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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pukunui" data-source="post: 4487475" data-attributes="member: 54629">Thanks, guys!I am actually designing my own initiative cards at the moment. They're going to have a bit more on them than just name and initiative score, though. I'm going to put defenses, hit points, languages, passive scores, and the like on them as well -- mainly all the things that I would normally ask a player about. Not having to ask them should help speed things up at my end. I used cards in 3.5, but I was just writing everything out in pen and pencil on a 3x5 card and it wasn't pretty, nor was it very easy to find the info. I haven't done it yet for 4e (but I'm working on it -- gotta make use of my design degree somehow! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />) I was only going to use the stopwatch because it was the first thing I thought of. I have, however, got pictionary so I could do the same thing and steal the sand timer from that. How much time does it give? 1 minute? I'm going to ask the guys if they'll be willing to try this method next time. Having everyone sit in order so that you know you're next because you're sitting on the right of the person who's taking their turn right now just might help speed things up.What about making initiative be more like "rolling to see who goes first" as you do in other games? That is, whoever gets the highest modifier goes first and then we just go clockwise starting with them regardless of what anyone else got? Yes, I'm using the same cards. The players really like them as they don't have to crack open the book to reference their powers. One of my players is my former graphic design tutor, so he prints out all our cards and things on the school's cardstock for us. He printed the initial run rather large but the guys don't seem to mind, so we've just left the size the same for all subsequent printings. I've got some left over colored sticky tabs from when we were playing 3.5 and I was marking up my books like crazy in an effort to speed up having to look things up ... but I haven't needed to use them yet really because we've had hardly any ongoing stuff. We're playing KotS and there's just aren't many monsters that bestow ongoing effects and the PCs only have one or two powers that cause lasting effects. The fighter and the paladin hardly ever mark opponents (in fact, the paladin never does). The ranger uses hunter's quarry regularly, but it's fairly easy to track without needing a visual aid. One of the new guys is possibly going to play a warlock, so we might start seeing more ongoing effects ... Thanks! Cheers. I'm actually American, though. I just live here. LOL. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Yeah, we've got a whiteboard. The players take turns being in charge of it. Doesn't really help with keeping people on the ball, though. This isn't a problem for my group. It's more indecision and tiredness that keep people from being ready.That's partly why I want to start putting in a time limit -- not just to keep them on the ball but also to drive home the idea that this is combat! The players might be comfortable just sitting around a table, but if it was real, the characters wouldn't have that luxury. They'd be having to think and act in seconds. So if the players are being indecisive, then their characters can hesitate and be indecisive as well and delay until they are ready (or they're dead).See above re: initiative chart and marking things.</blockquote>

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