Ideas for better gameplay

[wild_card2007]

Wow, what a huge community. 2200 users online right now!

So as you've figured out, I'm new here. My quick intro: I'm old and have too much of a "real life" (aka family/work/household responsibilities), but I still make time for a bit of gaming. Which leads me to my question....

Some friends and I have just started a gaming group. We're just getting off the ground, and so there are some rough edges to be worked out. I've been through the "new-group-chaos" experience before and have seen some ways to make things more enjoyable and satisfying for the group, but I'm interested in some new ideas.

So my question is: what "house rules" or procedures or gimmicks does your group use to make things more fun? To be a little more specific, mainly I want to keep things moving at a reasonable pace and minimize out-of-character discussion. I hate when the GM and a player argue for 30 minutes over a rule or the party argues for 30 minutes about what to do or when people are going out-of-character unnecessarily. I want role-playing not roll-playing dammit!

Thanks in advance!

WildCard

 

[Crothian]

Welcome to EN World!! Many of us you will find are just like you. We have jobs, families, and life and responsibilities outside of gaming.

I found that first I set one full game night to talk with the group and hammer out what we all want from the game. I see if people want it to be more social or more gaming. If you get lucky and everyone becomes good friends then hearing about one of the Guy's kids is not that big of deal anymore. My group has even scheduled cook outs, zoo outings, and other things that were not about gaming so everyone could meet the families and the wives could meet the other gamers.

Now to the in game stuff. If we have rules issues I tell the group to write down what the question is and I'll make a quick ruling. Then later in the week someone can look up the rule, or we can ask questions on EN World, and get the rule right. And I'm more then happy to change some things if I get a rule wrong and it screws over a PC. But if we get a rule wrong and it happens to help a PC we usually let that go.

We have our own message boards for just the group. We use it to handle paperwork, shopping, and it allows me to post a summary of last week's adventure and an opening to what is going on this week. We also plan special events, and use it for socializing. A couple of guys that had to leave the group because of outside situations still read and post there. The biggest thing is shopping and selling things. Now all that happens on the boards and I got the players doing it. Once you get a lot of that stuff out of the way it allows more time at the game session to be used for what you want it to be used for.

Best of luck!!

 

[STARP_Social_Officer]

So my question is: what "house rules" or procedures or gimmicks does your group use to make things more fun? To be a little more specific, mainly I want to keep things moving at a reasonable pace and minimize out-of-character discussion. I hate when the GM and a player argue for 30 minutes over a rule or the party argues for 30 minutes about what to do or when people are going out-of-character unnecessarily. I want role-playing not roll-playing dammit!
WildCard

Well, in my view you're missing a lot of the fun if you minimise out-of-character discussion. I'm our group's DM 75% of the time, and I'm the worst when it comes to out-of-game discussion. The point is socialisation; if you wanted just plain role-playing you'd play WoW or something. In any case, there's a reason STARP is called the Side Tracked Association of Role Players.

Leaving that aside, I agree with you about role-playing and not roll-playing. To avoid roll-playing, I suggest you use my approach. When I DM, I let the players guide the story. A lot of DMs favour the "competitive" model, where their object seems to be to challenge the players or, in some cases, wipe them out. Others seem to feel that they are a storyteller and that they need to guide (read:railroad) the players into actions they want them to take. Now, there's merit in a certain amount of gentle nudging, and certainly a good DM challenges his players, but the players and their characters should always guide the story. The game needs to be about them, not just featuring them. When I'm playing, I try to follow this same philosophy by throwing myself into the part, so much so that it becomes impossible to pretend the character isn't there or isn't relavent. We tend to stay away from pre-published adventures, simply because they're pretty linear and tend to be (in my experience) mostly about throwing monster after monster at the PCs. Basically, my point is that a good gaming group has a DM that adapts his adventure to his players and their characters, and players that create interesting, dynamic, vibrant characters. And conflict - inter-party conflict is very important. Not that that means the PCs should hate one another - that's never gonna work (we tried it once). It means that they should have different goals, different world-views and, yes, different alignments. The conflict between two people who work together is a powerful role-playing device. Just be careful how you use it.
Oh, and remember to develop characters. Just because a character hates dwarves doesn't mean they have to hate dwarves forever. All players and the DM must be open to change. Conservatism kills campaigns cold. Change is good. Static leads to staleness and boredom.

Of course, the opposite of everything I've said is also true.
Isn't this fun?

 

[Faraer]

To avoid arguing over rules, just establish in advance that players don't argue over rules during the session. I've found that reducing out-of-character discussion is mostly a matter of seeing your friends enough outside the game. And, of course, discuss the campaign in advance to get the players on the same page regarding setting, play style, and everything else you can predict.

 

[Doug McCrae]

It's the GM's job to keep things moving. If there's a rules argument, let's say on whether you need a greater 'plus' to sunder a magic weapon, he should just make a ruling so the game can continue. It doesn't matter which way the GM rules but he must make a decision, yay or nay.

That's what I do anyway. It's bugged me in the past to see an otherwise wonderful GM, who I respect very much, not use his authority to quash a rules debate.

 

[Keldryn]

I always do my best to keep the game moving. Once I have the players' attention, it can be really hard to get it again if the game stops and they get distracted.

I ask my players not to argue with me about my interpretation of the rules while we're in the middle of the game, unless a PC's life depends on the result. We can discuss the rules after the adventure (or on a break) and keep it in mind for the next time.

Preparation can help a lot. If I have the time, I do all of my maps in CC3 (even the ones in a module, if we're playing a module) and print out the important areas at the 1" = 5' scale. For dungeons, I prefer to print out the entire thing, regardless of whether combat happens in that location. It helps the players if they're mapping and saves time of having to re-read room dimensions again and again. It saves me the time of having to draw everything out on a battlemat -- and quite honestly, marker scribbles on a plastic or rubber grid don't really do it for me visually. The CC3 maps look better (and can be in colour if I'm not feeling cheap) and take virtually no time to use in play.

I keep a record of all of the PCs' important stats handy -- combat modifiers and skills that I may need to roll for them. It saves me time from having to ask them, and also avoids "Hey, what's your Spot check modifier?" "Plus 8" "Okay... You don't notice anything."

If PCs have unusual items, feats, or other abilities, I make note of those on the above sheet(s). Generally, I try to have as much of the PCs' info on-hand as I can and arranged so that I can access it at a glance.

I rarely run a combat straight out of the Monster Manual. If I have time beforehand, I'll write out the salient combat bits on the piece of paper that I'll be using to run the combat (or even do it quickly while the PCs are discussing amongst themselves).

If an NPC, monster, magic item, etc, is going to be important throughout the whole adventure (or longer), I'll prepare a 3x5 index card for it so that I can keep it handy at all times.

It's just part of my DMing style, but I favour the approach of fewer but more challenging combat encounters. 13-14 encounters per level that use approximately 25% of the PCs resources bores me to tears -- that's including the one or two intentionally difficult battles assumed by that model. A challenging battle usually takes longer to run than an "average" battle, but it's faster than running 3 or 4 "average" battles. Watching the PCs fight for their lives in most of their battles is far more exciting.

I make sure that I include opportunities in every adventure (and in most complex encounters) for every character to shine. When a player zones out because there is nothing for his or her character to do other than "uh, I shoot it with my crossbow because I'm out of spells" or "uh, I guess I keep singing" then when it comes time for that player to actually be able to do something, the game stalls while he or she is deciding what to do. He or she is completely out of the game, often needs to have things re-explained because they weren't paying attention, and often spends several minutes flipping through books and looking at his or her character sheet trying to find something. I can't say I blame the players when this happens -- when I'm a player I'm the first one to start spinning dice and looking at things for the next character I want to make when there isn't anything for my character to do. So if I keep all of the players more-or-less equally involved, this happens much less often. Bored players almost always end up causing the game to grind to a halt because they weren't paying attention.

It probably helps to limit the number of supplemental books that the players can use for creating their characters. It sucks up time when a player needs to look up the specifics of a particular feat or spell and has to flip through four books to find it. I'll often provide the player with a page or two of the relevant class/feat/etc info from a supplemental book (that one of us owns) to keep with his or her character sheet to avoid having to look stuff up.

I make heavy use of these reference sheets: http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/dnd3e/documents/refsheets35.zip. I give each player a copy of the player's combat reference sheet, which includes all of the combat actions, what they do, and whether they are standard or move actions, as well as other useful stuff. One of the sheets in that package also provides a summary of all conditions and their effects. It's not a substitute for having read the rules, but it's a real time-saver while playing the game.

Again, the more pre-game preparation that I can do, the more smoothly the game seems to run. If I'm running a module, I make sure that I've read it several times (or at least the parts we're most likely to hit that night). I try to get battle mats printed out in advance (or use pre-printed tiles to build something that's close enough to work). I start "encounter sheets" for each combat that I anticipate will occur.

Basically, anything that you can do to minimize the use of the books (or more than one or two) while playing is extremely helpful in keeping things running smoothly. If I'm running a module and don't have time to make encounter sheets for everything, I'll photocopy the monster stats listing from the back so I don't have to keep flipping. Same thing with maps, if the cover is stapled onto the module.

If you have a notebook PC and take the time to organize your files, it can be a big time-saver as well. I don't like players having computers at the table, because they inevitably stop paying complete attention to the game.

Hope you find some of these ideas helpful!

 

[STARP_Social_Officer]

If you have a notebook PC and take the time to organize your files, it can be a big time-saver as well. I don't like players having computers at the table, because they inevitably stop paying complete attention to the game.

Oh, ye Gods, tell me about it! There's nothing worse than being the only one sitting there with pencil and paper while everybody else is looking at you over a laptop. It feels like you're being interrogated by the Microsoft Inquisition.

 

[Keldryn]

When I DM, I let the players guide the story. A lot of DMs favour the "competitive" model, where their object seems to be to challenge the players or, in some cases, wipe them out. Others seem to feel that they are a storyteller and that they need to guide (read:railroad) the players into actions they want them to take. Now, there's merit in a certain amount of gentle nudging, and certainly a good DM challenges his players, but the players and their characters should always guide the story. The game needs to be about them, not just featuring them. When I'm playing, I try to follow this same philosophy by throwing myself into the part, so much so that it becomes impossible to pretend the character isn't there or isn't relavent. We tend to stay away from pre-published adventures, simply because they're pretty linear and tend to be (in my experience) mostly about throwing monster after monster at the PCs. Basically, my point is that a good gaming group has a DM that adapts his adventure to his players and their characters, and players that create interesting, dynamic, vibrant characters. And conflict - inter-party conflict is very important. Not that that means the PCs should hate one another - that's never gonna work (we tried it once). It means that they should have different goals, different world-views and, yes, different alignments. The conflict between two people who work together is a powerful role-playing device. Just be careful how you use it.

I try to do this as well, and it should be on my list too. I find the more involved and interested the players get in the game, the more quickly and smoothly things run. It takes a certain amount of preparation and an ability to wing it, but letting the players guide the game really helps avoid the bored player syndrome. And not coincidentally, the more involved the players are in the game, the less not-game-related talk there is. Not that non-game talk is entirely bad, as we're all friends gathering to socialize, but too much can certainly kill the game's momentum. I also find that players are most likely to start arguing about the rules (or simply about the logic of something) when they feel that they're being railroaded. Particularly when an adventure calls for a villain to escape, no matter what the players do. I really wish they would quit writing adventures like that.

 

[Warren Okuma]

Study the rules.

My house rule is that there are no house rules. Spells are literal. The rules of the game describes the physics of this magical world, so if irrational things happen... it's a magical universe. Play it street legal (no house rules) first, to see what needs change, and if it does discuss it with your players.

 

[theemrys]

Well, personally I find using a laptop as DM really helps speed things up and lets me focus more on roleplaying... once I'm comfortable with the program. I've been using DM Genie and it really helps me keep track of details so I can focus on the story.

Also, as a player it's been nice to have because it lets me worry less about details and book keeping. Also, it really threw off a few others when the rogue in the party could "pass a note" to the DM via MSN messenger instead of in front of everyone...