What to do when it's not your turn

[Aberzanzorax]

Forked from "What do you do when you're dead."

In some large groups, it can take more than 15 minutes (or even a half hour!) during combat before it is your turn again. In a multi round combat this could mean you are spending more time watching the game than playing it.

So, what if there were things you could do when it wasn't your turn?

I'd like to draw upon the wisdom of Enworlders here for suggestions for houserules.

Ideas so far:
grant a party member +2 to hit for one attack
grant a party member +2 to ac for one attack
allow a party member to move up by one position in intiative
grant a party member +2 to one save

Please note that, if worried about being overpowered, this could be toned back as well. For example, if we allow the option to grant +2 to attacks, we could always drop overall (non buffed) bonuses by one or two to "restabilize" the power level with the system.


So, what kinds of things would you like for your character to be able to do on another player's turn that would keep your attention and interest on the game?

 

[Nifft]

What to do when it's not your turn:

• Bathroom break, drink and/or snack fetching.
• Pay attention.
• Look stuff up.
• Pay attention.
• Help people remember conditions.
• Pay attention.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Chainsaw]

Give everyone else advice on how to play so that you're totally unprepared when it's your turn again. Oh wait, I read your question wrong..

 

[samursus]

For as much as the previous replies are a bit tongue-in-cheek, I have to agree that I would prefer my players to PLEASE pay attention and think about what to do on their OWN turn.

That is the reason why the turns take so long in the first place.

 

[Mark Chance]

When it's not my turn, I:

1. Prep my next turn, making dice rolls, et cetera, ahead of time and jotting down the results.

2. Help look stuff up for others.

3. Drink more whiskey.

 

[Crothian]

Support my friends, help out if needed, realize it is not all about me and not be impatient if I have tio wait a whole 15 minutes till my charcter acts again. This is one of those things that I don't get what the problem is. My players have never had issues with waiting till they get to go again.

 

[Abraxas]

I find that giving unhelpful or bad tactical advice to my friends to be the most fun.

However, I'm not sure doing anything other than just paying attention and making sure you know what you are going to do on your own turn - including looking up any needed rule - would be helpful. In fact doing just this would probably speed up combat so that your turn comes around faster.

Why add more fiddly bits to what may or may not already be a too fiddly combat , thus slowing things down even more. Plus - once you declare what option you are going to use - won't you still be sitting around for XX minutes until your next turn?

Other than that - I think you pretty much have the list in your opening post.

 

[Desdichado]

1) Make cat-calls on the efforts of the other players. Question their prowess, sexuality and anatomical correctness.

3) Guzzle Mt. Dew and eat pizza or Kettle Brand Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper chips. Yeah, we're a bit elitist with our chips.

2) Turn Japanese.

Maybe not really that third one.

 

[Mark Chance]

2) Turn Japanese.

I thought I was turning Japanese once, but it turned out I just had the vapors.

Ha!

 

[amerigoV]

If a normal game takes 30 minutes between turns (barring very special circumstances), I'll run a fighter and I'm playing XboX. Just call me when it is my turn to whack something.