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Message: <blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 1081212" data-attributes="member: 10201">Well, in fairness, your first post wasn't clear on what you wanted out of the discussion.So, you want to still play D&D3E, more or less, but shift the balance of effort a bit from DM to players?  Sounds reasonable--my last GM burned out precisely because of the workload of D&D3E.  First suggestion: stop rolling dice--that's the players' job.  All NPCs Take 10 on all rolls, all the time.  For most things, that's just fine--the players will still provide the random element (and, provided they don't know their opponents' capabilities, you've lost none of the suspense element).  For combat, you need to make one simple change: PCs roll their defense.  Instead of AC for a PC being 10 + [some stuff], it becomes d20 + [some stuff].  If their defense exceeds the opponent's attack (which is now 10 + [some stuff] instead of d20 + [some stuff]), they've successfully evaded the attack.  I'll let you decide on damage.  For most things, i'd still leave it in the players' hands: you either tell them the first time they're hit by something ("ooo, that's gonna smart--it's bite does 4d6 damage"), or lay it out on the table to begin with (it seems reasonable to me that adventurers should have a rough feel for how dangerous an attack is).  For common attacks, you can just tell them ("you don't quite dodge, so he hits you with his longsword") and rely on them to do the damage rolls.Second, streamline NPCs.  They all have 3+level ranks in a number of class skills equal to the skill points they get per level + Int mod.  Which means you don't even have to write it down--just note the skills and the max ranks number.  Go one better than the monster ability arrays: Abilities mods are all 0 unless the creature is described as particularly slow, fast, strong, small, smart, etc.  When you need to use an ability, write it down so you can be consistent.Hit points: not only are they average, but simplify damage.  Say, round attacks against NPCs to the nearest 5pts of damage.Drop AoOs.  In fact, basically ignore the entire combat chapter: all you need is d20+mods vs. opponent's [now static] total; do something advantageous, get +2 or +4; do something stupid, get -2 or -4.  No cover, no concealment, no AoOs, no fancy-schmancy grappling rules, no  bull rush, no rigid movement rules.  You can keep many of the feats that tie into these elements, if your players want them, because they work differently than the default anyway. The rest of the time, just remember the +/-2 rule.  You can keep initiative, or drop it and use an opposed Ref save (remember, NPCs Take 10) only those times when it really matters who goes first.Are you willing to also give more input to the players in your quest to lighten the GM's burden?  If so, give them some sort of fiat points.  They spend them to decide what happens--not just to succeed at a roll, but to succeed at an action/scene.  So: "<tosses fiat chip on table> 'Luckily, the barkeep in this town is an old friend of my parents, so we should be able to get the help we need'"  The more power you give the players over the direction of the game, the less effort you have to exert.  Oh, and along those lines, never create more than you have to.  They're gonna be fighting an NPC wizard?  Don't pick his spells, just figure out his personality and what he expects to happen that day (i.e., is he prepared for the PCs, or planning on going flower shopping in a safe part of town?), and the sorts of spells he would have prepared flow naturally from that.  Just tick them off his spells/day list as he casts them.  You don't even need to know the spells in the PH, so long as you have a general feel for power levels: just make spells up, assigning effects and levels as you go.  Heck, you can even go it one further, for a one-shot: make the encounter exactly as difficult as needed, on the fly.  Then, after the fact, if you need to know what level he is, total up the spells he cast, and make him the minimum level needed to cast that many spells at once.What D&D3E really needs is mook rules.  There needs to be some way to just mow through hordes of really weak badguys without playing it all out.  Maybe like the 2e rule of as many attacks as your level against <1HD creatures.  Say, extend it to: for creatures up to half your hit dice, you get as many hits per attack as your hit dice divided by their hit dice.  Each hit eliminates an opponent.  So, a 10th level fighter clobbering gnolls (2HD, right?) takes out (10/2=) 5 per successful attack, or potentially 10 per round with a full attack action.Mind you, my real suggestion is to simply find another system.  By the time you streamline D&D enough to make it fun for the GM again, it's not really D&D3E any more, IMHO.  I'd try to find a copy of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia, if i were you, or pick up BESM and Uresia, or something along those lines.Oh, one other thing for the GM: even if you use all the rules, don't add to them.  Use the DMG, PH, and MM, and then nothing else--no splatbooks, no 3rd party supplements, no other monster books, etc.  Or, better yet (IMHO), use Arcana Unearthed, and nothing else.  ;-)</blockquote>

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