Hi fellow DMs, I was hoping to pick peoples brains. My group is quite a boisterous group, with a couple of particularly strong personalities in it. Over the Covid situation we have been using discord, but I am having increasing difficulty with the group dynamics. Thanks to the problems of lag, people cutting out, mics being too quiet and so on the normal chaos of the sessions has been increased. Combat is dragging on for ever, and even non combat encounters are dragging as endless discussions take place; always a bit of a problem, but just made worse now. But more of a problem are that some of the quieter members of the group are feeling left out and talked over (not deliberately, but as part of all of this).
I need to address it, and my thoughts were to enforce a fairly strict turn taking approach, and a 'conch' system so there is one person speaking at a time - definitely during combat, but a slightly looser version during non-combat as well. Does this sound reasonable, and do people have any other ideas about how to manage the situation?
It depends on the group somewhat. You can take semi-strict turns and set rules for doing that which should work and it might be the best approach to ensure fairness.
The alternative is to use a polling system where you are careful to ask everyone for input and if the players are discussing something you can interject in order to ask the quieter players if they have anything they would like to add. Basically, you are the voice for allowing the quieter players to get a word in edge wise.
A big issue is that many folks who are feeling marginalized don't mention it so the DM needs to be proactive in ensuring that everyone gets a chance for their voices to be heard. It tends to be based on personality and the quieter ones often don't want to be stigmatized by speaking up. (It shouldn't happen but it doesn't stop folks from worrying that speaking up/complaining might make a difference).
As for speeding up combat, it can sometimes help to have a map and tokens since relying on theater of the mind can require the DM to describe many details of the scene that are readily apparent on a virtual table top. Other than that, most of the techniques that work face to face work online. Encourage players to have already decided what they want to do - they shouldn't be still looking up the spell on their turn, they should be casting it. If they are rolling their own dice then they can roll them in groups to resolve the combat faster. If rolling in the VTT then turning on auto roll advantage and auto-roll damage speeds up the combat (if advantage or disadvantage applies choose highest or lowest - otherwise pick the left to hit roll). I've run some relatively large combats (6 PCs + Allied NPCs + 15-20 creatures) on Roll20 that kept moving along at a reasonable pace.
Many thanks for the helpful thoughts and suggestions, and sorry for the confusion over the thread title!! I think I will use the 'only speak during your turn' for combat, and the polling approach for out of combat. Hopefully this will help!
Again, many thanks! :)
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Hi fellow DMs, I was hoping to pick peoples brains. My group is quite a boisterous group, with a couple of particularly strong personalities in it. Over the Covid situation we have been using discord, but I am having increasing difficulty with the group dynamics. Thanks to the problems of lag, people cutting out, mics being too quiet and so on the normal chaos of the sessions has been increased. Combat is dragging on for ever, and even non combat encounters are dragging as endless discussions take place; always a bit of a problem, but just made worse now. But more of a problem are that some of the quieter members of the group are feeling left out and talked over (not deliberately, but as part of all of this).
I need to address it, and my thoughts were to enforce a fairly strict turn taking approach, and a 'conch' system so there is one person speaking at a time - definitely during combat, but a slightly looser version during non-combat as well. Does this sound reasonable, and do people have any other ideas about how to manage the situation?
Do you like my Boots of Flying?
Can you ask people to mute, and only unmute when they have something to say? For larger group meetings online, this is almost essential.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
It depends on the group somewhat. You can take semi-strict turns and set rules for doing that which should work and it might be the best approach to ensure fairness.
The alternative is to use a polling system where you are careful to ask everyone for input and if the players are discussing something you can interject in order to ask the quieter players if they have anything they would like to add. Basically, you are the voice for allowing the quieter players to get a word in edge wise.
A big issue is that many folks who are feeling marginalized don't mention it so the DM needs to be proactive in ensuring that everyone gets a chance for their voices to be heard. It tends to be based on personality and the quieter ones often don't want to be stigmatized by speaking up. (It shouldn't happen but it doesn't stop folks from worrying that speaking up/complaining might make a difference).
As for speeding up combat, it can sometimes help to have a map and tokens since relying on theater of the mind can require the DM to describe many details of the scene that are readily apparent on a virtual table top. Other than that, most of the techniques that work face to face work online. Encourage players to have already decided what they want to do - they shouldn't be still looking up the spell on their turn, they should be casting it. If they are rolling their own dice then they can roll them in groups to resolve the combat faster. If rolling in the VTT then turning on auto roll advantage and auto-roll damage speeds up the combat (if advantage or disadvantage applies choose highest or lowest - otherwise pick the left to hit roll). I've run some relatively large combats (6 PCs + Allied NPCs + 15-20 creatures) on Roll20 that kept moving along at a reasonable pace.
When I read this headline I thought "I never heard of this company called 'Turn', who are they and why are they buying up Discord?"
LOL... I did the same double take.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Many thanks for the helpful thoughts and suggestions, and sorry for the confusion over the thread title!! I think I will use the 'only speak during your turn' for combat, and the polling approach for out of combat. Hopefully this will help!
Again, many thanks! :)
Do you like my Boots of Flying?