Keeping track of combat length (for posterity)

[Wik]

Also, Jester, Blarg is absolutely right. Talk to the player - mention everything you can to speed up play on his behalf.

Personally, I'd just say to him "Hey, the game combats could be a little bit quicker. What do you think we can do to speed things up?"

In essence, it gets him thinking about speeding up the play, without making him feel like he's being singled out. It's a good first step, at least. And Shaz - you need to look at the number of PCs. 7 PCs in a 2 hour fight isn't super long - after all, counting in the GM, that rounds up being less than twenty minutes a round... or approximately 3 or 4 minutes a player, which isn't really that much. (pardon my math here, I'm doing it on the quick).

 

[blargney the second]

As I was telling Kirra's player on saturday, I have a whole bunch of fiendish encounters plotted out. I think we're about ready to throw level 18 monsters at the party at this point.

Uhh.. I wouldn't mind getting an extended rest first so we can actually level up now that we have the XP! Level 12 vs level 18 is a hell of a lot scarier than 13 vs 18 for some reason.

 

[Jdvn1]

1 fight that took over 2 hours with 4 strikers! That is more evidence to me that 4E combat takes way too long.

I don't think the data supports that idea. It was a roughly average length in terms of minutes per round, and one of his shortest in terms of MPR/PC.

His most recent is his second shortest MPR and his shortest MPR/PC.

His encounters have been getting faster, but his party has been getting bigger! That's pretty bizarre. I'd be interested to see how quick it'd be with helping that one player along!

 

[the Jester]

Hey Jester, have you talked to the wizard player yet?

We've discussed it, but his point- and a valid one, and one that the group agrees with in principle- is that he (the player) is waaaay less intelligent than the supragenius wizard pc he plays. So we just shrug and accept that it will slow things down a little.

 

[the Jester]

Stats from tonight's D&D Encounters session (first Dark Sun, yay!):

PCs: Five (2 strikers, 2 defenders, 1 leader)
Monsters: 2 x level 1 brutes; 2 x level 1 artillery; 1 x level 2 controller

Number of Rounds: 6 (only one pc was still there for round 6, the rest having fled)
Real Time Elapsed: 1 hour, 8 minutes
Dailies Used: 1
Surges Used: 4 (all by the same character!)

 

[the Jester]

His encounters have been getting faster, but his party has been getting bigger!

To clarify this, we have a regular gang of seven players, but they often aren't all there. We will play with a quorum of 3 players, so the number of players goes up and down depending on who is available.

 

[the Jester]

I don't know if anyone else is still participating in this, but here are a few stats from our Friday game:

COMBAT 1
PCs: 1 defender (warden 6), 1 leader (cleric 8), 1 controller (wizard 8), 3 strikers (barbarian 7, rogue 7, ranger 8), 1 npc 4th level skirmisher.

Bad Guys:
6 snaketongue initiates (level 7 minions)
1 snaketongue assassin (level 9 lurker)
1 crushgrip constrictor (level 9 soldier)
10 water mocassins (level 8 minion controllers)
3 greenscale darters (level 5 lurkers)

Rounds: 6
Real Time: 2 hours 15 minutes (slightly delayed due to cooking going on near the end of the fight)

COMBAT 2
PCs: 1 defender (warden 6), 1 leader (cleric 8), 1 controller (wizard 8), 3 strikers (barbarian 7, rogue 7, ranger 8), 1 npc 4th level skirmisher.

Bad Guys:
2 snaketongue warriors (level 8 brutes)
4 snaketongue initiates (level 7 minions)
2 ghasts (hurray for my new MM3!) (level 6 brutes)
1 ironstone gargoyle (hurray again for my MM3!) (level 7 skirmisher)

Rounds: 7
Real Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

I've no idea about dailies/surges in these ones.

 

[blargney the second]

Hopefully I'll be updating this again soon! Our 4e game has been on hiatus while my fiancee was taking a summer course.

 

[Wik]

Hopefully I'll be updating this again soon! Our 4e game has been on hiatus while my fiancee was taking a summer course.

Yeah. I never thought I'd say it, but I think I'm preferring 4e over d6 (!). I really miss getting my ass kicked by two rogues and a party of pseudo strikers.

Also, I really want to see if Zahar becomes king. I have no idea how that little subplot is going to resolve, which is one of the funnest parts about GMing.

 

[Wik]

COMBAT 2
PCs: 1 defender (warden 6), 1 leader (cleric 8), 1 controller (wizard 8), 3 strikers (barbarian 7, rogue 7, ranger 8), 1 npc 4th level skirmisher.

Bad Guys:
2 snaketongue warriors (level 8 brutes)
4 snaketongue initiates (level 7 minions)
2 ghasts (hurray for my new MM3!) (level 6 brutes)
1 ironstone gargoyle (hurray again for my MM3!) (level 7 skirmisher)

Rounds: 7
Real Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

I've no idea about dailies/surges in these ones.

That's a pretty good set of numbers! 5 PCs and 1 NPC vs. 5 monsters and 4 minions?

Do you think the MM3 stats helped speed things up? They do seem pretty handy to me - I'm looking forward to using them next week.