Pace in your game.

payn · Thursday at 5:08 AM

I tend to push pace in places that it doesn’t hurt, such as downtime shopping and combat. If it’s routine and mechanics heavy, I’m gonna push through it. When it comes to the social aspects, I let the pace dictate itself organically. I don’t mind spending all the time there.

Recently I’ve been running Traveller for some new players. We’ve all been playing a different game for some time and it organically happened. I’ve gotten lots of compliments as the game is social and exploration heavy.

For example we spent 3 sessions hunting down a band of pirates that had only two combats in the final session.

In their words, it feels like they earn the fights through playing and it makes them a lot more satisfying because of it.

The fights take mere mins to run, but all the lead up is the cake.

John Dallman · Thursday at 9:40 AM

As a GM, pacing is a dramatic tool and a way of accommodating the players' interest levels in different bits of the scenario. For example, I've run most of the last couple of sessions of Cold War Pulp quite slowly, because the characters are trying to figure out some alien technology and the players are enjoying those puzzles, although they have not yet spotted various implications of the things they've been learning.

Lanefan · Thursday at 9:57 AM

TheSword said:
After a player with largely one face to face DM for the last 25 years I realize that I’ve been pretty spoiled. I recently branched out into more online gaming and tried three different groups online as player to broaden my horizons.

I learnt a lot about storytelling and all three games were entertaining. The DMs were very good at creating atmosphere, but my gosh did they have problems with pacing. It felt like sometimes in a 3 hour sessions we would barely achieve anything. Prevarication, spinning out simple tasks, taking ages to reach consensus. Agonizing over trivial details.

That sounds about right. Agonizing over trivialites and spinning out simple tasks are commonplace round here. Reaching consensus is a different issue, and often doesn't come about because of the next paragraph.

The best solution IMO and IME is to play a Chaotic character with a fairly low boredom threshold who, when things get draggy, isn't afraid to go light a fire somewhere (literally or figuratively, doesn't matter which) and thus stir the pot. If for example the rest of the party spend ages planning how to open a door, just have your character get bored, walk over, and open the damn thing.

TheSword said:
What are your games like? Do you sometimes feel like this as players or is it just me. Maybe I have been spoiled with @GuyBoy as a regular DM as we get a lot done but still seem to enjoy good atmosphere and storytelling.

Sometimes the trivial details can be a lot of fun., other times not. It's hard to know ahead of time which will be which, though.

TheSword · 2025-06-06T00:41:40+0100

Umbran said:
In my main group, some of the players have an acknowledged tendency to go down planning ratholes. They've gotten much better about it over time, but occasionally it still catches them.

In an online group I played with over the pandemic, coming to consensus on basic decisions was a bit onerous. Nobody wanted to boss anyone else around, and nobody wanted to make the wrong decision, and the single-threading of talking on a group call slowed everything down, so we fuddled around a bit.

In the second campaign with that group, I intentionally created a character who was a little bit smarter than everyone else, and a little less patient than everyone else, but who liked driving to consensus - so I'd frame the question for the party, put forth what seemed like a reasonable course of action, and just outright asked everyone if they liked the plan, and played discussion facilitator if they didn't. Got rid of like 75% of our stalls that way.

I definitely think that newer groups suffer that challenge more. Particularly online. Not wanting to offend or overstep leads to a very cautious decision making process.

But I would say there is also a lot of DM pausing. Checking notes, working out how things work, dragging out interactions that have little meaning and generally moving at a glacial pace. I think that’s what shocked me more than the player decision making.

Stormonu · 2025-06-06T04:02:08+0100

I'm just there to tell them what happens as a result of their decisions. The pace is in the player's hands.

Which usually results in one of the players screeching, "can we at least get down the hall ten feet tonight?"

Theory of Games · 2025-06-06T04:35:08+0100

Lanefan said:
The best solution IMO and IME is to play a Chaotic character with a fairly low boredom threshold who, when things get draggy, isn't afraid to go light a fire somewhere (literally or figuratively, doesn't matter which) and thus stir the pot.

aramis erak · 2025-06-06T11:42:36+0100

My pacing is slower than I'd like.
Partly, it's due to my psych meds and the resulting aphasia.

TaranTheWanderer · 2025-06-06T11:55:27+0100

Our pacing is slower than I'd like. There isn't lots of chat between games so we often go in circles deciding what to do next when we do get together. It can be two or three sessions before we resolve something that I thought we'd get done "at the beginning of a session".

cranberry · 2025-06-06T11:58:16+0100

TheSword said:
The DMs were very good at creating atmosphere, but my gosh did they have problems with pacing. It felt like sometimes in a 3 hour sessions we would barely achieve anything. Prevarication, spinning out simple tasks, taking ages to reach consensus. Agonizing over trivial details.

What are your games like? Do you sometimes feel like this as players or is it just me. Maybe I have been spoiled with @GuyBoy as a regular DM as we get a lot done but still seem to enjoy good atmosphere and storytelling.

I've been with one group for about 10 years now, and what you described is unfortunately the norm. The DM is obsessed with "getting things right", and two of the players encourage this behavior.

On the plus side, I can go to the bathroom, get a snack or walk the dog while this is occurring, and I won't miss any of the actual gameplay. (We play online)

When the DM wanted a break, I ran a few PF2 games for the group with the intention of doing a better job at pacing, but one of the two players mentioned above kept on telling me "that's not RAW", and insisted on referencing the rules. (I purchased all of the players a copy of the core rules, and he read the thing cover to cover)

My GM style is to make a quick ruling, and move on instead of spending time digging into the minutia, but this player wouldn't have any of that...

aco175 · 2025-06-06T13:10:36+0100

My group hardly gets held up on tangents not related to the mission or campaign. The odd night at my table occurs without at least one combat and one roleplay event. We do not play out too much shopping or gathering information. I ran a bit of a mystery tied to finding who stole a magic chalice and the PCs needed to go to a town and visit several shops for clues or NPCs to talk to and I think the players made it through half before they had a plan to do something.

Pace in your game.

payn

Glory to Marik

John Dallman

Hero

Lanefan

Victoria Rules

TheSword

Legend

Stormonu

NeoGrognard

Theory of Games

Storied Gamist

aramis erak

Legend

TaranTheWanderer

Legend

cranberry

Hero

aco175

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