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Advice - Fixing the Escalating Numbers
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<blockquote data-quote="Rogue Agent" data-source="post: 5868929" data-attributes="member: 6673496"><p>First: That's not being caused by the escalating numbers. That's being caused by dropping players into a scenario where they aren't familiar with a panoply of options possessed by their characters. This will slow down their decision-making process, which will slow down combat resolution.</p><p></p><p>Now, the slow accumulation of options as characters level up may cause some people to experience longer "analysis times" at higher levels no matter what. But it still won't be as bad as those same people having all of those options and not being familiar with what they are.</p><p></p><p>To put it another way: Playing high-level characters you're not familiar with is a lot like learning the rules for a board game you've never played before. That first session with the game/character will be bogged down while you're trying to figure things out.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The advice at <a href="http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/2050/roleplaying-games/revisiting-encounter-design" target="_blank">Revisiting Encounter Design</a> is pretty solid.</p><p></p><p>Another option would be to implement an <a href="http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/9470/roleplaying-games/ex-the-many-games-inside-the-worlds-most-popular-roleplaying-game" target="_blank">E6-style solution</a> at whatever level the DM's interest/comfort tops out.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That sounds like you have a group that, unfortunately, gets bogged down in having lots of different options to choose between. And they're being allowed to dither away the time.</p><p></p><p>A good way to solve this problem is to literally put an egg-timer on the table: If someone hasn't made a decision about what they're doing when the egg-timer runs out, their action gets delayed and the DM moves on to the next player.</p><p></p><p>If you're convinced it's the iterative attacks causing the problems, teach your players to use different colored dice to roll all their attacks at once.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rogue Agent, post: 5868929, member: 6673496"] First: That's not being caused by the escalating numbers. That's being caused by dropping players into a scenario where they aren't familiar with a panoply of options possessed by their characters. This will slow down their decision-making process, which will slow down combat resolution. Now, the slow accumulation of options as characters level up may cause some people to experience longer "analysis times" at higher levels no matter what. But it still won't be as bad as those same people having all of those options and not being familiar with what they are. To put it another way: Playing high-level characters you're not familiar with is a lot like learning the rules for a board game you've never played before. That first session with the game/character will be bogged down while you're trying to figure things out. The advice at [url=http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/2050/roleplaying-games/revisiting-encounter-design]Revisiting Encounter Design[/url] is pretty solid. Another option would be to implement an [url=http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/9470/roleplaying-games/ex-the-many-games-inside-the-worlds-most-popular-roleplaying-game]E6-style solution[/url] at whatever level the DM's interest/comfort tops out. That sounds like you have a group that, unfortunately, gets bogged down in having lots of different options to choose between. And they're being allowed to dither away the time. A good way to solve this problem is to literally put an egg-timer on the table: If someone hasn't made a decision about what they're doing when the egg-timer runs out, their action gets delayed and the DM moves on to the next player. If you're convinced it's the iterative attacks causing the problems, teach your players to use different colored dice to roll all their attacks at once. [/QUOTE]
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