D&D General What wastes time at your table?

[el-remmen]

I used to just start writing them down as people tell me. "Okay, Rin has a 16" (writes "Rin 16" near the top of the sheet), "who's next? Nalya? You have a 4?" (skips down a bunch). "Mijelle, you've got a 15" (writes directly below Rin) ...

I roll the enemy initiatives while the players are rolling theirs, and then I poll table. "Anyone have 20 or higher?" then I jot those down and the enemies that have more than 20 in order on the board. "Who has 15 to 19?" and so on.

 

[overgeeked]

Well sure - but that is not the case anymore and if I went back to playing those rules, then I wouldn't bother looking up the rules that did not exist.

I never am like "I wonder if there is a rule for this, let me look it up!" More like "I KNOW there is a rule for this and we keep forgetting. Gonna take a minute to look it up."

I think that's where the advice of "don't look it up" comes from. It's better, a lot of people seem to think, to just make a ruling in the moment and get on with the game. The book isn't more important than the play at the table, so stick with the table. Unless you're talking about the literal life or death of a character it probably doesn't matter if you're within 5-10% of what the book says. The game won't die if you guess the DC is 15 when it's printed as 17.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I wish I had a spray bottle so I could train my player to stop saying "can I search the room?", "can I talk to the blacksmith?", etc.

Alas, we play online.

I sometimes do this when I really mean "I would like to talk to the blacksmith, is now a good time to handle it or would you like to do that later, after dealing with the other player who wants to talk to the potions-seller? Also, am I correct in assuming that there is a blacksmith, I can get to him in a timely manner, and he or she is capable of speech in a language I understand?"


I usually suggest dm's use downtime and exploration turns, especially when playing online, since that tend to make this much less of an issue.

 

[Oofta]

What used to waste a lot of time is me trying to figure out the initiative order for a fight since my brain gets overloaded with trying to put 8 numbers in order while listening to the players discussing strategy.

I printed out a cards for PCs with a place for name, AC, passive values and so on (4 per piece of paper). Laminate the paper and have a few blanks for monsters. At the start of the session, double check everything is the same and/or write on the cards.

Then when we roll for initiative, I go around the table asking what their initiatives are and sort. That way I can quickly glance at their cards for some things (especially passive insight/perception values) outside of combat but also just have cards to sift through during combat. I also try to let people know when they're next in initiative.

 

[Lanefan]

For me, things like planning or shopping or whatever - while they can certainly eat up time - don't count as wasted time in that they're things being done in character, which means they are a natural part of play.

Looking up rules is also not a time-waster, for two reasons: one, it too is a natural part of play in a game with sometimes-complex rules; and two, as a DM I'm very precedent-based - if I rule it works this way now, I'm locking the campaign in to it working that way every time henceforth, which means not only do I have to get it right in the moment but I also have to try to think of any future ramifications.

No, for me the big time-wasters are out-of-character:

Late arrivals (and, in some cases, early departures).
Food.
Small talk, particularly from the late arrivals who on arriving want to launch into great detail as to why they're late.
Food.
People on their phones or otherwise distracted (in the pre-phone era, it was players reading books at the table).
Did I say food?

 

[J-H]

I have a dry erase board on the wall behind me with the initiative order clearly on it - so everyone can see when they act in the round. I also use this to track spell durations/concentrations.

I cut up a 4x6 index card and made little folded "hats" (I don't know what to call them) that sit on top of my DM screen. Every player and several enemy groups get their own initiative "hat" on the screen. Legendary actions and Init count 20 get initiative hats too, so that I can remember lair and legendary actions.
The DM side of the little card-hats lists their AC, Perception, and Insight bonuses for me to refer to.

For looking up rules: I have two players who know the rules about as well as I do, and one of them prefers electronic sheets and usually has his laptop for quick searching of rules on DNDB. It's faster than the index, sometimes. I've started to memorize what page numbers a few specific rules are on.

Player planning: This is a great time for the DM to take a biobreak.

 

[univoxs]

Pointless in character arguments. Leveling in the middle of the session. #1 Thing at my sunday table that makes me want to scream are specifc people at the table who never do anything unless prompted by me or the other players. As the GM I am done prompting people and have been done for a long time. If you want to just stand there and blather then do it, I'll read something else, but there will be consequences. Everyone is waiting for this person to check the door or cast a spell or open a door and they just wont do it. Then They suddenly say they do it and never move near the object with which they are interacting with. I just sit there quietly until they get a move on. Drives me absolutely batty. I wish I could fire these people form my table so much.

 

[Oofta]

Pointless in character arguments. Leveling in the middle of the session. #1 Thing at my sunday table that makes me want to scream are specifc people at the table who never do anything unless prompted by me or the other players. As the GM I am done prompting people and have been done for a long time. If you want to just stand there and blather then do it, I'll read something else, but there will be consequences. Everyone is waiting for this person to check the door or cast a spell or open a door and they just wont do it. Then They suddenly say they do it and never move near the object with which they are interacting with. I just sit there quietly until they get a move on. Drives me absolutely batty. I wish I could fire these people form my table so much.

Two things. First, you may want to have an off-line conversation about this. I know it can be hard, maybe a long text or email? Second, at a certain point you may want to simply ask them if they want to play. Even if they're friends, friends don't have to do everything together. I really enjoy playing D&D, but it's not for everyone.

Bonus unsolicited answer - you may want to try a carrot and stick approach. If they're sitting there doing nothing, random monsters come along. If they engage, try to make it interesting. Not sure if it will help, but it's worth a try.

 

[univoxs]

Two things. First, you may want to have an off-line conversation about this. I know it can be hard, maybe a long text or email? Second, at a certain point you may want to simply ask them if they want to play. Even if they're friends, friends don't have to do everything together. I really enjoy playing D&D, but it's not for everyone.

Bonus unsolicited answer - you may want to try a carrot and stick approach. If they're sitting there doing nothing, random monsters come along. If they engage, try to make it interesting. Not sure if it will help, but it's worth a try.

I have been doing the carrot and stick for some time. They give me few chances for carrots so its been a lot of stick but I never do anything random or something that is out of scope of the campaign. No random bolts of lightning, it has to make sense.

It is the age old problem of spouses. One loves to play and the other just wants to do whatever the spouse is doing.

 

[AverageMojito]

I've been trying to solve this by just calling out what characters I think would be most likely to react first.

That's a neat idea. I'll put to use next session. I recently started a 6-player game and I'm mining advices for running a large (by my standards) group.

I could tell from sessions 0 and 1 it'll be a lot more taxing for me than my previous 3-player game (still active). I wasn't planning on such a large party, but one thing led to another as a couple of players each had a friend who wanted in. Everyone turned out to be very contributive players from the get-go, from simple and creative backstories for their characters to setting up their macros on Roll20 on their own, so I have a good feeling about this game.

As for OP poll, #1 time wasting activity in my games: spells. Casting, ruling, doing damage, saving from, preparing after a long rest... The single thing responsible for 90% of rules checking in my games.