (and at the end of the session go back and organize all of it).

Another binder should be filled with character sheets. Every time you stat up an NPC, monster, enemy, ally, or anything else go and make a copy of the sheet and put it in here. If you have the time go and stat up things like sheets for thieves, guards, bar room patrons, low level nobles, and everything else. As in step 2, put copies of any special information needed to use that individual with the sheet. Over time you will build up an entire stable of random characters that you can basically just drop in anywhere at a moments notice.

A third binder should be like the above but with maps and locations. Every map you make should be copied into here. Eventually you will be able to pretty much create an entire castle or city whole cloth in a minute or two by mixing and matching your maps and character sheets.

Oh, you've already got my addition to 1) covered in spades, I see. Only for NPC stuff.


5) Pre-roll several hundred of each type of dice roll. These are to be used for your monsters and the like. Simply go down the list crossing out the next die roll in line as you use it. The only time I recommend actually rolling is if the monster has an ability to reroll or alter the dice roll. This drastically decreases the time it takes you as the DM to run your part of an encounter.

I don't know if I agree with this one, but if you (the royal "you") are that concerned with the speed, I can think of a number of free dice rollers available on the App Store, and my players could recommend a handful of dice rollers on the Android App Market, and it is likely that at least one player at the table has an iOS or Android device; if not, this (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm) dice roller usually has you covered anyway.


Personally, I found Initiative cards to be incredibly useful to me as a dm. It gives me a quick, one-glace access to what I need to know about my players. I personally created my own initiative cards that I use for all of my campaigns, so they include things like
Name, Class
HP (Current and max)
AC
Saves
Ability scores
Skill modifiers for skills that I roll (such as spot)
Anything functional about the character I need to know (Like if they have a class feature that gives freedom of movement, so that there is a second reminder that the web cast on the melee character doesn't bother him) This shortens time lost due to errors.
A little bit about the character
This lets me look at player, and in less than 10 seconds, know the basic crunch of a character without having to mull through a character sheet (especially when a player brings one of those 4-pagers).

This. So much this.

I run a group of ten players, and managing initiative was a nightmare before I made a deck of cards that I could place in initiative order (ten for the PCs, plus one for each enemy initiative, although enemies are usually rolled into the same initiative, plus one for NPCs who are not technically part of the enemy initiative order).

My cards contain the following:
On the front:
Character name
Maximum HP
Initiative modifier

On the back:
Save modifiers (Fort/Ref/Will)
AC (full/touch/flat)
Resistances (if any; this is where DR and energy resistances come in)
Immunities (if any; "permanent" immunities, such as those from race, class, and item bonuses only)
Sensory qualities (such as low-light vision)
Spot, Listen, and Sense Motive modifiers
Knowledge modifiers (for Knowledges they are capable of rolling)
Miscellaneous, class-based knowledge (uses/day and modifiers of the Barbarian's rage, spells/day of each level of the spellcasters, etc)

This way, I can, at a moment's notice, know where somebody is in the initiative, whether or not they can see the approaching stalker in the darkness (and how likely they are to actually see her amidst the chaos of battle), how likely they are to resist the poison on her blade, and whether the Favored Soul in the group has enough spells remaining to cast Delay Poison to keep them going, without giving away any critical information about any characters in the process (there is a half-drow disguised as a human woman via a modified Hat of Disguise, for instance, who hasn't let the rest of the party know this).

As for my own:

I have not one, not two, but three lists of all the rewards the players have earned under my watch, or at least those that they have received as loot or rewards for services or something. The first list contains every magic item received (but not bought, although I should probably get on that), the aura that it produces, the name of the character whose possession it is in, and the gold point value of each item. I try to put in expected rewards for the mission a gaming day in advance, so if they use detect magic to discern the aura or identify to find out the items' properties, they can know exactly what they are without me spending several minutes at the table flipping through books.

The second list is of nonmagical items and gp earnings total, as well as who they are attributed to. It follows the same rules as 1), only services are also included (as subtractions from the gold point total).

The third list is a character breakdown of the total in gp value of magical items, gold/nonmagical items, and overall gp value of each character's earnings. I use this to determine who, overall, has much more than the other players, and who has much less, and then make adjustments as appropriate in the appropriation of future loot (by, for example, including a spellbook of an enemy wizard if the Magus is starved for items, or a magic weapon if the Barbarian is lacking). WBL doesn't become massively skewed unless one person at the table is deliberately hoarding or has been given by the rest of the party items that don't really do them any good, or were probably meant for somebody else.

If I were more on it, I would create a fourth list right now containing purchases of significant items that the players have made, so that I know what gold they don't have (but I'm not).

Of course, this is all just bookkeeping, but it's still procedural, and helps speed downtime affairs along quite a bit.

EDIT: Conditions summary!

A brief summary of all the conditions and drawbacks associated with them. One page long will suffice. You can print out copies and put them in each binder (your master binder, and each players' binder).

Our gaming group also has a Facebook group that we use to handle off-table affairs, such as metagame decisions between game days, and so on. There, I (and the other players) have uploaded a number of Google docs, which include things that all the players know (such as names of notable NPCs, towns, and such that they have met), restrictions and special rules (it's an E6 game, so we use the item lists found in my signature), and other references (such as the special materials and alchemical substances reference, also found in my signature). That way, say, if somebody wants to buy a special ink that can only be viewed in moonlight, there's a name and page number for it.