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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haltherrion" data-source="post: 5560491" data-attributes="member: 18253">First off, the group as a whole has to want to move things along faster. If they like the leisurely pace, methods to speed things up will fail. But most often, a group won't object to faster play; they just slip into habits that slow things down.    Various things I've found useful:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tell the group you want faster play. They will usually cooperate (at least for a while <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Try to identify time saps and put an end to them. These vary but some places to look:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fuzzy start times with players straggling in</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Too many breaks for food or beverages</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Too many side conversations about movies, MMORGs, whatever.</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Combat is often the biggest time waster<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Insist players prepare for their action while the others are acting. Start skipping them if they aren't ready. Usually the round is short, 6 seconds. A little player dithering is easy to represent as PC uncertainty for just a moment.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Disallow secondary PCs, henchmen, companions</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">As a ref, run simpler encounters. If every encounter brings the party to the edge of defeat, they are going to over analyze every action. Throw mostly below average encounters, some average and only a few hard ones and you will find you can get 3x the encounters in.</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Talk to players about any problem behaviors like asking others what they should do, spending 20 minutes looking up the right spell, etc.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Be flexible as a DM on your rulings. Is it worth arguing for 5 minutes about whether that half square is obstructed? Just defer to the players. If it really matters you should be more careful about how you layout the battlefield but it almost never really matters</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Analyze your weaknesses as a ref. We all have them. Are you slow to pick out creatures for an encounter? Then pick them out before the session. Do you struggle to name NPCs? Get a name book or come prepared with 10-20 useful names (you wont use them all in one session anyway and will have them for the next session.) Have trouble fleshing out your NPCs on the fly? Create mini-NPC descriptions ahead of time. It's not all prep this or that. You can also avoid the things you aren't good at, used canned adventures, you name it.</li> </ul>I've tried a number of these things over the years. The most effective for me has proven to be:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Strictly limit players to one PC (my group often gets sucked into more than one PC for one reason or another)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Move the median encounter difficulty down a notch or two.</li> </ul>Those two things give me the most bang for the buck. To contradict myself, these two methods work even if the players don't want faster play... Cheers and good luck.</blockquote>

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