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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zuche" data-source="post: 5863217" data-attributes="member: 6682151">I had eight players show up on Thursday, which meant running two tables. We got started about an hour late for various reasons, several of which I should be able to avoid if this ever happens again.One advantage to running two tables is that any time a player took too long to take a turn, I switched to the other table. By the time I resolved that action, the other table's turn tended to go a lot more quickly. (Have you ever noticed that the people who take the longest turns tend to be the ones that get the least into character?) Unfortunately, this didn't speed things up quite enough to make up for the initial delay, and one group opted to resign after two hours of play. The second group carried on for another two hours after that.They might have lasted longer if the wizard hadn't been such easy pickings for the pterodactyl, or if the group had focused on that creature earlier. His visions of avarice managed to catch a lot of enemies, including the tyrannosaur in the tar, and that helped make up for how little damage they could otherwise dish out. Two orcs lost full turns escaping from both the zone and the tar, and the triceratops were forced to leave the field as a result of that combination. The tyrannosaur finished of the (party's) druid and his companion in the first round and severely injured everyone else, just before getting forced into the tar, slowed and being knocked prone. The survivors hoped this lucky break would turn things around, only to discover that the creature could still reach the fighter without having to move, and devoured him on the spot. The warlord managed to get the wizard up in time to keep his zone running, but the pterodactyl made sure that wouldn't happen again, and then there was one.Access to a tablet sped things up enough to make up for the delay it cost to record stat blocks on it, though it would have helped if I'd had been able to set that up prior to the adventure. (I wasn't expecting to have use of it, as it wasn't mine. I now have to see if I can't acquire one of my own before next month's big event here, because it was a huge help.) Another delay was caused by counter confusion, as I only had one set and forgot to write down which colour (from the generic Encounters set) represented which group of orcs. Since the DM who runs the program on Tuesdays prefers to use minis, I'll see if I can't snag the second set from him for next time. If not, I've got other orc tokens I can use that should make it easier. (Eight is always a rough number. One less and I'd have asked the guy with the tablet to handle record-keeping for me, as he did after his table packed it in. One more, and I'd have had him run the second table. Funny how this happens to me at least once a season, yet we usually wind up short-handed for the Tuesday sessions.)</blockquote>

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