Tips and Tricks to speed up gameplay.

[Nifft]

Do not stop the game to have sex with the DM or another player. Wait until after the game.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Mark CMG]

Do not stop the game to have sex with the DM or another player. Wait until after the game.

Cheers, -- N

I think most groups do experience after the game.

 

[RFisher]

I rule that a player has 30 seconds to declare their first action in the round (actually, 30 seconds is a bit high - it's probably closer to 10). If they don't have an action declared in that time, they lose their turn. It's not delayed, it's lost.

(O_O) I can't imagine doing that. Speeding up the game is one thing. Not giving players as much time as they need to consider/discuss their actions is another. But...whatever works for your group.

Rolling multiple dice at once is good - but it can be bad, since sometimes if you drop the first opponent with the first roll, you could move afterwards. I'd say be ready to roll, but don't roll the second or third until you need to - unless of course you're really certain you're going to need them all.

() How is this bad again? If the goal is to speed things up, the idea is to roll dice before you know you'll need them because waiting until you need them costs time, but ignoring rolls you don't need costs nothing.

 

[Someone]

The DM is the one doing most of the work at the table, and therefore the most time consuming player -or should be if the others payed attention and had their actions thought and ready when it's their turn-

So, spreading the work the DM has to do accelerates combat a lot. If one of them is taking care of initiative and spell durations, other is traking the damage the monsters are taking, etc, not only the game will be faster, but they'll be doing something the turns their characers are noc acting and will be on the game.

 

[PeelSeel2]

Get a laptop with the SRD on it. Use a tabbed browser. Make spreadsheets of characters. Roll all dice at once (to hit, damage, crit).

 

[Wraith Form]

Actually, on the point of rules, something that has helped is a dedicated Rules Lawyer at our table. We nominated one player to be the go to guy for rules questions. As the DM, I just toss the question out and move on, expecting to get an answer shortly. The other players now no longer question me about rules, but either look them up themselves or tap our rules guru.

Really, REALLY frees up the onus on the DM.

I do that too, especially as I'm a n00b DM and I have a lot of difficulty remembering all the permutations of the game--specifically, combat (it seems unnecessarily overcomplicated at times).

Sadly, that also means I'm not great at tactics and I suffer at combat (because I don't realize I can do certain things, because I don't know the rules that well). I have 3 players vs. little ole me, and they often win combat because of that. But I do what I can.

 

[Wraith Form]

We have one of these, and it's helpful... for the most part. The potential downside is that you then have people relying on that one guy for all of their tactical advice, and thus he's pretty much running everyone's characters (in combat, at least).

On top of this, there's only so much he can do. Players who don't know the rules can still bog down play.

Ergo, my primary advice is:

1. Get everyone at the table proficient with the rules. No excuses, no exceptions.
2. Make the "rules lawyer" the DM.
3. If you can't make the rules lawyer the DM, make the next-best rules lawyer the DM.
4. If you can't do #3, play Three-Dragon Ante or something.

See my above post, and then....yeah. I think I'm #3.

 

[Imagicka]

Do not stop the game to have sex with the DM or another player. Wait until after the game.

I don't know about that one. Depends on the game I guess.

 

[Joker]

I don't know about that one. Depends on the game I guess.

I think it depends more on the DM. For me at least.