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<blockquote data-quote="Anax" data-source="post: 1578895" data-attributes="member: 19868"><p>Best suggestion I can make is: Encourage in a group-wide sort of way that combat is taking too long and that people should plan what they intend to do ahead of time. Worst case, talk with him about it. Think a bit first about what he generally takes the most time with, and how that might be fixed.</p><p></p><p>Is he a spellcaster who frequently needs to look spell details up? Encourage him to become more familiar with the spells he has available, maybe even suggest he make some quick reference cards or put sticky notes on the pages for spells that he frequently needs the details for. Learning what effects spells have, along with the various necessary details can be daunting, but it shouldn't take a huge amount of time to get familiar with at least the most frequently cast.</p><p></p><p>Is he a fighter trying to squeeze every last tactical advantage out of combat? Suggest that deciding whether or not to put one more point into power attack probably isn't worth slowing the game down. If he frequently needs to refer to special rules for trip, grapple, bull rush, or the like, suggest that he make a quick reference (like above) to help with those situations.</p><p></p><p>In general, I think most players will be willing to speed up if you let them know it's a problem. If he keeps doing it, keep (gently) bringing it up to make sure he doesn't backslide. In the worst case, keep a time limit in mind for all the players, and try to keep a rule (not a heavy one, but enough to keep things moving) with all of your players--so that even when one of the players who usually doesn't take too long to plan a move suddenly takes a long time, move along ahead of them.</p><p></p><p>Oh, and be willing to suggest (in terms of keeping the game moving) that if a player needs more time to think about their action, perhaps they should delay until they know what they'd like to do. Not only does this give someone a bit more time to think (and yet still keep the pressure on to act when they can), it will allow a tactically-minded player to spot a situation that fits tactics they already have in mind and jump when things are right for that tactic. Over time, this will hopefully also encourage thinking about more options, which will reduce the need of a player to plan on their own turn.</p><p></p><p>Eventually, it's not unlikely that everybody in the group will speed up a bit and have more planned out ahead of time--if you have four people, and everybody takes two minutes to move, everybody has about eight minutes to think about what they're going to do, and two of those after seeing exactly what they have to work with. (Although I must admit, if *most* combats in the campaigns I played took that long, I'd feel the combat was a little slow. Good tactics is nice, but the flow of gameplay is also very important.)</p><p></p><p>Good luck. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Edit: Oh, and I've both been this player and been irritated by this player in the past. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> But as my group has gotten more comfortable with the rules, things have changed. Another important thing that our (until just recently) DM has done is: whenever the rulebook seems likely to come out to check a detail of how X works, he makes a quick judgement call (usually in our favor, for that moment) based on what he recalls, leaving us to hunt down the specifics either while waiting for the next turn or after the session. Getting bull rush exactly right isn't important enough to spend that much time on. Really, once our new-to-the-class druid became comfortable with his spells and other abilities, everything became pretty quick. But again, we all feel that it's right to delay or perhaps just quickly adjust position if we're not sure what to do within 30 seconds after our turn starts.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Anax, post: 1578895, member: 19868"] Best suggestion I can make is: Encourage in a group-wide sort of way that combat is taking too long and that people should plan what they intend to do ahead of time. Worst case, talk with him about it. Think a bit first about what he generally takes the most time with, and how that might be fixed. Is he a spellcaster who frequently needs to look spell details up? Encourage him to become more familiar with the spells he has available, maybe even suggest he make some quick reference cards or put sticky notes on the pages for spells that he frequently needs the details for. Learning what effects spells have, along with the various necessary details can be daunting, but it shouldn't take a huge amount of time to get familiar with at least the most frequently cast. Is he a fighter trying to squeeze every last tactical advantage out of combat? Suggest that deciding whether or not to put one more point into power attack probably isn't worth slowing the game down. If he frequently needs to refer to special rules for trip, grapple, bull rush, or the like, suggest that he make a quick reference (like above) to help with those situations. In general, I think most players will be willing to speed up if you let them know it's a problem. If he keeps doing it, keep (gently) bringing it up to make sure he doesn't backslide. In the worst case, keep a time limit in mind for all the players, and try to keep a rule (not a heavy one, but enough to keep things moving) with all of your players--so that even when one of the players who usually doesn't take too long to plan a move suddenly takes a long time, move along ahead of them. Oh, and be willing to suggest (in terms of keeping the game moving) that if a player needs more time to think about their action, perhaps they should delay until they know what they'd like to do. Not only does this give someone a bit more time to think (and yet still keep the pressure on to act when they can), it will allow a tactically-minded player to spot a situation that fits tactics they already have in mind and jump when things are right for that tactic. Over time, this will hopefully also encourage thinking about more options, which will reduce the need of a player to plan on their own turn. Eventually, it's not unlikely that everybody in the group will speed up a bit and have more planned out ahead of time--if you have four people, and everybody takes two minutes to move, everybody has about eight minutes to think about what they're going to do, and two of those after seeing exactly what they have to work with. (Although I must admit, if *most* combats in the campaigns I played took that long, I'd feel the combat was a little slow. Good tactics is nice, but the flow of gameplay is also very important.) Good luck. :) Edit: Oh, and I've both been this player and been irritated by this player in the past. :) But as my group has gotten more comfortable with the rules, things have changed. Another important thing that our (until just recently) DM has done is: whenever the rulebook seems likely to come out to check a detail of how X works, he makes a quick judgement call (usually in our favor, for that moment) based on what he recalls, leaving us to hunt down the specifics either while waiting for the next turn or after the session. Getting bull rush exactly right isn't important enough to spend that much time on. Really, once our new-to-the-class druid became comfortable with his spells and other abilities, everything became pretty quick. But again, we all feel that it's right to delay or perhaps just quickly adjust position if we're not sure what to do within 30 seconds after our turn starts. [/QUOTE]
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