Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercule" data-source="post: 6969660" data-attributes="member: 5100">I've done fairly narrative combat. It depends on the players as much as the DM and works best with smaller groups, typically. If it feels like a stretch, don't go there.Dealing with kids is a quandary. Kids are important, unpredictable, and worthy of special consideration. Unless they're terrors (which I've seen), they're exempt from what I'm about to say.The player needs to get his stuff in a pile. Combats are generally predictable. Use the head during non-combat lulls; sometimes, nature calls, but it shouldn't be a common interruption. Unless you're on-call for work or have a dying grandmother (pregnant wife, etc.), stay off the phone during the game -- period. That's just rude. Also, assuming you mean "snack run" as a trip to the gas station/grocery store, those happen before the session -- and you still show up on time for the game. If you meant it as getting up to fetch your drink from the fridge, plan better and/or go when someone else does it. My group is friends, who just happen to like to game, so we're pretty casual, but friends should still be considerate. If you're gamers, first, then it should be a bit more rigid.Over the years, I've had groups/players who just seem to be unprepared on their turn. I've found that having a rough window of opportunity, say one minute-ish, is a good stick with which to beat them. If I think the minute is up, I start counting down from ten, then they miss their action. In 3E, I defaulted to "delay". In 5E, it hasn't really been an issue, but I'd probably lean towards a readied action to whack whomever comes in range (if there's already someone in range, they should just whack them, to begin with). Note that you need to be pretty comfortable being a dick without seeming like you're being a dick to get away with this -- or the whole table needs to be some level of annoyed with the player in question. Reserve for chronic behavior, not the occasional "Hey, I think this is a good time to try out power/spell X that I've never used." The latter is good learning (usually).</blockquote>

Verification