Playing D&D much faster

[Tobold]

One of the factors getting a lot of new players into D&D is the videos of groups like Acquisitions Incorporated or Critical Role they see on Twitch or YouTube. As a result, many of these new players think that what is shown in these videos is “how D&D is played”. But as a veteran D&D player, I can’t help but notice that these public games in the videos frequently proceed at a much zippier pace than what I am used to. For example the series of videos showing Force Grey playing Tomb of Annihilation goes through that whole campaign in just 15 hours!

Sure, some of that is visibly the result of video editing. And every D&D player knows that in every real session some time is lost with talking about stuff that has nothing to do with the game. But still, the whole play style exhibited in these videos appears very fast to me.

Is that just me? Are by freak chance all the players I have played with extremely slow? Is this some old school vs. new school thing? Is this the new D&D for the attention deficit generation? Is there some speed D&D “should” be played at, or does it vary widely from table to table? What do you think?

 

[rgoodbb]

For me the game takes as much time as we can give to it.

That will of course vary dramatically. Critical Role season 1 did 115 sessions of 3-5 hours starting at something like 9th level (I think) and getting near to 20th (17th?). I don't think that's necessarily rushed or slow. It just is the time it took.

Force Grey was a different animal, with polished bite-sized chunks for quick views that I can only imagine were heavily edited. If a player watches those shows and starts D&D expecting the same, they will still stay if they enjoy playing.

Depending on which of our group is DM'ing and which are playing, our games vary a lot.

 

[the Jester]

Sure, some of that is visibly the result of video editing.

This, plus the invisible video editing, is the answer you seek. They don't necessarily play any faster than other groups, but all the unimportant stuff and side talk gets cut out in the edit.

 

[Sunseeker]

It depends HEAVILY on the players. There are some people and some groups I have played with who are on the ball, head-in-the-game badda-bing badda-boom kinda players who take their turns in moments, know exactly what they want to do, know exactly how the rules work and JUST DO IT *insert Shia LaBouf here*. There are other players who are distracted, argumentative, generally slow, don't know what to do and can take ages to take their turn, distract other players on their turns and make the game bog down.

I've been in groups where a "round" is about 5-6 minutes. Combat is 15-20min. Role play is sharp and to the point. I've played in other games where a turn could be 5-10 minutes. Combat lasts an hour and role play is slow and poor.

I think that it is an unrealistic expectation going into D&D that D&D will always be the former. HOWEVER, going into it with that expectation of yourself may lead you to becoming a faster, better player, and more people being faster better players will lead to more games being faster.

 

[StormbringerAUS]

The group I currently run, can be very slow - outside discussions and then second guessing every decision they make, adventures I put together thinking this will last one session often take 3 or 4, but in the end that does not matter, this is how they enjoy playing so that's how I run it.

 

[Jester David]

Force Grey is a bad example, as it is edited. And I don’t think many people will expect D&D to be that.

However, I think many new players will expect D&D to be more like Critial Role with less combat (once per session) and lots of long role playing and extended character interactions and less cross-table talk.

 

[bedir than]

Force Grey is a bad example, as it is edited. And I don’t think many people will expect D&D to be that.

However, I think many new players will expect D&D to be more like Critial Role with less combat (once per session) and lots of long role playing and extended character interactions and less cross-table talk.

I don't think I've run a single session of 5e with more than 3 combat encounters. It forces tracking rests between sessions, which is lame.

 

[Henry]

A good idea for any collaboration (gaming or other) is expectations management. (In business, the equivalent is like a job description or Statement of Work). It’s a good idea to remind people, at the first session (or perhaps even at a “session 0” at character creation) that while Crit. Role is awesome, it is also a public production and managed as such, and includes professional stage actors and voice actors with top-deck performances. Same with Force Grey, it’s tightly edited and cut down with that intent in mind.

Remind them that your goal is to have fun, and part of that fun is the socializing you do with the people at the table, and side quests, and minor mistakes. The better you get to know each other, the smoother things will play as your group figures things out, and your group will have its own style of doing things, and all this is also part of D&D and tabletop gaming in general. Ask them to bear with you, and you’ll all work together to make a fun time for everyone at the table.

 

[LordEntrails]

*shrugs* no there is, of course, no right or wrong way to play unless someone at the table is being hurt.

Part of it is that they don't worry about rules. Ever see then haggle or debate a rule interpretation? Do they get caught up in the minutia? Nope, they worry about the story and the fun, not little stuff.

If you are like me and have played other editions, especially years of 3/3.5 then you are probably used to spending a long time looking up rules, exceptions to rules, and modifiers for every conceivable advantage or disadvantage. The good streamers don't worry about that stuff. 5E de-emphasizes all that stuff too.

If you want your games to run faster, then worry about the big stuff.

 

[Mistwell]

Ditch the grid. Go theater of the mind, and encourage players to decide what they're going to do in advance of their turn. Things can speed up so much faster if you do that.