Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
Back in 2015, @copperdogma rewrote the PHB Index. GitHub - copperdogma/dnd-phb-5e-index: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Revised Index
They've done a bunch of new indexes now. May this help you.
D&D General What wastes time at your table?
They've done a bunch of new indexes now. May this help you.
turnip_farmer
Adventurer
My little convention for these situations is never to open the rulebook. Make up whatever rule sounds reasonable. Getting a rule wrong is always better than pausing the game to look it up (I would make an exception if this ruling determined whether a character died, or something).
After the session you can look it up, and then tell your players that you got it wrong and how they should expect it to work in future. Or that the rulebook is stupid and your sticking with your ruling for future.
BookTenTiger
He / Him
BookTenTiger
He / Him
In combat we call it "Blitz Combat." Don't look up rules, we will make it up if we don't know then look it up later!
We usually pay for our mistakes with Inspiration. If a player gets a rule wrong in a way that's advantageous to the player, the DM gets inspiration. If the DM gets a rule wrong that's advantageous to the DM, the player whose character suffered gets inspiration.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
Number 4 is a big one. Another is just talk. We're a bunch of friends who don't see each other that much outside of the game, so in the middle of the session someone might ask a small question or makes a simple statement about something that sometimes turns into a 5 minute delay as everyone(including me) jumps in to talk about it.
el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
Late start, as others have mentioned.
"That one player" who takes forever on their action in combat. Be it because trhey don't know their character, need to look up spells, need to rework the math for every single attack and damage roll, whatever.
One of the people I play with regularly finds in-character debate on what to do next to be a waste of time - and groups do hit paralysis because there are two strong competing opinions. But usually because he has a strong opinion and someone else will have a different opinion - not always the same other person. And the rest of the part is like "I'm fine either way". If the rest of the party would pick a side it would be quick.
Oh, and in a 1920s pulp Call of Cthulhu game it's too many clues and not sure which to investigate next so we talk out for a while what's easily reachable and will help us answer questions we have.
But generally the groups I'm in/run for move pretty well now.
"That one player" who takes forever on their action in combat. Be it because trhey don't know their character, need to look up spells, need to rework the math for every single attack and damage roll, whatever.
One of the people I play with regularly finds in-character debate on what to do next to be a waste of time - and groups do hit paralysis because there are two strong competing opinions. But usually because he has a strong opinion and someone else will have a different opinion - not always the same other person. And the rest of the part is like "I'm fine either way". If the rest of the party would pick a side it would be quick.
Oh, and in a 1920s pulp Call of Cthulhu game it's too many clues and not sure which to investigate next so we talk out for a while what's easily reachable and will help us answer questions we have.
But generally the groups I'm in/run for move pretty well now.
TheAlkaizer
Game Designer
This is the big one for me. My current group are not very TTRPG-literate and so I'm taking much of the burden of knowing and interpreting rules. But for example, last session one of my player who had shopped said he was throwing a gas grenade (playing Starfinder). I didn't know he had bought one and had to look the rules. The rules for grenades are pretty messy in Starfinder, they're all over the place, the book poor editing did not help. It look us like 5 minutes to understand how it worked. Five minutes is a long time at the start of an encounter.
Players trying to decide on their "third action" - in 5e it's trying to figure out a bonus action, in PF2 it's trying to see about to do a third attack, demoralize, etc.
Hanging out and small talk before the game - which is an important part of the socialization but takes away from game time.
Looking up spells or other character abilities. Also rules checking.
Deciding what to do. (Sometimes players don't want to make a choice.)
Players who aren't paying attention, forget their characters' names. ("It's Ragnar's turn. What's Ragnar doing? Jim! Jim, what are you doing on your turn?" "Sorry, I forgot I was Ragnar.")
Hanging out and small talk before the game - which is an important part of the socialization but takes away from game time.
Looking up spells or other character abilities. Also rules checking.
Deciding what to do. (Sometimes players don't want to make a choice.)
Players who aren't paying attention, forget their characters' names. ("It's Ragnar's turn. What's Ragnar doing? Jim! Jim, what are you doing on your turn?" "Sorry, I forgot I was Ragnar.")
I slash him with my sword. I roll 12. I have a +7 attack bonus. That's... 16? Looks around, see other players making no with their head... Err.... that's... 19. I hit. Rolls his 3d6+5 damage. 4 and 5 that's.... 9 sighs all around and 3 so it's... 27, plus 5, that's 32. Other players interjects no, that's 17. Ah? Looks confused, concentrate on the three dice. Oh, yes, you're right, that's 17, sorry. Me: next player. Err, sorry, after rolling damage I can choose to add a maneuver dice... I decide that... rolls again...
My fights tend to last never more than 3 rounds, and one hour.
My fights tend to last never more than 3 rounds, and one hour.
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