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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 6127601" data-attributes="member: 22424"><p>The last time I ran 4e, we started "Tomb of Horrors" with what should have been a quick scene-setting fight - something to show the PCs that "something's not right here". Unfortunately, that fight then took 2.5 hours out of our 3 hour session*. However, the reason that fight took so long was not that <em>each round</em> took a long time, but rather that the combat required a <em>huge number</em> of rounds to get through.</p><p></p><p>(Indeed, I disagree with Morrus that 4e rounds are the longest they've ever been. IME, high-level 3e takes considerably longer to get through a single round, especially when the <em>dispel</em>s start flying. But a 3e combat typically takes a 3-4 such rounds, where 4e tends to take many times that.)</p><p></p><p>*FWIW, that's what finally convinced me 4e was just not for me - if a single combat takes that long, and with one 3-hour session ever 2 weeks, I simply couldn't use the system to tell the stories I would have wanted to tell. One combat per two weeks would simply kill any hope of pacing the story well. Obviously, for a great many people, Their Mileage Varied.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Probably not. My guess would instead be that you're doing a lot of little things rather inefficiently. 4e has a <em>lot</em> of small and short-term modifiers flying around. If you can get these organised, the game will flow massively better. Without that, you're likely to spend a lot of time just counting things up, going back because you've just remembered a recharge, or ongoing damage, or a save...</p><p></p><p>Or, of course, you could consider switching to a 5e playtest instead. According to the reports, that system plays much faster.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="delericho, post: 6127601, member: 22424"] The last time I ran 4e, we started "Tomb of Horrors" with what should have been a quick scene-setting fight - something to show the PCs that "something's not right here". Unfortunately, that fight then took 2.5 hours out of our 3 hour session*. However, the reason that fight took so long was not that [i]each round[/i] took a long time, but rather that the combat required a [i]huge number[/i] of rounds to get through. (Indeed, I disagree with Morrus that 4e rounds are the longest they've ever been. IME, high-level 3e takes considerably longer to get through a single round, especially when the [i]dispel[/i]s start flying. But a 3e combat typically takes a 3-4 such rounds, where 4e tends to take many times that.) *FWIW, that's what finally convinced me 4e was just not for me - if a single combat takes that long, and with one 3-hour session ever 2 weeks, I simply couldn't use the system to tell the stories I would have wanted to tell. One combat per two weeks would simply kill any hope of pacing the story well. Obviously, for a great many people, Their Mileage Varied. Probably not. My guess would instead be that you're doing a lot of little things rather inefficiently. 4e has a [i]lot[/i] of small and short-term modifiers flying around. If you can get these organised, the game will flow massively better. Without that, you're likely to spend a lot of time just counting things up, going back because you've just remembered a recharge, or ongoing damage, or a save... Or, of course, you could consider switching to a 5e playtest instead. According to the reports, that system plays much faster. [/QUOTE]
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