How to make D&D games run faster?

[Obergnom]

I thought alot about how to make D&D run faster, recently. I think there are two points that can be made simpler, generation of game material (characters, monsters, adventures) and the game itself.

I thought more about how game is run, and what changes would speed this up.

These are areas that could be simplified, IMO:

Skills: I like the idea of not using fixed DCs. Just give a fixed number for what is easy (DC5) or nearly impossible (DC35) and let the DM decide. Use opposed checks as often as possible. (Tumble Skills vs. Attack). This would (at least in my group) reduce "looking stuff up" time.

Combat: Remove Itterative Attacks. In my campaign we use -3 on all attacks per additional attack you have got, if you choose to use it. Works great, and you just have to add one number, not 3 or more, to different dice rolls.

Remove the confirmation roll of critical hits.

Make the combat maneuvers simpler, so less looking up is required. One Roll per maneuver shuold be enough.

Magic: Remove spells. This would be radical, but in my experience, at higher character levels, the caster players spend of their time looking up spells. Every spell is a single new rule for the game. Thats just to much. Create a building blocks system. It is easier to learn 40 Blocks than 500 spells.

These are just some thought I had.

 

[Stormborn]

Faster Play?

Preroll opponents initatives and attack rolls
Limit Casters to Spontaneous versions (its a lot easier to keep up with the spells for a Sorcerer than it is for a Wizard) - your solution seems more difficult in practice to me becuse each time you combine different "blocks" you have to redo the math.
Eliminate Mulltiple attacks
Roll damage at the same time as an attack
Eliminate Crit Confimation
Reduce Number of Skills, set track of Easy, Average, Hard, Very Hard, Impossible for all skills.
Eliminate minatures and tiles (and things like AoOs that go with them) - let PCs describe what they want to do and have the DM confirm whether or not they can do it

 

[robberbaron]

If you trust your players (or you aren't concerned if some of them take liberties) you could have them roll their attacks before the spotlight gets to them.

I don't do this myself, mainly because I make my rolls in the open when called for so I think they should, but it's an option.


Don't factor in Caster ability bonus for saves and disallow Spell/Power Focus.


Use a timer for a player's turn in the spotlight. Anything not done in the time (maybe 2 minutes) doesn't happen until next round.
Obviously, cut a player some slack if it is your response to his actions that is taking the time.
This might stop players measuring distances several times and moving their figures all over the battelmat, taking for ever.


Cut down on the number of situation bonuses in use (prone, flanking, disabled, etc.) or make them all +2.


Remove AoOs, or merely remove Combat Reflexes.
Remove Cleave and especially Great Cleave.


Use a computer DM aid. I use DMGenie and it rolls PCs' initiative for me, saving a minute or so from every combat. Has many other uses as well.
[/plug]


Play 1e?

 

[Obergnom]

Oh, I should mention, I posted this in the Houserules Forum, because I thought about how to change the game to achieve that goal.

I know there is a couple of tricks to run the current edition faster, but my intention was, to look for rules that make those tricks unnecessary.
(Use Spell Cards -> using spells is faster, use condition cards -> conditions do not slow you down that much...)

 

[sirwmholder]

...Magic: Remove spells. This would be radical, but in my experience, at higher character levels, the caster players spend of their time looking up spells. Every spell is a single new rule for the game. Thats just to much. Create a building blocks system. It is easier to learn 40 Blocks than 500 spells...

Interesting thoughts there... if you are looking a way to do the magic I'd recommend Elements of Magic. It's modular spell creation... you define area / range, duration and effect. It's a very excellent system! you can find a link to it on my bookshelf.

Hope this helps,
William Holder

 

[DungeonMaester]

Play 1e?

Winning Idea.

---Rusty

 

[Felnar]

Eliminate Mulltiple attacks
Roll damage at the same time as an attack
Eliminate Crit Confirmation

why not...
Eliminate Mulltiple attacks
Roll damage at the same time as an attack
Roll Crit Confirmation at the same time as an attack

also, limit the input from other players while not their turn ("hey, you should do this... this ... or this")

 

[TheLe]

Bring back THAC0

`Le

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

IMHO, some things to speed up game play:

Pre-rolled initiative
'Combat Cards' used to track combatants {Initiative cards with the combat stats}
Knowing the rules.....
Use 'Grappling for Beginners' alt grappling rules

I agree that Elements of Magic is a slicker spell system because I don't need to remember/lok up the effects of weird spells that are in 25 different supplements. Instead I know the building block effects.. much easier... once mastered. You still have a wide number of weird effects possible, but the actual mechanics of casting the spell is consistant.

 

[The Levitator]

I know this won't appeal by description to many groups at first, but here's what we did, and combat is exponentially faster than when we first started playing 3.5.

1. I use DM Genie to manage my game.
2. We play diceless, using DM Genie's autoroll option to make all dice rolls in the game.
3. We use 12 second real-time rounds. Players have 12 seconds to begin to declare their action or they are considered delaying for at least 1 segment.
4. I use Maptool as a VT. which makes moving tokens faster, especially on very large maps. Some of my outdoor maps are more than a quarter mile square. I don't have that kind of room in my living room for that big of a battlemat.

Our original intent of these changes was to try and hide the mechanics of D&D as much as possible and rely on description to paint the pictures. The side effect is that we found that combat went nearly as fast as players could declare their actions. I know that to some, using DM Genie's autoroll option instead of rolling physical dice is blasphemy to some, but our group is not concerned about traditions. We only get together every other Sunday, so we are trying to be as efficient as possible while still having a highly cinematic experience.

What I love most about using DM Genie and the autoroll option is that we use a lot of variants, and they are all scripted to work automatically in DM Genie. We use the Opposed Defensive Roll variant, Armor as DR variant, Class Defense Bonus variant, Clobbered variant, and Facing vairant, and we still get through combat faster and more accurately than when we played Core with pencil and paper.

We've been thinking about adding online people for occasional games. So if anyone ever wanted to "sit in" on a session, just PM me through here.