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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ParanoydStyle" data-source="post: 7594114" data-attributes="member: 6984451">That's not player curation, player curation (or at least what I meant by it) was choosing carefully who you game with. You're talking about player conditioning which I approve of and wish I could do myself, but I'm afraid to. Generally my players have NOT reacted well. Several hissy fits have happened over people losing their turns to indecision, even when I only gamed with a group of close, close friends. Considering the embarrassingly bad-behavior I've seen from squawling angry manchildren at conventions over far more minor GM "transgressions" than skipping their turn, I'd be terrified to try this at a convention. I mean, I'm sure that 4/5 players would be fine with it but that 20% that would freak out at me is not worth the risk.    ADMITTEDLY, I should say my technique was not particularly gentle. After the first three warnings, I (as I warned I would) instituted a shot clock rule like in the NBA and started counting down loudly from ten after someone who'd been warned had squandered 15 or 30 seconds of time on their turn. I think an egg-timer (is that what you call those little hourglasses?) might serve me better.My ex, who was my most consistent player for the 11 years we were together, would generally freeze up when put under this kind of pressure, and become non-functional: she was not good with timed things and apparently had had problems with timed math tests in grade school, and as she had this phobia about doing math under time pressure (and D&D does involve math), she would actually have a panic attack. So I mean, if I was smarter, I would have realized earlier on that giving her the countdown was counterproductive. Oh well. Probably not even in the top fifty things I bollixed up in that relationship.   I'm familiar with speed chess, actually. When I was very little (10-12) I was trained to play it competitively--not specifically speed chess but it was an important part of it. (While I wasn't very good and being even more insecure then than I am now, I thought I was terrible and thus gave up on it before I turned 16 ... every time a casual game of chess has come up since then I have utterly dominated my opponents. In spite of the fact that I have forgotten every single opening and all the other things I was forced to memorize ten times over. Still, in my 20s, I guess the instincts that Nathan drilled into me were good enough that even though I was trash as a competitive player as a kid, I can still crush filthy chess casuals as an adult. While drunk and stoned. END DIGRESSION.)</blockquote>

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