Clogged Combats

[howandwhy99]

One of the best things about our OD&D game is the initiative system. It's the best intiative system I have played under bar none.

- It's a D6 initiative roll, so it shrinks the number of segments the DM needs to call out.
- Plus it allows for simultaneous actions for monsters/PCs acting on the same initiative (meaning 2 enemies can kill each other in a duel)
- We also reroll initiative each round, but in D20 you might want to drop this. It adds chaos, which you probably don't want.

Central to this system is the Index Card that was mentioned before. Every character needs to declare their action before each turn (not outloud, just written down). This speeds up combat because everyone already knows what they will be doing when asked.
- FYI, characters CAN change their action as long as they do it before their own initiative phase starts.

There's plenty more to OD&D, but maybe this will help speed up your game?

 

[Child of Hypnos]

Oh I hope So...
Im getting ready to sacrifice one of my players to some god of chance or other...

 

[howandwhy99]

One more thing...
From the details you've included, your combats run long because your players CONSISTENTLY MISS! ARGGHH! That's frustrating for everyone. I suggest not minmaxing your npcs (i'm not saying you do this already-just watch out for published builds), and avoiding AC bonus effects (like feats, shields, vision impairments, etc.)

The lower your enemies' ACs, the easier they should be to hit.

 

[was]

Make sure the party spellcasters review their spells while others are acting instead of waiting until its their turn to go.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

For some reason, when I first saw this thread title. I thought of everyone fighting in clogs.

 

[Quickbeam]

1. Have the monster/foe tactics essentially mapped out ahead of time; also keep notecards or cheatsheets with their stat block and special abilities/spells handy.
2. Implement a method of tracking initiative order and stick with it. One group I play in has a player responsible for announcing the player up and the one "on deck" every so often to keep people's heads in the game. This method also forces at least one player to always be paying attention, if for no other reason than he/she must track initiative for the group. My other group uses a combat tracking sheet which lists the party members and foes in order for each combat. It's a simple reference tool that allows everyone to know when their turn is coming up.
3. Suggest a guideline for an appropriate amount of time to act once it is a player's turn, say 60 seconds. In our groups, if you snooze you lose. When your turn rolls around if you aren't ready to act, then you slide one person farther down the initiative order as though you've held your action. That may seem a bit harsh, but it does keep things moving.
4. Using a map grid and tokens/minis is critical for most combat situations IMHO.
5. Rolling damage dice with the attack roll is another trick for saving a few seconds. It's a bit less exciting, but if speed is of the essence...
6. Ask that players casting spells or using special abilities be prepared to discuss the effects of their chosen actions by having the relevant book or reference tool handy.
7. Filter out unnecessary distractions (TV, computer games, doodling, etc.) once combat begins.

Good luck!

 

[Zappo]

It's a problem. What I do is giving people no more than ten seconds, when their turn comes, to declare an action; no buts, no ifs, and this includes your summoned creatures and similar companions.

That's only part of the problem though. The other big part is counting modifiers. D&D has too many of them. They don't pose a problem to me, who generally can not only declare an action in ten seconds but resolve it as well, but IME most other players seem to enjoy recalculating their to-hit at every single attack, especially when they have a half dozen spells on them. The idea that, if they just paid attention during the turn, they could know exactly what their to-hit is at all moments, seems to fly over their heads.

They also seem to like calculating exactly what AC they've hit even though it is obvious that they've hit with just BAB plus the dice roll. Finally, they don't share my position that if I am in doubt on whether I hit 23 or 24, I'd rather declare a 23 and check it during the other PCs' turn, than recalculate everything right now. If I miss when I could have hit, eh, who cares, if I could sacrifice hits for fun I'd lose to blind kobolds.

Honestly, I don't know what to do with this. Either wait for 4th edition and hope that the number of stackable modifiers is greatly reduced, or start teaching basic arithmetics to fellow players.

 

[Child of Hypnos]

it seems to me the current trends are of increasing No.s of stackable mods.
become a maths teacher my be the only option.

 

[The Edge]

Im sure others have made "the rat cave" mistake; basicly giveing your players a hoard of tiny criters to fight in an irregular arena and other slowing math like darkness and miss chance. It was just painfully dull, as the rats were measely but still had an irritateingly high AC.

Always plan and play your hoards carefuly to avoid this.

 

[Shemeska]

Play fast and loose with the rules as much as possible, though this works best if the players trust the DM greatly, and they're not 'break out the minis, huzzah!' type of players that prefer combat to story, or if they're absolute rules lawyers.

Don't worry about pinning down everything in combat if you don't absolutely have to. Don't bother with minis or a grid. The micromanaging aspect of using them both has never succeeded in doing anything in any game I've been in except take up far too much time compared to looser, off the cuff combats. Cool, fast, descriptive combat that doesn't always follow the exact letter of the rules is preferable to counting squares, figuring out AoOs based on said squares, and turning DnD into 'wargaming lite' as it was called.

This works for me in the games I run, and for other groups that I've played in, but it won't work for everyone I fully realize.