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

[Magus Coeruleus]

I make monster statblocks using a Word template and put those I need for an encounter onto a sheet to have all the info and to handle hp and conditions with a pencil. For initiative instead of taking time for everyone to roll and sort I have a spreadsheet in Excel that determines initiative and sorts for me so I click a button and we're on to the first combatant. That spreadsheet also has the PCs' defenses and skill and ability mods so I don't have to ask them all the time.

 

[Rechan]

I have tasked a player with tracking initiative. That way he announces whose turn it is next. For monsters, I roll their init ahead of time. Minion initiative is always 10+Modifier.

I have not done this yet, but I will delegate someone to be the "Rules looking up guy".

Everyone gets ten seconds to declare their action ("I attack X"). Resolution of the action I'm more lenient on. If someone does not make the ten second rule, then they "Delay until the end of the combat round".

Roll damage dice the same time you roll an attack (i.e. roll the d20 and the d8 at the same time).

 

[Terwox]

Do your players have power cards printed out? That can help a ton if people don't know the rules yet.

 

[Obryn]

My 4e game ran slowly for the first 3-4 sessions.

Nowadays, we're running a bit faster than we did with 3.5 - and also, everyone keeps involved in combat a lot more.

I think your players learning their characters' abilities, and figuring out their basic plans ahead of time, can work wonders.

-O

 

[Krensus]

I've noticed that combat was going a bit slow for other players in a game I'm playing in, so I shared my method of speeding up my turn with them and it's speeded up greatly. This may be similar to power cards, but I haven't heard of them until this thread.

I write down all my abilities sorted by at-will/encounter/daily and calculate my plus to hit with that skill, the total damage it does, and any other effects as like a cheat sheet. That way, I can look at it and say "I cast scorching burst, (Roll d20) plus 8 is 20 vs. Reflex. Hit? Ok, 1d6+7 (Roll d6), 13. Done." Having everything precalculated for feats and racial abilities helps streamline combat for me.

In addition, we use 5 colors of poker chips to mark mobs. Red chips mean the mob is bloodied, purple means he's marked by the paladin, blue by the warrior, green warlock curse, and white means a status effect that I need to remember on their turn. This resolves a lot of questions, such as abilities that add to damage or hit when a mob is bloodied, who the warlock has cursed (although since she got her rod of corruption we've been marking who's NOT cursed), and provides an easy indicator of status effects I may have forgotten since they were applied. The only problem is that poker chips are much larger than 1 inch squares, so I'd like to find either smaller ones or a different method of doing a similar thing.

-Krensus

 

[ac_noj]

Group has been happily playing 4e for 6-7 sessions now, but it's still an incredibly slow, clunky system for combats.

Hi Emirikol. What is it that's slowing down play for you? I DM a group that's played 3 Sundays so far and already we're into the flow of things and moving along nicely. However we have had two things that slow down play:
1) Most of my group either kow their stats and powers or have printed the powers out and written the stats on them. However one of the players did neither of those things and spent a lot of time checking what she could do. Having little cards for the powers, Action Surge and Second Wind help a lot.
2) Some people just can't make up their mind sometimes. I like to skip them and do someone elses turn while they think. It's not like it's the end of the world if you don't follow initiative order exactly.

Also, sometimes when two people are doing things that wont affect each other and they know what they're doing, I let two people go at once. It's not like I need to hold their hand with every little detail.
I don't do more than two people at once though or my brain melts.

 

[Kzach]

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.

 

[blargney the second]

I find that having an efficient character sheet helps a lot. When you're flipping back and forth between a half-dozen pages and still need to reference the PHB, you're certainly not going to be setting speed records.

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.

I've attached a sample PC so you can see what I'm talking about. It's plain, homely, and simple, but it gets the job done.
-blarg

 

[Obergnom]

we had the same problem. Besides all the great organisation advice given (Which helps with any system) here is what slowed our game down:


My encounters!


I was in the 3.5 mode of building every encounter tough (level +1 or 2) or even tougher... especially when I knew there was no additional encounter coming this 'in game day'.

That was a mistake. Other than in 3.5, equal level or even lower level encounters are satisfactory experiences and they never take a whole hour to complete

Once I changed that, our game started to flow. (Of course, players getting used to the system also helped, but most of my players are organization experts)

... in case you are playing KotS ... imo it is a main offender in this regard...

 

[Odysseus]

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

I changed the way I DM somewhat. In previous editions I'd keep track of PC AC etc, and tell them if they'd been hit etc. While with 4E I just say 16 vs Ref, and the player tells me if its a hit or not.
Something to bear in mind though. I believe the system is designed with longer combats in mind.