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

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Little too heavy handed for my tastes. I'm just trying to keep it moving AND make it more fun for the guys.

Well, rather than skipping turns, having the player delay may work better - that way, they slip in the iniative order but don't lose a turn unless they fail to jump back by the time there turn rolls around again.

Personally, I've found this works well for my group, though its not something that I impose on them, but instead something I merely suggest - if a player doesn't seem to know what to do on their turn, I'll just recommend that they wait and usually that does the trick - by the time they do act, the situation is clearer and they act quickly.

None of the above. Just seems to be a lot of waffling at the table. Guys saying "no no no....do this instead" ....even when the initial action was perfectly acceptable.

The solution to this may not be rewarding people for acting more quickly, but rather limiting your players giving input to other players on those players turns. One solution would be to only allow your players to give suggestions on their own turns - this would reflect the PCs themselves shouting out to their companions.

This is also a good approach if you have one or more players who (an)other player(s) don't let make up their own minds and are always telling them what to do... by limiting this kind of kibitsing, you give them a chance to make their own decisions, which may slow things down at first, but will give the player a chance to gain confidence and hopefully ultimately speed up play.

 

[Robtheman]

Awesome Cards or Do Something Cool cards have been a huge boon to my game. I don't give them out as rewards for going quickly though.

Essentially each player gets a Card at the beginning of each encounter. They can invoke it at any time to do something Awesome that is consistent with their class abilities. There is an additional cost of one healing surge. I may up this in the future to be an action point.

It grants a standard action that must be cinematic and exciting and they have never used it prematurely. Essentially it's power is that of an encounter power and we use page 42 (now a different page...) to adjudicate the result. They describe their action and I decide if a skill check plus attack roll is required, or two skill checks, etc.

It functions as a pressure release valve for me as the DM. I can throw something really difficult at them and if they get in to a dire situation they have a way of doing something interesting and heroic to get out of it alive. It gets the players thinking about the spirit of their character and beyond the power cards in front of them.

I don't see it as a solution to your problem - as I would not want them cashing in these multiple times in an encounter.

The +1 to hit for being ready, and +1 to damage for describing it your self, seems like the easiest motivator. Other ideas seem to add a new mechanic to the round in exchange for speeding up decision making.

I've found the best way to speed up gaming is to conduct smaller skirmishes without maps or minis. Sketch a basic layout and show where the bad guys are in relation to the party with x's and o's. Then roll initiative and have them do their stuff. at-wills do 1 damage, encounters 2, dailies 3. Monsters have 1 (minions), 2 (standard) or 3 (elite) hps. You will be amazed at how quickly these types of fights go and how much more descriptive the players become. When you finally get to the real tactical combats you may find that the players actually take their turns faster. I did.