D&D 4E Any tips for speeding up the game? 4e is slowing me down!

[Mathew_Freeman]

Simple advice:

1) POWER CARDS! Can't highlight this enough - make sure every player has their powers, on cards, with the right numbers written on. It makes a huge difference to the speed of play.

2) Initiative. Pre-roll initiative for monsters, and get it set up ahead of time. When it comes to combat, go round quickly and write everyone's initiative down, sort it, and go.

3) Get your players into the habit of rolling attack and damage together, if they're happy to do so. Doesn't sound like much, but it makes a difference.

4) Stolen from the West Wing - "What's next?" When a character finishes their turn, check initiative, look at the player, and say "You're up next, what do you do?" Keep this up quickly, and if players start dithering too much just say "Do you want to wait - I can come back?"

5) Be decisive yourself. Players will pick up on your speed - when it's a monster turn, have it act quickly, have the info ready, take your turn and push on to the next player. The quicker you are, the quicker the players will be.

6) If there are any particular rules that are slowing you down, re-read them before the next combat when they'll come up, and make sure you're clear. Keep discussion to a minimum in the fight, and come back to it afterwards.

 

[Mengu]

All: Group has been happily playing 4e for 6-7 sessions now, but it's still an incredibly slow, clunky system for combats. ANybody got any tips for speeding it up?

Jay H

What's taking so long? Do the players take too long for their turns? Are the monster activations too slow? Does combat take too many rounds? Each of these problems has a solution, most of which have been mentioned, but isolating your main problem will be the first step to solving it.

I've run demos where we easily went through 3 combats with 6 players in 4 hours, when most players didn't even know the system.

I have to agree with one of the earlier comments that a well designed character sheet is very key to running your character smoothly. The official character sheet is in one word, terrible in this regard. I'll be making my own for my players. I have a 7-player group so it is very important for me that they are able to resolve their actions quickly.

 

[Obergnom]

Yep,

knowing what is taking so long is important.

Player actions -> Have them improve their character management
Player strategy -> This will take some time of getting used to the system, but you could set a limit
Monster actions -> Improve your own management
too many combat rounds / HP grinding -> reduce Encounter Level / advice your players to focus fire

 

[Obryn]

Oh yeah, power cards are an enormous help - no doubt in my mind.

-O

 

[TheGogmagog]

One thing that has helped us tremendously is splitting up duties. Have one person track initiative, another track the monster's hitpoints*, and let the DM focus on attacks and adjudication.

*Someone tracks damage done, then announces to the DM the total when we suspect it matters (bloodied or dead).

 

[Kzach]

I took a page from WotC's Dungeon Delve at GenCon: I do all my PCs up on a single side of a single sheet of paper, with enough text describing abilities to obviate most PHB-checks. Not only is it much much faster to use at the table, but I'm also far less likely to forget a salient ability when it's right there on the front page.

Yeup. My character sheets only go beyond 1 page because I like a lot of whitespace, and even then, I have a lot of redundant information that I could easily trim out to bring them back to one page.

 

[Alas]

This is a minor, minor point, but I've found that flat out telling the players the monster's AC after the first attack saves us the time that would otherwise be spent adding up bonuses. Like Milton Berle, they then only have to take out enough to win.

 

[Emirikol]

So, 99.9% of people report that 4e is fast and flows smoothly in combat even before everyone understands all the rules fully, and yet you're finding it '...incredibly slow, clunky...' I suggest GURPS.

Kz, you're always there for me. Thanks a lot for the useful advice

jh

 

[RedShirtNo5]

All: Group has been happily playing 4e for 6-7 sessions now, but it's still an incredibly slow, clunky system for combats. ANybody got any tips for speeding it up?

Jay H

Are you playing online per your sig or in person?

 

[AtomicPope]

All: Group has been happily playing 4e for 6-7 sessions now, but it's still an incredibly slow, clunky system for combats. ANybody got any tips for speeding it up?

Jay H

My group has experienced a lag recently. The lag came in because our Ranger (who was only scheduled to play for two months) returned home leaving us with a Striker that didn't fight effectively. The Rogue wasn't using his character effectively. I realized how much damage a Striker can do when the Ranger left. The Ranger was killing twice as much because he was picking up the Rogue's slack. Now, even though the encounters are adjusted, the Rogue's "monsters" have a nasty tendency to stick around. The less the Rogue kills, the longer combat lasts. Basically, it's like adding an extra monster and a mobile piece of terrain that keeps friendly targets from manuvering (the Rogue).


After a quick chat on how to improve combat effectiveness for his character, and why it works, everything is smooth again. We'll see if it sticks