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<blockquote data-quote="moxcamel" data-source="post: 5440070" data-attributes="member: 67954">It's a well-written piece (and kudos on that, so many gaming blogs drive me nuts with the quality of the writing), but I think the crux of your position is flawed.&nbsp; You're assuming that dice rolling is what slows combat down.&nbsp; It's been my experience that the dice rolling takes up a very minimum amount of time, but the time leading up to that roll is what takes so dang long.&nbsp; Rolling the dice is just picking up some little plastic balls, dropping them, and then doing some simple math.&nbsp; Getting the player to actually toss those little pieces of plastic--well that's the real trick.If you've ever gamed with a group of players who know the rules, know their characters, and know how to play their character well, you'd be amazed at how fast combat goes.&nbsp; In games like this, it's often the DM who's holding things up because he might not be as familiar with the monsters he's running as the players are with their own characters, and that's a pretty good problem to have. <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&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Off-topic player interaction also slows combat.&nbsp; One player makes a joke and before you know it the whole table is involved in a &quot;NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!&quot; reproduction.&nbsp; Rules lawyers, game historians (&quot;this reminds me of the time back in 1987...we were surrounded by Drow...or was it Kuo Toa?&nbsp; No I think it was Dro...or maybe Githyanki?&quot;), cell phones, spouses yelling from the other room, pizza delivery (granted, this is one of the very few excusable combat interruptors), the guy checking his email on the laptop you asked him to please not have at the table...all these things are much bigger combat slow-downs than dice.If you want fast combats, all the house rules and virtual iPad dice in the world aren't going to help.&nbsp; Experienced players who take the time to know the game and how to play their characters are what make fast combats.&nbsp; Minimizing out of game distractions helps a lot too.&nbsp; Anything else is just painting flames on the side of your minivan, hoping they make it go faster. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin&nbsp; &nbsp; :D"&nbsp; data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="moxcamel, post: 5440070, member: 67954"] It's a well-written piece (and kudos on that, so many gaming blogs drive me nuts with the quality of the writing), but I think the crux of your position is flawed. You're assuming that dice rolling is what slows combat down. It's been my experience that the dice rolling takes up a very minimum amount of time, but the time leading up to that roll is what takes so dang long. Rolling the dice is just picking up some little plastic balls, dropping them, and then doing some simple math. Getting the player to actually toss those little pieces of plastic--well that's the real trick. If you've ever gamed with a group of players who know the rules, know their characters, and know how to play their character well, you'd be amazed at how fast combat goes. In games like this, it's often the DM who's holding things up because he might not be as familiar with the monsters he's running as the players are with their own characters, and that's a pretty good problem to have. :) Off-topic player interaction also slows combat. One player makes a joke and before you know it the whole table is involved in a "NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!" reproduction. Rules lawyers, game historians ("this reminds me of the time back in 1987...we were surrounded by Drow...or was it Kuo Toa? No I think it was Dro...or maybe Githyanki?"), cell phones, spouses yelling from the other room, pizza delivery (granted, this is one of the very few excusable combat interruptors), the guy checking his email on the laptop you asked him to please not have at the table...all these things are much bigger combat slow-downs than dice. If you want fast combats, all the house rules and virtual iPad dice in the world aren't going to help. Experienced players who take the time to know the game and how to play their characters are what make fast combats. Minimizing out of game distractions helps a lot too. Anything else is just painting flames on the side of your minivan, hoping they make it go faster. :D [/QUOTE]

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