Looking for a motivation for players (do something cool cards?)

[Shadowslayer]

Howdy all.

I remember a while back there were threads devoted to techniques to keep combat from getting bogged down by endless tactic-talks, square counting, rule-lookups, debate about actions etc when its a players turn. This is becoming an increasing issue in my game...not sure why. (We started out great....but its getting worse.)

I'm looking for a carrot to dangle in front of them in the form of a small boon for being "ready to go" on their turn. Something along the lines of "if youre ready to go with no waiting, then you get this chit. Get X number of these chits and it gives you a free action point - healing surge - re-roll - whatever.

Was wondering if anyone else had had any experience with this sort of thing. I seem to recall someone had come up with the concept of a "Do Something Cool" card, but damned if I can find the post explaining how it works.

Was also curious about the game effect of extra action points...is it possible to give out too many?

Anyway, as I said, I'm just looking for some sort of small boon I can give them. I don't necessarily want to "punish" for not being ready....sometimes you need to take a little extra time. I get that. Especially if the baddies just went before you and changed something significant about the layout.

Anyone had any experiences? And can anyone point me towards the "Do something cool" cards?

Thanks guys.

 

[Locutus Zero]

I haven't done anything like this myself, but I would recommend limiting anything like extra action points or healing surges to 1 per day. That way, it can't break the game too much. Like if they can buy a healing surge with X "good job being ready" tokens, they can only buy one per day, and can save their excess tokens. Then, you just have to make sure X isn't too high or too low.

 

[GameDoc]

That gives me an idea for Fortune Cards. Only allow players to play a card if they were ready to go at the start of their turn. It also sort of gives the DM an measure of control over the cards (other than just allowing or disallowing them at the table) that a lot of folks have been worried about being absent.

 

[TerraDave]

There is always: take your turn now or get skipped. Not that I have quite gone there yet either...but worth thinking about.

And also: As the DM, have your stuff together, both to save time and set an example. Again, something I am working on.

 

[Nullzone]

I'm a fan of positive reinforcement; give them a +1 for being ready. They can use it on any one die roll that turn.

I'd advise against action points, those already bog the game down somewhat since using one often invokes an entire second decision-making cycle.

 

[Abstruse]

I read something somewhere this week (but do NOT ask me where!) about Fun Points where players get points they can exchange for in-game benefits for being good players out of game (including stuff like showing up on time with character ready, writing a background, and even bringing snacks).

Since a combat round is 6 seconds long, you could try giving the players 6 seconds to start describing their actions to get a +1 bonus on any one roll that turn. Or give them 2 minutes and after that, they have to delay action (this would be punishing bad behavior rather than rewarding good behavior though which tends to work faster in behavior conditioning but causes negative emotions). Hell, just give them a candy if they're ready to go!

 

[Nullzone]

I read something somewhere this week (but do NOT ask me where!) about Fun Points where players get points they can exchange for in-game benefits for being good players out of game (including stuff like showing up on time with character ready, writing a background, and even bringing snacks).

Greg Bilsland does this, I believe. It's not a bad idea but I don't personally care for it because it can become rather subjective if you aren't careful. It also runs the risk of power creep depending on what you allow the points to be spent on, and violates the concept of "real life != in game" by allowing people to "buy" their character improvements, which I'm not crazy about either.

 

[Quickleaf]

There are lots of great ideas for incentivizing being ready out on the net. Thing is I've rarely seen any of them change D&D Player's behavior for any length of time. IME it's not that a player is taking a long time to decide just because they can or it's a conscious choice they're making... Instead it's how certain types of players respond to tactical pressure. I really see the incentives only rewarding what some players are already doing, not encouraging behavior change of some kind.

Do the more storyteller players agonize on how to be creative because combats feel like drudgery?

Has a less experienced player chosen a particularly complicated build?

Does one of the players fear messing up tactics after getting browbeaten by other players for a bad choice? Maybe everyone trying to "help" during their turn confuses them?

Is an old time gamer not familiar with your rules set and having trouble grasping key concepts?

Do you have a player with a mental disability or bad memory? Or maybe they have a stressful job and are frazzled on game night?

 

[Locutus Zero]

I have one player in particular who really has a need to find the optimum best possible combination of actions. He thinks moves ahead and spends forever trying to chose between two nearly equal choices. Of course, he picked a complicated Warlock build.

He is aware that it bogs the game down and has started doing his best to keep things moving. At one point early on he told me he hoped his turn would get faster as he got a better handle on the game and his character. I told him that instead he should make his turns quicker, and it would be the effectiveness of his turns that would get better as he learned more. That made sense to him, and now he only goes back into super slow mode when he thinks things are really really on the line, like someone has already failed one death save. Whenever it seems appropriate I'll just nudge him verbally.

Early on I thought about a penalty and/or reward system, but I couldn't come up with a system that didn't involve me making a judgement call each turn. How ready is ready? What if they are ready, but then realize something halfway through a move that wasn't clear and have to rethink? How do I account for the fact that some classes are just simpler to play than others? I didn't want people getting upset that I wasn't being fair, so I ended up not doing any kind of system.

My advice is, ask all the players how they feel about how long turns take. If everyone agrees that they are taking too long, have everyone agree to follow some guidelines (be ready on your turn, figure out line of sight questions while it isn't your turn, etc). For me, the key was not to make it a question of me chastising or rewarding players, but everyone agreeing they'd like things to be faster and everyone thinking up ways to make that happen.

Edit: two ideas to keep things moving: 1) Use a whiteboard everyone can see that orders PCs and enemies in turn order (add the enemies as their turn order is discovered in the first round). I have whoever is keeping up with health take responsibility for the turn order as well. 2) When you announce that it is Player A's turn, also announce that Player B is up next.

 

[jbear]

I do the following:

Players get 2 minutes 30 secs to complete their turn. If they complete it in 2 minutes they receive a drama token. This can be cashed in for a +1 to any roll during the session. Up to 3 can be played at once.

At the end of the session unused tokens are noted down. They can no longer be used during gaming sessions for dice bonuses. But when a player has 12 they can be cashed in for a Drama Card. I found these 'homebrew' cards freely available on a wikipedia site that talked abouta 4e version of Torg style cards that they had adapted to their campaign. (They're gorgeous, but from what I can see, their campaign has stopped for now). To say the least they are similar to the idea of WotC new player cards. I digress. This card is picked randomly from the stack of drama cards. They keep that card to themselves and whip it out of their sleeve for a one time use whenever they want to upset the carefully laid plans of the dungeon master!

Action points add an extra 1 minute to a persons turn. Surprise rounds do not gain Tokens. I stop the clock when I interrupt (opportunity attacks etc).

Positive reinforcement is the way to go. Definitely. My players enjoy it, and those small bonuses turn a lot of heartbreaking near misses into success, which means more dead monsters, which means the story moves on.

As for the 'Do something Cool' card. Its something seperate that a few DMs on the boards have added to their game to inspire players to think outside of the box.

I do it this way: Its an encounter power that players can use to alter any of their powers in ways that make senseand are fun and cool, or to interact with the terrain or the situation in special, cool fun, awesome ways. They still have to succeed by meeting the requirements I set for them. However even if they fail, their action has some relevant, positive side effect (my discretion).

Its another awesome element I would recommendadding to your game.