Combat and book keeping - How long does it take in your group?

[SavageRobby]

Our combats are typically very quick, typically 5-10 minutes for a standard fight. A few weeks ago we had a combat with 30+ orcs, 7 PCs and another 4 NPC allies, and was resolved in maybe 15-20 minutes total (and that was with a brand new player). When we first started, we had a combat with 30+ goblins, including 2 spellcasters, dozens of random NPCs villagers, exploding powder kegs and 7 PCs, and it took us maybe 40 minutes total. Our longest combats were when the group (then of 6, with about 25 NPC allies) took on a horde of a few hundred Spiders/Creepie Crawly aberrations, and even then I think it was about an hour.



But then, we play Savage Worlds.

 

[Crothian]

But then, we play Savage Worlds.

So, not a useful reply at all then.

 

[SavageRobby]

So, not a useful reply at all then.

I guess that all depends on what you want out of your combat. If you want long and boring ones that dominate your game sessions and bore your players to tears, then I guess I'd agree with you. If you want something more fast, fun & furious, something more fluid, with more options and more surprises, then I'd have to disagree.

The OP didn't limit his question to a specific game system, and this is the General RPG thread, no?

 

[Obergnom]

But then, we play Savage Worlds.

reading through your post, I went from "How is he doing that" to expacting exactly this or Castles&Crusades (With which I have a similar experience, but that was during a "good old days"-revival holiday run through The Harrowing with my "grown up with" group, which plays 3.5 much faster, too)

 

[SavageRobby]

reading through your post, I went from "How is he doing that" to expacting exactly this or Castles&Crusades (With which I have a similar experience, but that was during a "good old days"-revival holiday run through The Harrowing with my "grown up with" group, which plays 3.5 much faster, too)

We're actually about to start a C&C game in addition to our normal SW game (I've got the itchin' to run some old school). I suspect combat still won't be as fast as with SW. Very little can compare to SW for the combination of lack of bookkeeping/simplicity/depth of play, even C&C. In SW combats, I almost never refer to notes, I walk around the table moving minis (those times including using lots of minis and full terrain), and have the players do most of the die rolling. (There is something freakishly gratifying about a player rolling deathblows against their own character. ) C&C is more streamlined, and BTB has fewer combat options (SW has a remarkably really rich set of combat options for any game, much less one so simple and elegant), but even so, it still has some required bookkeeping (HPs, for example).

 

[el-remmen]

I require that all tactical discussion has to be done in-character and people can only speak on their own turn.

 

[Odysseus]

Hmm, it is mostly the players trying to figure out what to do next. When the characters are new there is of course some looking stuff up in books, but at the moment it really is the chess factor.
I myself know the rules pretty well, but there is a player in my group, who allways gets out the book when he is not agreeing with a rule. (Allthough he is wrong with "his" rulings 66% of the time, I guess)
Getting the battlemap ready (cleaning, painting) and finding some figs surely takes a few minutes. (As were are not playing at my house, and the minis are where we play, not a whole lot I can do against that)
I guess I am the one takeing the least amount of time looking up stats during play, actually. I print the monster stats out (using PCGen) and usually have them ready.

The mayer problem is somewhere between "I still have a move action left, let me see if I can do something with it..." and "We a screwed, everyone look long and hard at his character sheet and try to find the 'button' that will win this battle for us"

Some things I've tried to use for speeding things up.
Sorting out Minis beforehand. If i'm not gaming at my house I seperate them into diferent boxes for each encounter. So I open each box for each encounter.
Rather than use Pcgen, I Take notes from it and write them onto DM sheets I got from this guy http://www.geocities.com/toytools/dnd/ Everything I need for an encounter I fit on those sheets.
To help the players. Try giving them a number of easier encounters, or rather longer encounters. By that I mean use a few monsters that are hard to kill, but not that offensive. I find a common problem for players is that they don't know how to use their characters. And giving the players more experience with the character helps them.
I also encourage players to be responsible for what their character buffs. If a character has blur running. Then its up to him to remind me at the appropiate point in the round.

Having said all sometimes the players seem to spend along time discuss tactics. I have managed to ween them off the habit of doing that during combat. But they still seem to like having a debate as combat starts as to what they should do. Which isn't too bad.

 

[Crothian]

I guess that all depends on what you want out of your combat. If you want long and boring ones that dominate your game sessions and bore your players to tears, then I guess I'd agree with you. If you want something more fast, fun & furious, something more fluid, with more options and more surprises, then I'd have to disagree.

Again, not useful at all. My D&D sessions are fast, fun & furious. Savage Worlds does a lot of things but it is not the only game that can do what it does. It just sounds like you have a huge bias towards SW and really putting down other systems at the same time is kind of petty. And so is your assumptions on game play. :\

 

[SavageRobby]

-nevermind-

 

[Emirikol]

We have a 30 second time limit per player turn so we zip through our combats pretty quick. We're also lower magic which equals LOWER MATH

jh