Advice for speeding up combats - in sound bite form!

[Delemental]

So, I am in the process of constructing a device with which to track initiative in our games, which is essentially a flip book constructed of index cards that will sit like a table tent on the table, showing the current round on both sides.

Now, writing in the round number doesn't take up a tremendous amount of space on a 3x5 card, so I started thinking about what else would be useful to put on each card. I decided that it would be nice to put some brief bits of advice on how to speed up combats.

Now, there have been plenty of threads in the past about how to help combats go faster. But if you had to condense that advice down to a single short sentence, what would you suggest? I'm looking for things along the lines of:

"Pay attention to the initiative count, and start planning your actions 1-2 combatants prior to your turn."

"When using a spell, special ability, or combat option, have the book open to the rules before your turn."

What else would you put on a card? Or what other kind of reminders would be good?

 

[blargney the second]

Calculate your bonuses *before* rolling the dice.

 

[Mark CMG]

Keep players focused by keeping other distractions at bay.

 

[EyeontheMountain]

General advice:
For me the best way is prep. Use cards, or post-it notes and mark every complicated spell feat and ability your character has.

If you will shapechange or polymorph, basically make up a new mini-sheet for each form, including all combat and save modifiers.

Another way I have found is to have the characters go first, and then the enemies. That speeds things up immensely, I have found.


As for advice like you asked for:

Have the dice you will need this round ready to roll together.

Hmm, can't think of more

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Use pre-rolled initiatives {chart out ten and cycle through them}
Use Initiative cards, place them in order for the next combat immediately after a combat ends.

These two allow you to immediately 'start combat' without having to pause and figure out when/where people go. If the initiative cards have some basic information you can run the entire combat from them. I use 'Combat Cards' that have the entire SRD in critters laid out to fit a 3x5 card

 

[Digital Archon]

On the "use cards" note, use spell cards for spells. That way, they have the spell out right in front of them when they are ready to cast it.

I'm a big fan of cards, though.

 

[Ceresco]

Have the PCs roll damage. *evil grin*

 

[delericho]

If a mistake is made, don't go back and do-over.

If you don't know a rule, and don't know exactly where it is in the books, just make a ruling.

and the necessary complement to the above statement:

Don't argue a DM's rulings in combat. He's doing his best, and is not out to screw you over.

 

[Drawmack]

Advice:
Roll initiative once persession

Rational:
People have good and bad days, but not generally good and bad hours. Therefor just roll an initiative roll for the players once as soon as the gaming session starts and that is initiative order for the entire evening. You can also just roll once for all the bad guys. This gets you right into battle without a preemptive mood breaker.

 

[Psion]

No magic cards (or naruto cards, or side dice games or whatever) at the table.

For the DM: if it takes more that 30 seconds to look up, make something up, make a note of it, look it up after the game so you know it for next time.