Combat Speed Tips

[Lindorie]

On the insistence of my kids and their friends, we started gaming last weekend. The intent was to do the Raiders of Oakhurst, but they started a fight in my introduction. There are 7 players and were 10 combatants. One player is a diehard 3.5 player and told me "d&d is all about combat" (he's the one that started the fight). The other 6 are new players. After 5 hours, the ensuing combat and our time was over.

Since it has been over 10 years since I've run a game, I realize I'm very rusty, but 5 hours for combat was way too long, IMHO. Two of the new players, both girls, were showing boredom after 2 hours. The other 4, all boys, seemed relatively oblivious to the time.

Does anyone have tips for speeding up combat, while still providing fun and storyline? Do you or when do you tell the players the enemies' defense scores (AC, REF, WILL, FORT)?

 

[WampusCat43]

What did you do - wipe out the whole town?

 

[malraux]

I haven't had much experience with 4e, but at least with 3e, combat starts to be boring with more than 5 players. If this were 3e, I'd certainly recommend cutting back on the number of players. That helps with the boredom of players somewhat. That said, 4e's combat feel is different enough that I hesitate to extrapolate over. But I'll ask you, what do you think dragged combat on for so much? Did each person's turn happen quickly, or did everyone spend 5 minutes per action reading their character sheet?

 

[Irda Ranger]

Without knowing what on God's green Earth you were doing for those five hours, I've got nothing.

We just ran through the first bits of the original Temple of Elemental Evil adventure last Sunday with 4E monsters swapped in. We were in half a dozen fights I think, and things moved quickly.

I mean, you only take three actions per round (standard, move, minor). I found it much faster than Iron Heroes (what I've been playing recently), and my buddy who's in a 3.5 campaign noted the same thing.

My only advice is to remind everyone that they should be thinking about what they're going to do before it's their turn in combat, that way the DM points and says "Next!" and they jump with "Balcor does X, Y and Z." You can even roll ahead of time and just give the DM the results. When the rules are this streamlined the only thing I can think of that would slow down combat that badly would be interminable "Wait, wait, I'm thinking" comments every round.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Also, how familiar were you with the rules before the session? Did you spend alot of time having to read through relevant sections when someone did something? I know a game can drag when the players are waiting on the DM to puzzle something out.

 

[vagabundo]

4e combat is much smoother than 3e. Hopefully that will continue when the game is fully released.

But your game sessions sounds like it focused too much on combat. Dont let one players style take over, everyone should have fun.

 

[Foundry of Decay]

I'd have to know more about what went on during that time combat-wise to offer any advice.

From personal experience, I run a homebrew 4e game (using the premade abilities, but with custom characters) and the character count comes to six not including enemies.

The largest battle so far has been six characters against a diverse group of 2 artillery, 3 soldier/tanks and one controller/artillery caster. The monsters were all higher level than the party and it was a pretty fierce battle, however it took nowhere near even an hour to run through it. (I believe it was about 20 or 30 minutes tops, to be honest).

Admittedly it sounds like you got bushwhacked right from the start, an unexpected combat out of the blue like that can leave a DM scrambling for stats and figuring out a tactical strategy for the monsters.

So, I'm not sure what I can suggest until I know more, but 5 hours does sound rather long unless you were fighting armies/waves of things one after the other.

 

[Surgoshan]

Player says, "d&d is all about combat". DM response, "Okay, you draw your sword, what do the rest of you want to do?"

 

[Xorn]

I'm very familiar with the PrRC now, and I've run quite a few games now, but my games are moving very fast, even with new people. I've done the Raiders of Oakhurst (not reloaded) in 5.5 hours, all four encounters, including a nearly killed dragon. Did Return of the Burning Plague (my first time to run it) in 5 hours, and did The Second Son in 6.25 hours, with 4 new players in that game. Every session I've run was 6 players.

But my first time to run the kobold encounter in Raiders, we probably spent 2 hours just on that fight. I chalk that up to a lot of figuring out and fumbling on both sides of the DM screen. That's what happens when you play with piecemeal rules.

But I'm with the others... I'd need more details to comment on a 5 hour combat. Wow.

When I was running Sunless Citadel in v3.5, the party (through some bad rolls, some loud armor, and a fighter the liked battle roars) ended up in a storeroom, fighting off 36 goblinoids at once. That fight took about 2 hours and change.

 

[baudbard]

I've played in several campaigns over the years with a minimum of 7 players.

Combat can become quite a chore very quickly, with 5-10 minutes between your characters actions.

Our gaming group used a simple houserule. Have Your Action Ready.

While watching what the other players are doing, prepare your maneuver, along with any relevant rules for discussion.

The DM still maintains final say, but the players are to a degree, governing themselves.

This is a group of obsessed geeks tho. And I can see where less interested players would be hard pressed to find the rules for their ideas.

In addition I'd like to mention two other concepts I've read on these boards.

1) pre-roll damage

2) average damage instead of rolled damage

best of luck with your game.