The Warlord, about it's past present and future, pitfalls and solutions. (Please calling all warlord players)

[Ratskinner]

Count me in as someone who values speed of play. Personally, I started to find combats taking too long beginning in 3E (continuing into 4E). Especially when I went back to 2E after years of 3E, I noticed the differencevwas considerable. For me, I don't want combat to slow down the things going on in between fighting (because for me that is actually the heart of the game). So i find that if you have the colossally slow battlese inbetween the ingame drama, it really cuts deeply into my enjoyment. I recently started playing cubicle 7's doctor who and one thing I love about it so far is the speed of combat encounters (perhaps this has just been the combats we have had so far, but i think it is a fast system). I my own games, I try to keep combat lightning fast.

Absolutely. After a brief D&D hiatus following my group collapsing from the edition wars, I went back to a hacked BECMI game and just about fell over from the lightning-fast resolution. The DM was caught unprepared on the first night because he simply hadn't anticipated that we'd chew through so much in one night! -"I haven't written level 2 yet, guys."

i do think there is a valid point being made about the magic system even in AD&D being somewhat at odds with the speed of its other parts. I am working on a new game using a very fast system we devised for action and investigations. But this one has magic and that makes it a lot harder to maintain the speed. I think it is a trade off. If you want a robust magic system that will tend to slow things down. I D&D, i feel it kind of works because wizard is "the complex class".

I guess it depends on what you mean by "robust." I don't really find the traditional D&D magic system to be very robust. The fact that its a patchwork of wonky effects and mechanics is indicative of its fundamental weaknesses. (At least, its weaknesses outside of its original gamist paradigm.) The key is, IMO, to fall out into a more narrative or "abstract" stance on the adjudication/resolution end of the rules (for magic and mundane effects) i.e. "rulings not rules". So, for instance, you could still have spellcasters being very complicated characters with spell lists and the like. However, the functioning of those spells could be greatly simplified into something more like what you get with FATE or MHRP. So (to use FATE-like structures) Charm Person would place a charmed aspect on the target. This aspect could be invoked by the caster to help cause the subject to react favorably to the caster and suggestions the caster may make, perhaps granting (dis)advantage on any relevant checks or actions. Having a mechanic that works in a nice generally accessible way like that makes it very easy and speedy to handle things, while still giving plenty of depth and variety. Which seems much more robust, to me.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Absolutely. After a brief D&D hiatus following my group collapsing from the edition wars, I went back to a hacked BECMI game and just about fell over from the lightning-fast resolution. The DM was caught unprepared on the first night because he simply hadn't anticipated that we'd chew through so much in one night! -"I haven't written level 2 yet, guys."
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Fast combat definitely changes things for the GM. I mostly run my own game and its pretty fast and lethal with combat. So fights often are over in a round or two and it can literally just take a few minutes if things are really clipping along. The pacing of an evening is totally different when this is the case. Battles are more like percussive beats that step in and out of the game but the focus tends to become the charracters and the RP (this is also a consequence of the lethality,because combat is something you just are not seeking out all the time, you are usually trying to avoid it).

Another great thing about this is you really could have a whole adventure in an hour or two if you wanted. There have been times when I ran network and the players finished an adventure in an hour or two (it certainly isnt the norm but you could make it so). I noticed the same thing with Dr. who. We finished our first adventure of that in about 2-3 hours. Had we known the system better it probably would have gone even faster. I love that. I dont need the 30-60 minute miniature battles.