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<blockquote data-quote="Shiroiken" data-source="post: 6779248" data-attributes="member: 6775477">Things that may help (depending on your group)1) Run Theater of the Mind, rather than using miniatures and a grid. IME, players who have a grid are more likely to want to nit-pick &quot;optimal&quot; moves, which are seldom much better than the obvious plays.2) Keep your player's focused, having each prepare their action in advance. The really does speed up the game, and the faster the combat rounds, the more focused players tend to be. You might suggest the players have crib notes of things they frequently reference (like spells).3) Use fewer monsters. No matter how optimally you prepare yourself, the more monsters you have, the more time you take. The more time you take, the less time players are acting. The sole exception to this would be the Mobs optional rule from the DMG, which allows you to quickly just deal damage to players (assuming the number of hits by swarms).4) Have a player be the initiative tracker, noting who is active and who is next (&quot;on deck&quot;). A good system we've used is a deck of cards, with players being Hearts, allies being Diamonds, and enemies as Spades. The deck is built, then the initiative tracker calls things out. This keeps that player engaged, and keeps things from slowing down (also takes away one more thing the DM needs to do). Ideally that player should be playing the simplest character, so they don't have to look up a lot of things.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Shiroiken, post: 6779248, member: 6775477"] Things that may help (depending on your group) 1) Run Theater of the Mind, rather than using miniatures and a grid. IME, players who have a grid are more likely to want to nit-pick "optimal" moves, which are seldom much better than the obvious plays. 2) Keep your player's focused, having each prepare their action in advance. The really does speed up the game, and the faster the combat rounds, the more focused players tend to be. You might suggest the players have crib notes of things they frequently reference (like spells). 3) Use fewer monsters. No matter how optimally you prepare yourself, the more monsters you have, the more time you take. The more time you take, the less time players are acting. The sole exception to this would be the Mobs optional rule from the DMG, which allows you to quickly just deal damage to players (assuming the number of hits by swarms). 4) Have a player be the initiative tracker, noting who is active and who is next ("on deck"). A good system we've used is a deck of cards, with players being Hearts, allies being Diamonds, and enemies as Spades. The deck is built, then the initiative tracker calls things out. This keeps that player engaged, and keeps things from slowing down (also takes away one more thing the DM needs to do). Ideally that player should be playing the simplest character, so they don't have to look up a lot of things. [/QUOTE]

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