D&D General What wastes time at your table?

[iserith]

That's skilled play for ya...

Not really. It either means the DM is not describing the environment well enough or, if they are, the players are trying to avoid what they should be doing which is saying what they want to do. In some cases, it's a way to corner the DM into agreeing that something is going to work before the action is declared.

 

[CleverNickName]

In some cases, it's a way to corner the DM into agreeing that something is going to work before the action is declared.

Yep, I still catch my players trying to trap me with this. Dead giveaway: after the dice are rolled and the results are announced, count how many people immediately say "But you said..."

 

[iserith]

Yep, I still catch my players trying to trap me with this. Dead giveaway: after the dice are rolled and the results are announced, count how many people immediately say "But you said..."

Yes, it's also stuff like "Is the door locked?" To which I can only respond, "How do you check?"

The first question is a way to avoid consequences. By stating how they want to check to see if the door is locked ("I jiggle the handle to see if the door is locked..."), there may or may not be consequences.

If players are always just getting to the action declarations, it saves time on the back and forth Q&A that precedes any eventual action declaration. Again, provided the DM is doing a reasonable job of describing the environment. It also helps avoid the issue of the DM listening to a player's question and then either assuming or directly establishing what the character is doing (e.g. DM: "You jiggle the handle and...").

 

[Jmarso]

Players who are paralyzed to inaction by fear.

1. It's a game- your life is not actually at stake.
2. Your characters are supposed to be big damn heroes, not fearful sniveling cowards. Act like it!
3. It's a door. You checked it for traps. You listened at it. You prodded it. Someone else did all those things again because the rogue had a bad roll. The group has agonized over it for the last ten minutes of real time. OPEN THE DAMN THING AND MOVE ON! Quit overthinking it!

 

[CleverNickName]

Players who are paralyzed to inaction by fear.

1. It's a game- your life is not actually at stake.
2. Your characters are supposed to be big damn heroes, not fearful sniveling cowards. Act like it!
3. It's a door. You checked it for traps. You listened at it. You prodded it. Someone else did all those things again because the rogue had a bad roll. The group has agonized over it for the last ten minutes of real time. OPEN THE DAMN THING AND MOVE ON! Quit overthinking it!

This is why I can't have nice things at my table.

You put one boobytrap on one door, and suddenly every door in every room of every dungeon in the world needs a detailed forensic analysis.
--sigh--

 

[Jmarso]

This is why I can't have nice things at my table.

You put one boobytrap on one door, and suddenly every room in every door in every dungeon in the world needs a detailed forensic analysis.
--sigh--

Preach it!

 

[Yora]

Time pressure is an esential component of dungeons. Time does not stand still while characters are discussing their next actions.

 

[Burnside]

Players who are paralyzed to inaction by fear.

1. It's a game- your life is not actually at stake.
2. Your characters are supposed to be big damn heroes, not fearful sniveling cowards. Act like it!
3. It's a door. You checked it for traps. You listened at it. You prodded it. Someone else did all those things again because the rogue had a bad roll. The group has agonized over it for the last ten minutes of real time. OPEN THE DAMN THING AND MOVE ON! Quit overthinking it!

Apart from players not knowing how their abilities work, this is the number one pace-killer I see in games.

It's compounded with larger tables - in my games with 7 or 8 players, I see so many players when we reach a decision point who try to fade into the crowd, wanting another player to make decisions and take risks so it won't be "their fault" if (decision x) turns out to be a bad move. So they get paralyzed. I always feel like, you know there are zero real-life consequences at stake here, right? Just drink the potion.

 

[Jmarso]

Apart from players not knowing how their abilities work, this is the number one pace-killer I see in games.

It's compounded with larger tables - in my games with 7 or 8 players, I see so many players when we reach a decision point who try to fade into the crowd, wanting another player to make decisions and take risks so it won't be "their fault" if (decision x) turns out to be a bad move. So they get paralyzed. I always feel like, you know there are zero real-life consequences at stake here, right? Just drink the potion.

I'm used to running tables with 1-4 players, but have played at tables with as many as 5 or 6, and you are spot on. It's worse when the players don't know each other well. This is one of the reasons I think I'm going to limit future campaigns to a max or 4 players (not including me).

 

[Yora]

Generally, any situation in which the players are playing with the game and are having fun, can not be a waste of time. When there's nothing for me to do as GM and the players are entertaining themselves with the game (not other stuff), then that's peak GM excelence. That's what the game is supposed to be like.

Though the role of the GM is also to facilitate fun play by adjusting the group mechanics of the players by slightly pulling some players back or giving others a nudge. It's to observe whether some players are hogging the play time and other players in the party waiting for an opportunity to get their stuff done, and to moderate things to that end. But as long as all players are playing and having fun, there's really no reason and no point to push them to do something else.