Maintaining a brisk pace during the game -- tips?

[maddman75]

Here's my tips for keeping things rolling

- Delegate! There's no real reason the DM has to be the person figuring out everyone's initiative. Let one of your players do it.
- Delegate some more! Pick your most rules-lawyery player, and arm them with the core rules and any house rules, or other books you make heavy use of. Its their job to do a quick lookup in case of a dispute. Just talk about how great of a grasp they have on the rules and most of them will be tripping over themselves to help.
- You have the right idea on rules questions though - if it isn't life or death, make a spot ruling and have people talk about it later.
- Don't worry so much about rules. There is no spoon.
- Prepare as many statblock as you can. I despise opening a monster book in play. Having the statblock right in your notes makes things much easier.
- If you don't have a statblock, fake it. Eyeball about what the creature's attack and damage bonus should be, decide on the spot if they have a given feat or spell, and when you think they've been beaten on long enough decide they're out of hit points.
- Time limit. This isn't chess, its an adventure game. If someone can't tell me what they're doing in a few seconds, we go to the next person in initiative. If they're ready after that, we go back to them. If you're casting a spell then you should already have the book open to that spell with the details.

 

[nopantsyet]

What do the initiative cards have on them? That is, how do they differ from, say, just using normal cue cards?

The monster cards sound cool -- I'll have to check them out.

Go to The Game Mechanics. I picked up some cardstock for my printer, to make them easy to sort and flip. They're a huge help for me, especially as I am prone to absentmindedness.

• When preparing for combat, write down a few key spells or abilities that opponents will use, then you don't find yourself pouring over the monster's description to decide what action to take. DMs can slow down combat too!
• Don't forget about plot-pacing. The game could move quickly, but if the plot is poorly-paced it will still seem long. Pay closer attention to the devices used in fiction and cinema.
• Use different narrative modes. Dialog or description, however great, can still become tedious if used exclusively. Try to add texture, but in a variety of ways. Use voices and expressions for some NPCs, but not for others (and not just for important ones). Describe actions or locales in great detail sometimes, and sparingly others (and not just for the important ones). Use more dramatic tools: sound effects, actions, music, etc., but use them sparingly. Variety always helps improve pace.
  
  My final thought is not for everyone, but it has worked wonders for my game. It is probably appropriate only for a certain subset of games and players. Don't flame me if this doesn't apply to you; it's just food for thought.
  
  
• Spend a good amount of your preparation time on plot. If the players are engaged in the story/action, the pace will take care of itself. Even if it's a published adventure, it can help to revisit the plot. Not because you're going to make it better, but because you're going to internalize it and interpret it and it will come out your own. Plus, if you are well prepared, having explored different plot avenues and pacing devices, you will weave a story around them that will make every encounter more interesting. It doesn't have to be a complicated story; you can still hack and slash if you so desire. But if you wrap it together with a well-structured plot, it will propel itself forward.

:npy:

 

[Tumbler]

I'll 2nd the "delegate." I have four players in my group. One is in charge of initiative tracking (after the first round, of course, don't want them to know when the baddies are going right up front). One is in charge of tracking stats for hidden rolls. We keep a markerboard with Spot, Listen, AC, Disable Device, and whatever else is needed. This is easy to update as things fluxuate with spells, full defensive, and the like. One is in charge of looking up rules (which is pretty common, since my players have their characters do some pretty outlandish stuff). One keeps track of opponents/challenges overcome so I have a handy reference for XP. All in all, it makes my time running the sessions great and I get to spend my mental energy on keeping clues straight, RPing, and adjusting timelines to respond to character actions.

 

[Talon5]

Suggestion-

When looking stuff up ask everyone to look for it, first one to find it says- "its on page 43," that helps to find things and someone else might have just read that.

Stand up while you GM.

Anyone have to go to the bathroom- wait 'til after your turn, then you have the whole order to do what ever you need to do (this excludes GMs of course).

Alert the next person in order- "Kelly its your turn after Harry, so be ready."

Computer helps- you can't imagine how much until you try it.

Emm will have to think on it a bit.

 

[Akrasia]

... Computer helps- you can't imagine how much until you try it.
...

What kind of stuff do you use the computer for? How does it help?

Anyone else make use of the laptop during sessions?

 

[Akrasia]

... [*]Spend a good amount of your preparation time on plot. If the players are engaged in the story/action, the pace will take care of itself. Even if it's a published adventure, it can help to revisit the plot. Not because you're going to make it better, but because you're going to internalize it and interpret it and it will come out your own. Plus, if you are well prepared, having explored different plot avenues and pacing devices, you will weave a story around them that will make every encounter more interesting. It doesn't have to be a complicated story; you can still hack and slash if you so desire. But if you wrap it together with a well-structured plot, it will propel itself forward.
[/LIST]
:npy:

This is a great suggestion -- and one that I have been sorta using in my current campaign so far.

If I have a clear sense of the campaign's plot(s), it is also easier for me to improvise encounters and events, especially if my players pursue a plan of action for which I did not prepare.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Alert the next person in order- "Kelly its your turn after Harry, so be ready."

I actually take this a step further. Rather than use cue cards for intiative, I have small name tags, one for each char. After everyone rolls initiative, I lay out the name tags in order on the table next to the battle grid, so everyone can clearly see where they are in the scheme of things, and knows that if Bob is acting now, Ted is next up. The first time the monsters come up, I insert a "monsters" name tag in the appropriate place.

I second the suggestion that players use the restroom immediately after their turn. That way they are usually back before their turn comes up again.

I used to deal with stat blocks for monsters. Eventually I decided that I spent more time trying to find info on the stat block than I liked to. So I usually create a "stat block lite" for each monster type. It has things like AC, attack bonus, damage bonus, saves, and hp. If I need to delver further into the monsters, I have the stat block on the computer, but most of the time the stat-block lite does well enough, and saves lots of time since I can merely glance at it to know what I need to.

On that note, I also usually cheat and give the mooks identical stats, whenever possible. So if there are three hobgoblins in the room, they'll most likely all be using the same type of weapon and armor. This lets me use just one "stat block lite", with three entries for hp.

I do tend to RP even mundane tasks. I tend to believe that if the blacksmith's personality is colorful, then speaking with him adds something to the game. Though if there is a long list of mundane tasks to be accomplished (a seven player party buying supplies at seven different vendors, for instance,) I'll gloss over it to save time.

Have players roll to hit and damage at the same time, if possible.

Never draw out anything unless there's combat. If there's no combat, then simply describing the location is enough. Only after initiative is rolled, and players need to see exactly where everything is, should you bust out the dry-erase marker.

Consider rolling in advance. Which is to say, roll ten attacks and three saves for each critter during preparation. It makes your combat action much faster if you've done all the math in advance.

 

[Akrasia]

I actually take this a step further. Rather than use cue cards for intiative, I have small name tags, one for each char. After everyone rolls initiative, I lay out the name tags in order on the table next to the battle grid, so everyone can clearly see where they are in the scheme of things, and knows that if Bob is acting now, Ted is next up. The first time the monsters come up, I insert a "monsters" name tag in the appropriate place..

That is a cool idea!

So I usually create a "stat block lite" for each monster type. It has things like AC, attack bonus, damage bonus, saves, and hp. If I need to delver further into the monsters, I have the stat block on the computer, but most of the time the stat-block lite does well enough, and saves lots of time since I can merely glance at it to know what I need to.

On that note, I also usually cheat and give the mooks identical stats, whenever possible. ...

Yeah, I have always given the mooks the same stats!

Regarding your "stat block lite", I've started doing something too, and it is a great idea.

 

[kingamy]

A couple of thoughts:

-Pre-rolled dice can be good or bad. I am a "roll in front of the players" GM, so pre-rolled dice don't work for me. For a "roll behind a screen" GM it can work fine and save a lot of time.

-Player-tracked initiative works well if you have experienced players (especially players with GM experience)

-One overlooked thing is non-gaming visits wtih the gaming group. If you occasionally visit with the group for things other than D&D (movies, TV shows, board games, etc.) then you have an outlet for some of the non-mechanical delays. In my experience, it is not slow gaming that makes for slow games, it is all of the non-game related chatting that goes on among friends that don't see each other very often outside the game. And really, you can't get too mad a folks for chatting with friends they never see, so it becomes hard to deal with.

kingamy
Grande Prairie, AB, Canada


*edit for typos because I'm dorky*

 

[Talon5]

What kind of stuff do you use the computer for? How does it help?

Anyone else make use of the laptop during sessions?

Write your campaign on your computer, you can change the color of the fonts and fonts so that you can find stuff faster, scan in maps so you can zoom into areas (maps seem much clearer on screan- don't ask me why), clutter is greatly reduced, there are lots of things- its really cool.

Sorry, just did some reading and thought of something else.

You can creat a standard Black Blood Orc (ftr4/rog1/rng2), then increase a level or two rather quickly and easy with copy and paste. Making Kor's brother Klack is pretty easy.

If I didn't have a computer I more then likely would have fallen back to my GURPs ways and my campaigns would be all screwed up. Makes things easier to deal with.



Good luck. Stay in the light and Peace to all.