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Gaming Efficiency: do you get a lot done in a session
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<blockquote data-quote="Radiating Gnome" data-source="post: 5834400" data-attributes="member: 150"><p>When I prep for our 4e sessions, I plan 6 combat encounters and make sure that one near the end is disposable if things get bogged down. At higher levels (late heroic/paragon) I prepare one less. RP/Skill channeges/etc tend to take insignificant time compared to combat. </p><p></p><p>I've toyed around with a lot of different variations on skill challenges to replicate minor encounters -- if I need to create a feeling of the PCs hacking their way through minor encounter after minor encounter, it's a skill challenge, and I save the actual combat encounters for important/interesting moments. In some cases I've been pretty pleased with the results -- creating skill challenges or "combat challenges" as barriers between encounters.</p><p></p><p>Group size, of course, makes a HUGE difference, naturally. When we have 6-7 players, we get a lot less done than when we have only four. And that's just a matter of game math -- because with more PCs you need to have more NPCs, so to finish the encounter, you need to do more damage, but the average rate at which your PCs do damage doesn't really change all that much when you have more PCs -- unless you get creative, you still have one player taking his turn at a time. </p><p></p><p>Having said all of that -- our group is very wargamey -- we love the tactics, etc. We're happiest when we're in combat (unless things are going slowly or it's not an interesting battle). I try to find ways to end combats that have become uninteresting -- either the NPCs surrender or flee or we just hand wave the last bit -- so we can move on to something else. </p><p></p><p>It has become more and more my opinion that the game is actually far better for smaller groups of players -- a table of four players means smaller groups of NPCs for the DM to manage, shorter combats, more spotlight time for each PC, and so on. A player gets 20% less spotlight time when you add a 5th player, and 33% less when you add a sixth (If you have 4 players, they each get roughly 15 minutes of spotlight time out of every hour; with 6, each gets 10 minutes. Those of you with groups of 8-9 are edging close to 7-8 minutes of spotlight time for each player -- sounds pretty challenging).</p><p></p><p>Anyway..... I don't really think long combats are a bad thing in and of themselves -- but I think long DULL combats are awful. A boring skill challenge is over in a few minutes. A tedious combat can drag on for an hour or more.</p><p></p><p>-rg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Radiating Gnome, post: 5834400, member: 150"] When I prep for our 4e sessions, I plan 6 combat encounters and make sure that one near the end is disposable if things get bogged down. At higher levels (late heroic/paragon) I prepare one less. RP/Skill channeges/etc tend to take insignificant time compared to combat. I've toyed around with a lot of different variations on skill challenges to replicate minor encounters -- if I need to create a feeling of the PCs hacking their way through minor encounter after minor encounter, it's a skill challenge, and I save the actual combat encounters for important/interesting moments. In some cases I've been pretty pleased with the results -- creating skill challenges or "combat challenges" as barriers between encounters. Group size, of course, makes a HUGE difference, naturally. When we have 6-7 players, we get a lot less done than when we have only four. And that's just a matter of game math -- because with more PCs you need to have more NPCs, so to finish the encounter, you need to do more damage, but the average rate at which your PCs do damage doesn't really change all that much when you have more PCs -- unless you get creative, you still have one player taking his turn at a time. Having said all of that -- our group is very wargamey -- we love the tactics, etc. We're happiest when we're in combat (unless things are going slowly or it's not an interesting battle). I try to find ways to end combats that have become uninteresting -- either the NPCs surrender or flee or we just hand wave the last bit -- so we can move on to something else. It has become more and more my opinion that the game is actually far better for smaller groups of players -- a table of four players means smaller groups of NPCs for the DM to manage, shorter combats, more spotlight time for each PC, and so on. A player gets 20% less spotlight time when you add a 5th player, and 33% less when you add a sixth (If you have 4 players, they each get roughly 15 minutes of spotlight time out of every hour; with 6, each gets 10 minutes. Those of you with groups of 8-9 are edging close to 7-8 minutes of spotlight time for each player -- sounds pretty challenging). Anyway..... I don't really think long combats are a bad thing in and of themselves -- but I think long DULL combats are awful. A boring skill challenge is over in a few minutes. A tedious combat can drag on for an hour or more. -rg [/QUOTE]
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