NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 4631659" data-attributes="member: 467">As it relates to turn length, I think it is incumbent on the players to have their information in order.  This means both prep -- if you are playing a summoner or a shape changer, frex, have the proper stats prepared before the game -- and during play -- keep good records of buffs and other temporary modifiers.  The DM has plenty to do without having to manage the PCs for the players.On the DM side, prep is of course important, but keeping track of changes is also important.  Some people can keep it all in their heads; not me.  I have to use lots of paper on my side of the screen to keep things moving.  It's a pain but that's the job I volunteered for when I offered to run a game.One of the guys a play with uses index cards to great effect when he runs 4E which would work fine with 3E as well.  He puts the cards in initiative order and every time an effect comes into play, he adds a small colored post-it to the card with the name of the effect.  As he moves through the initiative count, he sees exactly what is affecting each character or creature.  he also uses the cards to track hit points and other expendable resources.Ultimately, the biggest time sink in D&D -- any edition -- is participants, players or DM, not knowing what their things do and therefore having no idea what to do when their turn comes up.  Wizards don't take longer to play than fighters if the wizard player knows his spells; conversely, a fighter player who isn't sure of how all of his feats interact with one another and/or the game rules is going to take forever just to take a swing at an orc. Giving everyone at the table a "shot clock" helps speed things up, with the added benefit of simulating a little of that combat chaos (AoOs, catching allies in areas of effect, choosing the wrong action and accidentally turning the tide of battle, etc...)</blockquote>

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