Question, this campaign isn't off to a great start, can Anyone help? I am a part of a campaign with four players and one dm (counting me, a player). we played at a local library with a frame of 1-2 hours and ended up spending three and a half because we kept getting derailed. how can we stay on track? I also felt like people kept talking instead of listening. (i.g talking over the dm) we only got as far as being in a temple we were summoned to, nearly fighting, getting a goddess message about bad creachers, and fighting over a chest. finally I just left the temple and went to a taver to move things along, and we still got side tracked. our party consists of a bard criminal, a druid criminal, a rouge criminal, and a tiefling fighter. please help!
There's not really an external fix for this kind of thing; best case scenario you sit down with the other players and discuss how getting sidetracked is hurting the experience, people dial it back a little, and things move on. Also, you might need to set some hard out-of-character expectations on how loot is going to be handled; generally speaking it works best if all the players agree to operate in good faith and divide found gold evenly, and attempts to hoard or hide finds from other players are a red flag for a disruptive player. Granted, your description of 3 criminal backgrounds in the party and how the first session went are honestly tossing up some yellow flags in any case.
Also, it's worth noting that 1-2 hours is not a particularly workable timeframe in my experience. I've found it takes something like a 3 hour minimum to get a good session in, particularly if the group is looking to do combat and a bit roleplay scene.
Ime, getting detailed is pretty par for the course in D&D. Be it with side, irl conversations at the table, extended discussions about what we should do next, or just someone seeing something shiny over that way turning into a 2-session dungeon crawl. About the only thing that can really keep things focused is a ticking clock, and even then it’s tough.
Though I agree 2 hours is pretty tight. Maybe if the DM runs a really tight , you can get some stuff done, but, yeah, ace of rogues idea about a 3-hour session could help a lot.
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Question, this campaign isn't off to a great start, can Anyone help? I am a part of a campaign with four players and one dm (counting me, a player). we played at a local library with a frame of 1-2 hours and ended up spending three and a half because we kept getting derailed. how can we stay on track? I also felt like people kept talking instead of listening. (i.g talking over the dm) we only got as far as being in a temple we were summoned to, nearly fighting, getting a goddess message about bad creachers, and fighting over a chest. finally I just left the temple and went to a taver to move things along, and we still got side tracked. our party consists of a bard criminal, a druid criminal, a rouge criminal, and a tiefling fighter. please help!
There's not really an external fix for this kind of thing; best case scenario you sit down with the other players and discuss how getting sidetracked is hurting the experience, people dial it back a little, and things move on. Also, you might need to set some hard out-of-character expectations on how loot is going to be handled; generally speaking it works best if all the players agree to operate in good faith and divide found gold evenly, and attempts to hoard or hide finds from other players are a red flag for a disruptive player. Granted, your description of 3 criminal backgrounds in the party and how the first session went are honestly tossing up some yellow flags in any case.
Also, it's worth noting that 1-2 hours is not a particularly workable timeframe in my experience. I've found it takes something like a 3 hour minimum to get a good session in, particularly if the group is looking to do combat and a bit roleplay scene.
Thank you so much! I shared this with my dm so hopefully things will get better.
Ime, getting detailed is pretty par for the course in D&D. Be it with side, irl conversations at the table, extended discussions about what we should do next, or just someone seeing something shiny over that way turning into a 2-session dungeon crawl. About the only thing that can really keep things focused is a ticking clock, and even then it’s tough.
Though I agree 2 hours is pretty tight. Maybe if the DM runs a really tight , you can get some stuff done, but, yeah, ace of rogues idea about a 3-hour session could help a lot.