I just spent all day playing Skyrim. I completed 2 quests, got 2 levels and training in smithing for both levels.
That process made me think about efficiency as it relates to the gaming table.
When you sit down for a 4-6 hour session (maybe longer for some groups), how much are you really getting done?
The bulk of my goal in Skyrim today was to get the 5 ranks per level in Smithing training. I needed about 2k per rank, and I had to hunt and scrabble for it. I hunted and killed deer for leather across miles of Skyrim, I went through 2 "dungeons" to kill people and take all of their stuff. Etc. It seemed a lot of my time was spent walking slowly back out of the dungeon so I could fast travel, and then walking slowly in town so I could sell. All because I'd filled up on loot and faced ZERO threats on my way out.
If there was a GM, he wasted my time making me "play" through walking out fully encumbered. He wasted my time making me "play" through selling to each vendor.
While there's some times its good to take your time, smell the roses and talk to the gate guard, once it gets repetitive, time is being wasted with no real value.
For Skyrim as a GM'd game, that means let me fast travel from inside the dungeon if I'm "safe" and let me quick sell my loot without having to actually go to each individual vendor (like a menu to pick a vendor and then start selling, skipping the walking and finding of shopkeeps). Either that, or actually make some monsters ENTER the dungeon behind me after I start killing my way through, so I actually have something to worry about on my way out.
I already use a lot of "fast" combat tricks to make combat go faster and run efficiently.
I advocate skipping useless scenes to buy/sell stuff, enter gates, especially after the second time (you've already met the NPC, unless he has something special to say, just finish your business).
I hand out a rough draft of the player's version of the dungeon map, to expedite navigation, rather than doing the traditional dungeon crawl and make the players map everything.
If you look at your own game, is there anything your group is doing well? Anything that your group could be more efficient at.
I would never advocate adopting practices that "speed up the game" to where even the fun is skipped. But given how our time is valuable, are we spending our time in-game on the stuff our players really want to be doing?
That process made me think about efficiency as it relates to the gaming table.
When you sit down for a 4-6 hour session (maybe longer for some groups), how much are you really getting done?
The bulk of my goal in Skyrim today was to get the 5 ranks per level in Smithing training. I needed about 2k per rank, and I had to hunt and scrabble for it. I hunted and killed deer for leather across miles of Skyrim, I went through 2 "dungeons" to kill people and take all of their stuff. Etc. It seemed a lot of my time was spent walking slowly back out of the dungeon so I could fast travel, and then walking slowly in town so I could sell. All because I'd filled up on loot and faced ZERO threats on my way out.
If there was a GM, he wasted my time making me "play" through walking out fully encumbered. He wasted my time making me "play" through selling to each vendor.
While there's some times its good to take your time, smell the roses and talk to the gate guard, once it gets repetitive, time is being wasted with no real value.
For Skyrim as a GM'd game, that means let me fast travel from inside the dungeon if I'm "safe" and let me quick sell my loot without having to actually go to each individual vendor (like a menu to pick a vendor and then start selling, skipping the walking and finding of shopkeeps). Either that, or actually make some monsters ENTER the dungeon behind me after I start killing my way through, so I actually have something to worry about on my way out.
I already use a lot of "fast" combat tricks to make combat go faster and run efficiently.
I advocate skipping useless scenes to buy/sell stuff, enter gates, especially after the second time (you've already met the NPC, unless he has something special to say, just finish your business).
I hand out a rough draft of the player's version of the dungeon map, to expedite navigation, rather than doing the traditional dungeon crawl and make the players map everything.
If you look at your own game, is there anything your group is doing well? Anything that your group could be more efficient at.
I would never advocate adopting practices that "speed up the game" to where even the fun is skipped. But given how our time is valuable, are we spending our time in-game on the stuff our players really want to be doing?