iserith
Magic Wordsmith
Oh, a couple folks are moving in mid-December, so there's already a bit of a time crunch with our campaign. Everyone is very well aware of it. I've also pointed out their tendency toward over-analysis, and they're doing better about reining in those tendencies. I've done a decent job of balancing their agency and moving things things along so they don't drag.
Fortunately, this last casting of arcane eye came toward the end of a session. I explicitly asked the player to play along for the last 15 minutes, and then cast arcane eye, so that we could resolve it between sessions. This was fortuitous, because the last two times he cast arcane eye were mid-session and I just had to run with it the best I could.
How do you handle spells like arcane eye? Do set a timer or something?
The players mostly self-police in my games. We have a general rule: If you think the thing you want to take for your character is going to take more time than usual in a way that detracts from the game, don't take it.
In the case of arcane eye or, say, looking through a familiar's eyes, I have a bit of an advantage with Roll20 in that I can just setup the eye (or the familiar) such that everyone at the table can see what it sees, under the assumption the caster is describing things. This way everyone is engaged as they discuss what they see and what to do next.
If I lacked Roll20, then really I'd ask players be very specific with their goal when using a spell like arcane eye. They're obviously looking for something - what is it? I'll just skip to that if possible and fill in necessary details about the route the eye took later e.g. "The eye passes through a bed chamber and a study before finally going into what looks like a laboratory in which the villain is putting the finishing touch on the doomsday device." I don't really need to describe the bed chamber and study in any great detail here, at least not until it's relevant to the PCs' plans.