Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
Not to bury the lede: Is it okay as DM to put pressure on some players to know their character enough not to slow the game unnecessarily by delaying super-rapid advancement from the party.
One group I play with has been asking for me to run for them. Everyone is a lot of fun to game with and comes up with interesting characters that they roleplay well. Level of system mastery varies a lot at the table, and that's fine. Except in the case of two players who regularly need help with their characters. Ask them to make an ability / skill check and it takes a while. Working out to-hit bonus and bonus damage numbers every round, or sometimes every attack. Forgetting about class features for a whole combat, like the Ranger's Colossus Slayer. Learning about their spells. It slows down the game at the table. I've been playing with this group 1-2 years now, I don't see a lot of change.
I have a theory that this is exasperated by them using an app to create and level their characters, so they aren't involved in the details but just have them presented. But, in fairness, everyone's busy and they know that others are willing to share their expertice so they show up early and ask for advice and level right there. Learning from others is something I support, so that's a legitimate offsetting point.
Anyway, we've done Tier 1 several times as a group, and everyone is happy to either skip it or get past it in a hurry. I don't want to start the players who don't know the character mechanics well at 5th, I think that will make the problem worse. So I was planning on starting at 1st and just advancing quickly - leveling every session until 3rd, then almost as fast up to 5th. (This group has been exclusively milestone based levelling under the various DMs, levelling when the DM says so is part of our social contract.)
But I don't want to lose them by going to fast, so I was thinking of advancing as long as everyone seemed to have a good familiarity on the mechanics of their character. Not that they can't ask for help, but things like not needing to be reminded every time to add in Hunter's Mark bonus damage, or whatever. (This only would apply during the rapid advancement up to 5th, there would be no delays once it's at "normal" advancement pace.)
On reflection though, other players may see that as those players denying them their level up. And if over this much time the players who are slow seem to have indicated through their actions that the mechanics aren't their priority so this may be unfun for them on that side as well. But the goal is to speed up play at the table, which I think is a reasonable goal.
I would discuss this with the group before implementing it, only going through if everyone was for it.
What are your thoughts? Is this a reasonable thing to present to the group? Is it a jerk move I should just scrap?
One group I play with has been asking for me to run for them. Everyone is a lot of fun to game with and comes up with interesting characters that they roleplay well. Level of system mastery varies a lot at the table, and that's fine. Except in the case of two players who regularly need help with their characters. Ask them to make an ability / skill check and it takes a while. Working out to-hit bonus and bonus damage numbers every round, or sometimes every attack. Forgetting about class features for a whole combat, like the Ranger's Colossus Slayer. Learning about their spells. It slows down the game at the table. I've been playing with this group 1-2 years now, I don't see a lot of change.
I have a theory that this is exasperated by them using an app to create and level their characters, so they aren't involved in the details but just have them presented. But, in fairness, everyone's busy and they know that others are willing to share their expertice so they show up early and ask for advice and level right there. Learning from others is something I support, so that's a legitimate offsetting point.
Anyway, we've done Tier 1 several times as a group, and everyone is happy to either skip it or get past it in a hurry. I don't want to start the players who don't know the character mechanics well at 5th, I think that will make the problem worse. So I was planning on starting at 1st and just advancing quickly - leveling every session until 3rd, then almost as fast up to 5th. (This group has been exclusively milestone based levelling under the various DMs, levelling when the DM says so is part of our social contract.)
But I don't want to lose them by going to fast, so I was thinking of advancing as long as everyone seemed to have a good familiarity on the mechanics of their character. Not that they can't ask for help, but things like not needing to be reminded every time to add in Hunter's Mark bonus damage, or whatever. (This only would apply during the rapid advancement up to 5th, there would be no delays once it's at "normal" advancement pace.)
On reflection though, other players may see that as those players denying them their level up. And if over this much time the players who are slow seem to have indicated through their actions that the mechanics aren't their priority so this may be unfun for them on that side as well. But the goal is to speed up play at the table, which I think is a reasonable goal.
I would discuss this with the group before implementing it, only going through if everyone was for it.
What are your thoughts? Is this a reasonable thing to present to the group? Is it a jerk move I should just scrap?