Speeding up combat

[kolikeos]

I actually just wrote a short essay on this: "Random DM Tips: Running Combat"

http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/running-combat.html

Justin Alexander
http://www.thealexandrian.net

Thanks for the link, useful advice.

 

[kolikeos]

...delay experience gaining...

...

...leave rules arguments for later.

Sadly, my players will not allow for this

 

[Aust Diamondew]

PCs: Know your characters, don't have to look up anything during your action. Decide what you want to do, while the other actions are resolved, don't start thinking when your turn comes up.

Bye
Thanee

Wish there was some way to get people to do that, but those things are usually what slow down combat.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Don't allow retroactive actions or additions: "Oh I forgot about the Prayer spell and the bard song. Add +x damage."

If someone isn't ready for their action when it's their turn, unless something screwy just happened that changed the combat around, then they delay their action until after the next person on the initiative stack.

Have all the information you're going to need easily displayed for you. Notecards work great.

Write down the amount of damage done to a creature on the battlemap if you can.

Higher levels get progressively slower and more dangerous, so don't expect much of a speed increase there.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Justin's link has a lot of good suggestions. Here are a few more:

1. Don't let every PC's turn become a group discussion. Cast fireball on the orcs. No, haste us. He can't do that, we're not all within 30 feet. Well then leave the archer out. No, leave yourself out; the archer's is the most important person to haste. Five minutes later, one spell has been cast.

Try to get players to manage their own turns by themselves and decide what to do by themselves. This will make things a bit more challenging for the party as inevitably someone will not have been paying attention to where the others were concentrating their attacks or will simply be a tactical moron guaranteed to make the worst decision at every opportunity. However, it will speed up play and will serve to create chaotic, combats that show the opportunity for role playing rather than becoming simply a tactical game when the minis hit the table.

2. Insitute a statute of limitations on numbers. Did the archer forget to add prayer to his damage? Tell him to remember next time; since it has passed the next initiative count, the statute of limitations has expired and numbers stand whether or not they are correct.

3. Encourage your players to all keep a running total of their bonuses. If there is a mass bull's strength and a bardsong (which doesn't stack with the hero's feast) and a recitation up, the PCs attack and damage figures will be very different from what they usually are. However, if the players insist on going through the math every time they roll a die, combats will be interminable. If they add it up to produce a stat set (Ordinarily +13/+8 to hit for 1d6+6+2d6 (holy), but with the buffs above, it's +20/+15 to hit for 1d6+10+2d6 (holy)), they only have one mathematical operation to do to figure out what their attack roll is and another for damage and it will go much more smoothely.

 

[Vrecknidj]

1) Get the players some liquor
2) Tell, don't ask, the players what their characters do on each activation
3) Don't bring your own dice, and forbid the players from bringing dice
4) Don't bring any rule books

That ought to speed things up.



Dave

 

[questing gm]

Part of the reason why combat gets clogged up is because the DM is in control of more or at least much more difficult monsters/npcs.

So it also helps to speed up combat for DMs when they prepare a Tactics list for their monsters/npcs.

It's more like a 'What to do' list in a round, so they spend less time figuring out what to do with their bizzare monsters (especially when they have a whole set of abilities) than knowing what their abilites actually do...

 

[interwyrm]

You could just fudge all your dice rolls. That would speed things up.

 

[Wraith Form]

Sounds kinda silly, but I found a decent DM's screen really helps.

Goodman Games just released a 2-panel screen that has piles of useful combat move summaries (Grapple, Bull Rush, etc) as well as weapon & armor charts and brief summaries of most "normal" skill resolution rules inside the covers.

I applied a fixed Initiative (10 + Reflex) to the players and my monsters, and have the players sit in Initiative order. Speeds things up nicely.

I also go through the adventure ahead of time and, as Questing GM suggests, have an "options" list of things that can be done in battle. Obscure rule/feat/ability/spell? I jot down the page number in the PHB or DMG or MM that explains the info I need ahead of time, and can turn to it quickly during combat.

All these things have saved me a lot of time.

Also, I've stopped stressing out about adding every single buff and occasionally just plain fudging die rolls (to the party's favor or detriment, depending on the drama of the situation--this is a role-playing game, after all, so drama needs to take priority). Will it seem cooler for the players to win now? The NPC "rolled poorly". Does the fight need to last longer, or did I omit something? Ah, looks like the villain "rolled a natural 20," as I chuckle from behind the screen with a 4 on the d20.

Looks like some of the rules for Star Wars Saga edition could be handy, too--the natural 20 = critical hit with no confirm rule seems very fair.