How to make D&D games run faster?

[Destil]

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.

This is a huge in-game time waster, actually. Because now you have to consider 16000 permutations of your 'building blocks' every time you want a spell, and play will grid to a halt as players look at what they can mix `n match. Spells really are one of the fastest ways to do things.

Get yourself a good reference sheet for casters (I swear by Ema's dynamic spellsheets: http://www.emass-web.com/) instead.

 

[SlyFlourish]

Ways to speed up a D&D game

I have this same problem with my 16th level D&D 3.5 campaign and I'm guessing so do a lot of folks given what I heard at Gencon and the direction of D&D 4th edition.

I started a new campaign and here were some rules I put into effect:

Spontaneous spell casters only. No wizards, druids, clerics, rangers, paladins or the rest. I added in warlocks, shadowcasters, favored souls, and binders.

Attributes are picked, recorded, and tracked by the bonus instead of the number.

+3 strength, +2 dexterity, +1 constitution, -1 wisdom, 0 intelligence 0 charisma.

Group buffs are considered auras: spell casters lose a spell slot but everyone can figure group buffs into their character sheets. Bless, holy aura, haste, and the stat buffs all apply. This adds a big power jump to the game so I do the same thing with monsters.

Skill bonus = level + attribute. +5 if it's a skill using the primary attribute of the class. +5 if they're human. +5 if they're rogues. Skills aren't individually tracked. When someone wants to do something, they roll against level + most likely attribute. This is clearly broken but it's also fast.

No crit confirmations. Threat ranges are shrunken by one. All weapons but a rapier crit on 20. improved crit and keen can take it to a maximum of 18,19,20.

Diagonal movement counts as 1. Let people move fast, so what. It's a lot easier this way.

Remove iterative attacks and add 1/2 level to damage. Gain one extra attack at +10 BAB. Haste also gives an extra attack.

Power Attack is 1/1 even on two-hand weapons. No strength bonus for 2 hand weapons. Prevents min-maxing on power attack two-handed weapons. At Gencon I played in two games where I severely out damaged everyone else by using this technique. It's broken.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

This is a huge in-game time waster, actually. Because now you have to consider 16000 permutations of your 'building blocks' every time you want a spell, and play will grid to a halt as players look at what they can mix `n match. Spells really are one of the fastest ways to do things.

Get yourself a good reference sheet for casters (I swear by Ema's dynamic spellsheets: http://www.emass-web.com/) instead.

Good reference sheets work.. assuming they have all the spells updated on them.. how many errata have come out on specific spells?

Elements of Magic solves the combat slowdown by requiring a Standard Action for casting a 'pre-mixed' spell, of which the caster has a limited number of, or two full round actions to cast 'on the fly'. Because the building blocks are all the same you don't have to look up many of the effects.
For instance, EoM spells come in 4 ranges: touch, short, medium, and long. They come in 4 basic shapes: ray, line, cone, sphere. Combat spells require either a Save or an touch attack roll.

Core rule spells, OTOH, can vary widely on any of these aspects... sometimes requireing a touch attack *and* a save, and often have ranges based on some arbitrary measurement plus some other number per caster level.

This means with EoM when a spell is cast you can quicklu adjudicate where, when, how long, and how to resist the spell. The other permutations are the What of the spell.. is it a Fireball or a Wall of Stone...

Of course, I also like the system because you get to design your own spells, so if you want to summon a flying, flaming skeletal giant weilding a Great Hammer...

 

[Mark Chance]

Prepare for the game. Both players and the GM. As a player, I don't need to look up anything about my character. It's all already spelled out on the character sheet. As a GM, more unusual effects or spells are typed up shorthand and included as part of the stat block.

 

[robberbaron]

That's a good point.
I prepare for my games but, every time, I have to look something up/choose a spell for an NPC/etc., which brings the game pretty much to a halt for a few seconds.

Then again, the players each do this several times a session, so I think I'm on the high ground here.

The main way to speed up the game is to restrict choices. The more skills, feats, supernatural powers, etc., players have the slower they will play.

 

[Obergnom]

Prepare for the game. Both players and the GM. As a player, I don't need to look up anything about my character. It's all already spelled out on the character sheet. As a GM, more unusual effects or spells are typed up shorthand and included as part of the stat block.

I do not think this is a good point at all. Why? Of course I prepare for my games and that helps me run them pretty fast. And my players do so too, sometimes. But there are allways weeks where that just isn't possible. I think it's sad that you actually feel during the session if it had been a buisy week or not. (And because you reach a new level every now and then, doing this preparation once does not help at all, you have to do it at least once per month just for the spells... rather every second week, I guess, because you will forget about many spell effects.)

I might find the time to run the game, but not to prepare anything extra. My players might find the time to come to the game, but not to prepare playing their character before play.
Additionally, that pretty much rules out casual gamers. Half of my group consists of those.

 

[robberbaron]

Hang on, must have missed this earlier.

Players preparing? Granted some do, but IME most don't look at their character sheet from session to session and the ones who do don't know what their spells/feats do.

 

[Mark Chance]

Players preparing?

It was just this crazy thought that I had. I game every other week. I'm pretty busy, especially since I'm back in the classroom starting this coming Monday.

And yet I always seem to find the necessary 15 minutes before game time to re-read my character sheet.

I've always expected I was exceptional.

 

[gothmaugCC]

As someone whose been DM'ing homegames since second edition was released and run hundreds of RPGA events, I can offer a few decent tips for speeding up homeplay. I'm sure many of the experienced hands around here do the same, but i'll re-iterate them for new DM's. Here's a few things we do to keep the ball rolling.

1) End most campaigns around 15th level (though i perfer 12 myself) ESPECIALLY if you have lots of new players. 3.5 as we all know begins to fall apart at levels higher than 14. Combats start taking forever, no one remembers what high level spells do, your meelers have to roll a zillion dice every turn, etc, etc. Of course if your a fan of epic play, then by all means keep going

2) make your lives easier and more fun, take away critial conformation rolls.

3) Use a Dm screen and learn to LIE to your players. Your all there for fun, sometimes you need to fudge the rolls for or against your players to keep the story (and the fun) going.

4) Create DC's on the Fly. THis is something i learned waaay back in West End Games old star wars RPG. Who cares what the DC is for tying a sheepshank knot? And why spend 2-5 minutes looking it up? When faced with things like skill ckecks, as the DM just pick a reasonable sounding DC. Its fast, easy and convenient. Your the DM, your players trust you and your word overrrides whatevers printed. So save you and your table precious minutes and make more "on the Fly" rulings.

5) Skip miniatures for simple battles: Seriously, you really don't need to draw out a 20 by 20 room with just 2 orcs and a table in it. Have thier players describe thier actions and run with it. Sure, with things like cleave and whirlwind and AoE, you'll have to decide whether the monsters are in range, but thats your job as a dm, So have fun with it and improvise. (seriously folks, not having to sit there for 5 minutes while Joe fighter figures out which 6 squares he's going to walk through to get to the big baddie is a MAJOR time saver, so try a few enounters "old school" style and skip the miniatures.

6) Ignore Hit points, know when to kill your monsters": Again this is why you use a DM screen. Who cares how many hit points are written on the paper in front of you. If the time is right, let it die. Your two main times to do this are when
(A) the combat is running on forever and getting boring or
(B) when someone does something really heroic and you want to create a dramatic bit of flair.
Example: The Uber tripping reach monster with a spiked chain you created is great, but when combat drags on for 15 rounds sometimes its time for the thing to die, regardless of its hit points.
-or-
The hero dashes across the room, sucks up 4 Attacks of oppurtunity, dives across the altar (making his jump check), and stabs the bad guy in the chest right before the knife sinks into the hostage is a great time to kill your villian, no matter his hit points.

7) Encourage your players to USE thier character sheets: Ask them to write down a few notes on thier favorite spell/item/feat/etc, so you dont have to look it up every few rounds when they use it. This falls into the above poster's comments about being prepared. Along the same line require your players to bring any appropriate builder books to the table, or they cant use thier feat/spell/item/skill/class/etc.

and lastly...
Order the pizza (or whatever) well before you take a break for food. Nothing's worse than taking a 30 minure break, then ordering the pizza, then waiting for it to show up, etc, etc. Byt he time it arrives, you eat and get started again youve burned 60-90 minutes

Well thats about it for now. I stayed away from game mechanic changes, and focused on ways to really shave time off your encounters, and give the players more bang for thier buck for each hour at the gaming table. Hope its helpful

Duane
AKA Kassegore

 

[Felnar]

4) Create DC's on the Fly. THis is something i learned waaay back in West End Games old star wars RPG. Who cares what the DC is for tying a sheepshank knot? And why spend 2-5 minutes looking it up? When faced with things like skill ckecks, as the DM just pick a reasonable sounding DC. Its fast, easy and convenient. Your the DM, your players trust you and your word overrrides whatevers printed. So save you and your table precious minutes and make more "on the Fly" rulings.

agreed, DMs should have pg 35 of the DMG on their DM screen

and welcome to the boards gothmaugCC