Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lindorie" data-source="post: 4159893" data-attributes="member: 62727">Wow! Great comments and suggestions. Thanks. This is a long reply, but there's a lot of good content in this thread.LOL. Quite apropos.I was summarizing what had happened to a few of the characters based on a short introduction game with my kids. This group decided to pick up from there.  Shortly afterward, the storyline had a large group of guards and a wizard challenge the group, which was in "a wrong place at the wrong time". I let everyone know that I intended this encounter to be a introduction to Skill Challenges, and that they should work out how the group wanted to handle the situation. I tried to get everyone in the group involved, without success. One character kept wanting to try to use their thievery skills, but a couple of the stronger personalities kept shutting him down (my fault). After a few skill checks, by a minority of the players, one of the characters started pushing a fight.This was the main DM problem. Although I redirected the one player a couple of times, when he told the guards to "either drop your weapons or fight", I had them fight. In hindsight, that wasn't fair to the other players.Only in the sense that I didn't expect this to be a fight; it was a Skill Challenge, after all. I used the stats from Second Son (I think) and only used basic attacks for the guards. The NPC turns tended to be over quickly.I've been scouring the web for 4e rules for a while. I spend 3-4 weeks just working on the first adventure, getting an idea of the world environment, major characters, etc. I don't think that's a problem.A few of you mentioned this. I now recall that they were using my dice, of which I only have 3 or 4 full sets. I recall hearing, several times, calls for "someone pass me an 8 sided die".Another good idea. It would shave off some time for my turns. The main advantage, though, is that when I have to keep asking for metagaming information, I have a harder time weaving storyline into combat. In other words, it becomes much more a straight "guard 1 hits you for N damage".I think this one thing, that several of you mentioned, was the key. There was a lot of "ummmm..." going on when someone's turn came up. Simplicity mentioned an initiative pad, which might help. It would at least allow someone to see when their turn is coming up, perhaps helping encourage them to get ready.I'm not sure where they picked up the habit, since two of them were new to D&D, but three of them were keeping careful track of how many hitpoints of damage was done to each enemy, which also slowed things down at times as they consulted with each other.Which reminds me, do you give the enemy AC out at the start of the encounter? I find myself not wanting to tell the players. I think I've decided to tell them the first time someone scores a successful hit.There were a few times when I did this. The players involved got really frustrated that they couldn't finish their turns, so I stopped interrupting. I haven't decided which is the right way to go, since I want the newbies to keep playing. BTW: "like herding cats" is exactly how I felt.Another suggestion I'll probably incorporate.So, in summary, the top points to me are:     1) Have your actions ready/know your character sheets (dm enforced time limits?)     2) A set of dice for each player     3) Roll damage at the same time as the attack rolls.     4) Viewable initiative order     5) Be lenient on ranges (avoid a lot of time counting squares)</blockquote>

Verification