D&D General Players who take Excruciatingly long turns: solution?

[payn]

I'm still not sure what about group initiative means it would move faster than regular initiative.

It doesn't. To some it just seems like it.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I'm still not sure what about group initiative means it would move faster than regular initiative.

In this particular case, the faster players can just go while the slower players work through their planning. So theoretically you gain a bit there.

 

[Reynard]

I am not willing to attribute to malice what can be easily explained by incompetence.

I decided to send out a message saying we should discuss our slow combat pace problem and so far have received an apology for not being on the ball by Complex Caster Guy. One of the fast players suggests it is largely a coding and spell effect issue, and there was a suggestion for a "let's get everything coded in right" off schedule session by The Mechanic. So the group at least acknowledges there is an issue and has thoughts on how to potentially fix it.

 

[robus]

That is interesting. I found virtual to speed things up significantly. I mean, once folks learned how to use the interface (some much better than others). The drag and drop compendium character sheets and automated clicking has been super welcome to my experience.

We just did videochat, didn’t adopt a VTT as our campaign was about 95% done,

 

[payn]

We just did videochat, didn’t adopt a VTT as our campaign was about 95% done,

Oh thats a mighty big difference! Not sure how to differentiate this, or if it would even help, but virtual is not going to lead people to this conclusion.

 

[Mort]

Lots of good ideas so far.

One thing to keep in mind is a group of friends is quite different than a convention game or an AL game or even a game that meets but are acquaintances.

What's worked for my group (and I have 1 clear slow player, if I let him he would take an hour to decide on any given action):

1. We had a an intervention. We're all friends (just like the OPs group) and we just explained to the guy that we have approximately 4 hours a session and we've all budgeted for it (everyone has careers and just about everyone has families with kids). This was to make him understand why people were frustrated.

2. I'm much better about letting people know they are on deck. In addition to announcing it (X it's your turn, Y your on deck) I have a whiteboard that shows initiative. Online we also make sure turn order is displayed.

3. I made him write out his "favored" actions and keep them close. A little grade school-ish but it was merited and it helped.

4. Initially, I announced we were going to have a 10 second timer - at MY discretion, If I get to 0 you take the dodge action. This is drastic, but things were getting REALLY bad. It became unnecessary once 2 and 3 clicked better.

That's what worked for our group.

 

[robus]

Oh thats a mighty big difference! Not sure how to differentiate this, or if it would even help, but virtual is not going to lead people to this conclusion.

Yeah I should have clarified that this was at the beginning of Covid, back when we thought it would be just a couple weeks of isolation…

 

[Helldritch]

I'm still not sure what about group initiative means it would move faster than regular initiative.

It removes multiple rolls. Just putting the initiatives in order can be cumbersome and make you lose up to two minutes per rounds (if not more with many different enemies and 6 players) if you roll each rounds. With group initiative one roll per side and it is done.

 

[Reynard]

It removes multiple rolls. Just putting the initiatives in order can be cumbersome and make you lose up to two minutes per rounds (if not more with many different enemies and 6 players) if you roll each rounds. With group initiative one roll per side and it is done.

We are using Fantasy grounds. That isn't an issue. Also, 2 minutes at the beginning of a combat that lasts 2 hours isn't really my biggest concern.

 

[Helldritch]

Ok, a twenty four rounds combat took us a bit less under two hours. A six round combat usually takes around 15 to 20 minutes sometimes less.
Edit: And we roll initiative every single round. Does it mean that you roll only once per combat?????