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Message: <blockquote data-quote="D+1" data-source="post: 1474513" data-attributes="member: 13654">I can understand how people get slow combats, but a few of the reasons are, I think, just a tad beyond my comprehension in that the fixes being suggested seem so... pointless.  Just IME of course.For example, rolling attack and damage dice together.  Seriously?  This is a problem for people?  I can recall exactly ONE player in 25+ years of gaming who just couldn't seem to get round to dropping his dang dice onto the table.  And that was less related to the dice than to the fact that he just kept TALKING about whatever while he held his dice in his hand and we all waited for him to just roll.  I suspect it was a device he had stumbled upon where he could maintain attention upon himself and what he was saying - nothing conscious about it I'm sure, just some silly neurotic need that he sought to fulfull.  But that's just ONE quirk of ONE player.  What I hear when people suggest dropping multiple dice at once is that players are simply SLOW to find and roll dice.  Like the little league pitcher with the pointless 30-second complicated windup.  There simply HAS to be something else happening there WHILE he's supposed to be rolling dice.  Slow to add numbers or the like.Or Initiative Cards.  It takes me barely any longer to jot down on a piece of scratch paper the current order of initiative than it does for players to report their initiative rolls to me.  Data that is suggested for the cards should ALREADY be at hand for the DM.  I suppose if you DON'T prepare stats before beginning an encounter that initiative cards are a fine way to ensure that you DO get that information and keep it at hand, but what are people doing otherwise?  Do they keep flipping back and forth between Monster Manuals checking AC again and again for 4 different monsters because they haven't been sane enough to just write them down before getting involved?  The problem, I suspect, has nothing to do with initiative and a LOT more to do with having a precis' of information about monsters/PC's at hand.Or am I missing the problem because I just haven't personally experienced it?  Other methods suggested for speeding up combat I see as much more practical: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">First, as Emirikol suggested, verify that everyone perceives and is willing to work on the problem.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Turn off the TV and eliminate other such distractions - this, IME, is a classic problem</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't focus only on the current player but be sure that the next player in line is getting ready</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Quash ruthlessly the distracting OOC chatter - if the chatter IS, in fact, a source of difficulty.  What I mean is that if you're running a game among strangers that's different than running a game among friends who may only see each other once a week at the game.  D&D IS a social activity.  As long as everyone is willing to sacrifice game time and flow for socializing I don't object to "wasting" time in conversation mixing with the game.  If there's one player who is constantly harping about, "Go, go, go, let's get some GAMING done here..." then THAT person could be the problem, not the other way around.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Invest in miniatures or at least a "battlemat" and counters to eliminate questions and arguments of where characters and objects are and who will be within areas of spell effects.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">More players is not the problem, it merely exacerbates it.  If players are ready to TAKE their turns when they come up then flow of the game is no worse with 4 PC's than with 8.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Read, understand, and follow the rules.  So obvious it often gets overlooked.  If you CONSTANTLY keep having to look up combat rules during combats then you need a refresher on how combat works.  It's one thing for newbies to keep stumbling over rules that they aren't familiar with but if you've been playing 3E for more than a year then you have no such excuse - even the seldom-used rules should be familiar enough not to bog down anyones turn.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Finally, while I personally would shy away from skipping a players turn (it'd have to be a pretty incurable lump of a player), though severe it IS an option.  Also I'd suggest that OVER-fixation upon rules can be as much of a problem as not knowing the rules.  Pick a DC and move on if it's going to take as long as all that to get the precise rule applied.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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