I've been wondering lately if more people would play in our hobby if games ran faster..especially nowadays. I'm not just talking about the slowness of tabletop wargames, but D&D too. You've got these people that take FOREVER to make their action.
Shouldn't it be part of the rules to require people to act rapidly on their turn? I mean, the games have gone away from being a hobby and more towards trying to get more players right?
Thoughts?
jh
1) I would argue that there really isn't a good rules fix for players who take too long to decide what to do. Different characters and situations make it difficult to apply an across-the-board rule, such as "declare your action in 20 seconds or lose your action". Besides, this is a game, not the Olympics - if a group wants to challenge players in that way, so be it, but I just don't see that being a rule. Different players have different strengths and weaknesses, and the game has to accomodate that.
2) I would argue that it's not the time taken to complete a combat that turns people off of tabletop RPG's. Ignoring factors outside of the rules, the biggest issue I see is complexity. Most players I've tried to introduce over the years want something much simpler and easier to get into. Most simply don't want to "do their homework", if that means reading and memorizing hundreds of pages of rules and learning the intricacies of countless options.
How many times have we seen a thread about speeding up the game, and someone posts how the GM should "require" players to know their characters and abilities. It's the players "responsibility" to read the rules, and if they don't, welll they deserve to have a bad experience. It's their "fault", because they won't put in the same level of effort...
We're talking about a game here, not a job! If we want more people to play, we need to keep it simple and fun. I've seen many folks enjoy an evening with How to Host a Murder, yet have absolutely no interest in a game like DnD.
This is not limited to RPG's. I've seen this constantly in wargaming in general. The hardcore players want more complexity, more options, more challenges, and the game publishers - not being dummies - cater to their best customers. It only took a few years for wargames to move from Blitzkreig to Third Reich. Eventually we had games like Advanced Squad Leader and Star Fleet Battles, each with multiple rule books, and The Longest Day, with ?? thousands of counters.
So speeding up combat by itself won't have much effect on the hobby, tho it might have some effect on how many choose DnD vs. another RPG. Simplifying the game itself, which would have the nice effect of speeding up things, might.
