Timed Combat

[Thornir Alekeg]

We tried the timing thing at one point. It made things very chaotic, and while it was good in simulating the chaos of a battle, it also made people really irritable, so we stopped. Now I just try and encourage players to think about what they want to do while others are acting. I try and discourage drastically changing what you were going to do based on what the other players do. If the foe you were going to attack gets dropped by someone else, you can change who you were going to attack if it is reasonable - the foe standing 10 feet beyond your planned target for instance. I don't like it when the foe they were going to melee gets dropped so they instead whip out their bow and attack the archer in the rear - not that I can usually know, but sometimes it is obvious so I give them a nudge.

I really need to stop allowing the "perfect placement" spells or counting to know how far to move to reduce a range increment penalty, but then I guess I'm just as guilty when I play a wizard in the other campaign I'm in, so...

 

[James McMurray]

Thornir: The only way to really do that is to step away from the battlemat altogether and start using a ruler to measure distances. But even then some players will be better at eyeballing distances than others.

 

[jester47]

The way we do it is when your turn comes around you have six seconds to tell me what you are doing. This is not six seconds for the turn. If you can say "I am going to flank the hobgoblin." you get to act your turn. If you start thinking about it then, or you can't tell me, then it is assumed that you are delaying action until the next turn and we move on to the next person. If I start to skip you in initiative (that is I don't say your name for like four rounds, its happened), you need to be paying more attention and speak up. (this only happens if the initiative cards stick together).

Aaron.