I need some advice....

[Renfield]

I have recently come across two dilemma's. One old and one new. First, the old one:

I have been DMing for some time now and I am beginning to get tired of combats taking an hour +, I have had games planned out and inspiration for great scenes only two top off the night with two encounters and only a quarter of the things I wanted done done. I've played with initiative and am presently using a system involving 1d10 + Dex Modifier then count down from 15. This has sped things up a little but is still having things take too long. Now my PC's are very against group initiative and even moreso against one initiative for an entire combat. Their argument being that it tweaks with realism beyond acceptable limits and the chance of getting a better or worse roll every round helps keep them engaged during the long combat sessions (hope that doesn't say anything bad about my DMing). I've heard of techniques involving cards and other methods and am open to any suggestions.

My other issue is this: In a Castles and Crusades game I am playing in my character has been given the opportunity to make a wish. My DM has already said he won't try twisting it too much if it's nothing too 'extreme'. My character is a CN Assassin who believes himself to be chosen, by the goddess of evil no less, to hunt and kill evil when it's time is up. (The goddess has other portfolio's such as Fall and Luck and Destruction so worship of her is still common as people often focus on one aspect) The groups present goal is more or less taken care of so his only in character desire would be for something to aid in his greater purpose of slaying the evil in the world. Any suggestions?

 

[The Lost Muse]

I don't know how much help my comments will be, but here goes:

(Out of curiosity, are you playing 3.5?) IF they won't go for group initiative, that's fine. But make them roll their initiative and any other rolls they need to make for the round all at the same time (this way they will save some time doing the math and will have to know what their character is going to do).

On your end: write out, round by round if necessary, what their opponents are going to do. Roll all the dice ahead of time. Then when you go to play, this should speed things up.

Are you using monsters straight out of the MM? During prep, one thing I do is to write out the stat-blocks in my own format, which has ALL the info I need on them and I know exactly where it all is.

Example:
[sblock]
Orc (CR 1/2)
hp: 5 Fort +1
Init: +1 Ref +1
Speed: 20 ft. Will +1
AC: 12, Touch 10, Flatfooted 10

Attacks
-Battleaxe +2 (1d8+1, 20 x 3)
--Power Attack +1 (1d8+2, 20 x 3)
-Bow +1 (1d8, 20 x 3)

Skills and Feats: Hide +2, Spot +5, Power Attack, Weapon Focus

Treasure:
Leather Armor, Battle Axe, 2 copper pieces
[/sblock]

I may even write out tactics, round by round, especially if I am dealing with a spellcaster. This includes when buffs run out and other such information.

Don't worry about including a description of any actions, or if you do, be rolling the dice while you make your descriptions. If you are rolling at the table, roll all the dice you need to at the same time. (I never DM with less than two sets of dice and a bunch of extra d6's.)

Simplify the rules you have trouble with. I made grapple into a simple opposed attack roll, and no one does it anyway still.

I hope this advice is helpful.

 

[Mark CMG]

I have recently come across two dilemma's. One old and one new. First, the old one:

Okie doke.

I have been DMing for some time now and I am beginning to get tired of combats taking an hour +, I have had games planned out and inspiration for great scenes only two top off the night with two encounters and only a quarter of the things I wanted done done. I've played with initiative and am presently using a system involving 1d10 + Dex Modifier then count down from 15. This has sped things up a little but is still having things take too long. Now my PC's are very against group initiative and even moreso against one initiative for an entire combat. Their argument being that it tweaks with realism beyond acceptable limits and the chance of getting a better or worse roll every round helps keep them engaged during the long combat sessions (hope that doesn't say anything bad about my DMing). I've heard of techniques involving cards and other methods and am open to any suggestions.

Remove buff spells from your game, remove Attacks of Opportunity, and use average damage for all spells and weapons.

My other issue is this: In a Castles and Crusades game I am playing in my character has been given the opportunity to make a wish. My DM has already said he won't try twisting it too much if it's nothing too 'extreme'. My character is a CN Assassin who believes himself to be chosen, by the goddess of evil no less, to hunt and kill evil when it's time is up. (The goddess has other portfolio's such as Fall and Luck and Destruction so worship of her is still common as people often focus on one aspect) The groups present goal is more or less taken care of so his only in character desire would be for something to aid in his greater purpose of slaying the evil in the world. Any suggestions?

Wish for the spell-like ability to detect evil 3/day.

 

[Harmon]

Our fights start with rolling intitive, the GM has premade 3x5 cards for each character, the individual big bad guys, and one for the goons. He places the roll call, calls each character as they come up any hesitation is met with "six second rounds- what are you going to do?"

Players that hesitate arn't skipped but they are pushed. When a Players turn is up they should decide what they are going to do the following, and have options incase someone drops the foe you were going after or what have you.

To hits and damage- I have begun rolling together just recently. Buffing, bonus, and such should be written down- something I need to do more often ("Bard song +2, oh, then Pray...")

A Player timer- a kitchen timer set to 30 seconds, GM calls your name he hits the start button, buzzer goes off, your turn is up.

Aside from that I have no suggestions other then this- if people are complaining about long fights then they might want to stop talking and pay close attention to what is going on, or if that isn't an issue then I got nothing.

Best of luck.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I fail to see how changing initiative to 1d10 + Dex Modifier would speed up combat at all.

My suggestions are to use index cards, one for each PC, NPC and monster in the combat plus an end of round card to help you track spell and effects durations. Get everyone to roll initiave and then put the cards in initiative order. Then just cycle through the cards.

The blank initiative cards available from The Game Mechanics website are what I use. Can't get better than free! They also have ones with all the 3.5 SRD monsters pre-written on them available for purchase if you want. I did as I find them useful.

The other thing I suggest you do is give everyone a certain time limit to come up with their action for the turn otherwise they are considered to be delaying. Do this a couple of times and you'll find players are much quicker to decide what they want to do!

I also have a rule in my game that if you are casting a spell or doing a complex action you need to know how it works and be able to show me the refererence in the book if I want to see it. If you don't by the time your turn has come around then pick something else or once again you will be counted as delaying. There is nothing worse than the game being held up for 5 minutes because one player wants to cast a particular spell but hasn't actually bothered to find out how it works.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Renfield]

the D10 rule is simple and actually does speed up initiative from standard D20. Only Dex modifiers apply and so you simply do this:

DM: Roll Initiative.

*Players roll*

DM: Alright, 15 and above?

14... 13... 12... 11...

Player #1: Me, I attack. *player attacks*

Alright, we were at 11... 10... 9... They go.

*monsters attack*

And so on. The countdown technique shaves a few minutes off while still allowing PC's to make a roll each round. Makes them pay attention too if you declare that they can't go if they miss their number by more than two counts. While technically you could do the same with a D20 you'd have a lot more to count down with what with initiative scores of +8 being easy to obtain there's no real point.

 

[Greylock]

Just wing the mutha.

It's not about winning or losing, just progress the story. You are the DM, right?

hth

 

[Numion]

I have initiatives rolled in advance, then I just call em when their turn is up. We use one initiative for the whole encounter, and have usually rolled 10 initiatives for each characters. I then roll 1d10 to choose which line to use.

 

[Stormborn]

Problem 1: As previously stated get rid of AoOs. But do so carefully. You could really hurt some of your players' PCs that way, and you will have to take a good look at feats. If you go the avergae damage route you might want to also employ average hit points, otherwise the guy that always rolls 1s for hp is going to be in serious trouble. The other alterantive is have everyone roll damage and attacks at the same time. Insist that players are ready when their turn comes up in initative to act, any delay means they get dropped to the bottom of the order.

Problem 2: Don't play CoC so don't know all the mechanics but here are some reasobable suggestions: detect magic at will, an evil bane weapon, smite, magic item that protects against attacks by evil, favored enemy (evil outsiders or other common evil thing)

 

[kengar]

The last time I ran a 3.X game, I had trouble with slow fights too. There were a variety of reasons: table chatter, players not ready to act on their turns, book keeping issues, etc. One of the things I found in my case (and this wasn't unique to 3.X), was that I was always trying to create a really "cool" fight. There always had to be a twist: whether it was a particularly buffed/advanced NPC villian, or unusual enemy tactics, or bizarre terrain, or whatever. This worked insofar as it kept the fight from being just a straight toe-to-toe hackfest, but it did complicate things.

What finally helped things for me (somewhat) were two things:

1) I'd get all the information I needed for the monsters/NPCs in front of me ahead of time (usually on a spreadsheet grid printout). This took some effort and added to prep time, but it saved some flipping through books at the table.

2) I streamlined the fights. I'd still have the occasional unusual situation, but it turned out to be more fun to have a fairly straightforward fight that maintained tight pacing than setting up some bizzare encounter that dragged on. Instead of really buffed or advanced monsters, I'd just equip them better or maybe give them some extra HP. Their tactics became less novel and more just plain smarter. Also, the bad guys would often flee or scatter if they were losing. This drove the party nuts, but in a good way. The fight would "end" but they knew it could pick up again any time. Sometimes they'd spend the time tracking the baddies down and finishing them, but I made that cost them. Also, it meant I could hit them again later before they were rested and make them sweat spell slots and healing etc. a bit more.

The fact is, unless you're working with a fairly abstract (and simple) game system, fights involving several participants is going to take some time. If you find the combats are eating too much into the session so that getting things done is a problem, have fewer fights. The real issue is when you do have combats, making them fun and intersting for everyone, not necessarily getting them over with ASAP.


I think the innate Detect Evil ability idea is a good one for the Wish.