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<blockquote data-quote="Turtlejay" data-source="post: 4882729" data-attributes="member: 70267">Are you playing published adventures?&nbsp; Homebrew?&nbsp; Converted material?&nbsp; I think that has a big effect on combat length.&nbsp; Offical Adventure planning guidelines have 1 combat set tough, most of the rest at or around party level, and 1 or 2 below it.&nbsp; Barring solos, combats at party level should not really take a whole lot of time.&nbsp;I ran into this putting together encounters for the Homebrew stuff I was running.&nbsp; I was planning every combat as an epic, dynamic, shifting fight (whether they turned out that way is very debatable) and I don't think the game needs that.&nbsp; Big, meaningful fights against the Vampire buried in the catacombs should be long and epic.&nbsp; Skirmishes against the homeless brigands trying to shake you down for gold, not so much.&nbsp;The couple of prepared adventures I have played in followed this somewhat.&nbsp; Easy mixes of hard and mundane encounters.&nbsp;Above all though (and you nailed it), folks need to be prepared.&nbsp; You play the same character for 4 or more hours, hopefully on a regular basis, you should know what Thunderwave does and when you should use it.&nbsp; If players follow what is going on and keep unsolicited advice to a minimum, turns can go by pretty quickly.&nbsp; When one dude is getting pizza, one is on the phone, and two more are talking about Transformers or something, things bog down.&nbsp;That's like anything though.&nbsp; Dominoes is like that.&nbsp; Card games are like that.&nbsp; The best you can do is create a game where people want to be involved and are engrossed for their own reasons.&nbsp; I never had a whole ton of luck with that, but I still had fun, so. . .whatever?&nbsp;Jay</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Turtlejay, post: 4882729, member: 70267"] Are you playing published adventures? Homebrew? Converted material? I think that has a big effect on combat length. Offical Adventure planning guidelines have 1 combat set tough, most of the rest at or around party level, and 1 or 2 below it. Barring solos, combats at party level should not really take a whole lot of time. I ran into this putting together encounters for the Homebrew stuff I was running. I was planning every combat as an epic, dynamic, shifting fight (whether they turned out that way is very debatable) and I don't think the game needs that. Big, meaningful fights against the Vampire buried in the catacombs should be long and epic. Skirmishes against the homeless brigands trying to shake you down for gold, not so much. The couple of prepared adventures I have played in followed this somewhat. Easy mixes of hard and mundane encounters. Above all though (and you nailed it), folks need to be prepared. You play the same character for 4 or more hours, hopefully on a regular basis, you should know what Thunderwave does and when you should use it. If players follow what is going on and keep unsolicited advice to a minimum, turns can go by pretty quickly. When one dude is getting pizza, one is on the phone, and two more are talking about Transformers or something, things bog down. That's like anything though. Dominoes is like that. Card games are like that. The best you can do is create a game where people want to be involved and are engrossed for their own reasons. I never had a whole ton of luck with that, but I still had fun, so. . .whatever? Jay [/QUOTE]

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