Making D20 Faster

[Thanee]

Easy fix. Remove AoO and Ready, don't use battlemat/miniatures.

That alone should make combat a lot closer to what you are used to.

Of course, maybe you would then need to make Concentration for spellcasters different, in a way, that you have to roll against DC 10+half of total damage taken during the round or something like that, in order to cast a spell successfully. Or just ignore that stuff altogether.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I have played in a number of 1e/2e games where the tendency to accumulate magic items made the available tactical options greater than 3e. When leveling is slow, that can easily happen. So 3e is not really slower at all. The rounds go by slower but the level of violence is much higher per round, and it balances out overall.

My recommendation is to enforce the speed. The DM should silently count to 5. If the player has not starting explaining what his PC is doing, the DM should count down from 5 aloud. If the player is still not certain what the PC is doing yet, the PC Delays. Move on to the next character. That PC can act when the player is certain what he is doing.

The players will adjust to the pace very quickly.

If the player is not sure what to do, Delaying is a good idea more often than most people realize.

 

[tensen]

Slower in 3.5?
I recall combats that took an entire gaming session under 1st edition... that we've been able to wrap up in under an hour under 3.5.


I would say it is probably a means of your gameplay. Plyaers can and will use up time looking up various options in books. Make sure they are aware that time flows during the game... so they plan out tactic options in advance and have things neatly available for us. Too many options does slow down play.. but only if you allow it.