Even when I have all martial characters who don't get bogged down by spells, running with my 5 PC's always leads to the same thing: One or more players get bored and zone out in combat and have no idea what is going on when it's there turn.
Anyone have any tips on how to get players to stay engaged even when the Monk is punching 6 things on their turn? Any mechanics (homebrew or official) that I can use to motivate my players to pay attention?
To keep players engaged even outside their turns, I try to invite them to use the reactions in creative ways, mostly for useful checks.
The most common use is to identify spells (as explained in Xanathar's Guide). Others are to determine immunities, resistance or vulnerability, special traits, or to recall useful bits of lore.
Granted, it depends on the situation, there must be a trigger of some kind, but I find it a nice way to use a resource (the reaction).
each player has 30 sec to resolve their turn, use an eff timer stop watch etc.
demand that players participate in narrating of their actions. instead of a "I attack orc#3" expect "I, klarg seeing the vile orc go for a big overhand swing, block it by stepping inside the swing and catching its wrist before the axe can come down, I then stare this orc in the eyes as I plant my dagger deep in its gut..." if the players are being engaged by their friends they are more likely to listen to them, IMO.
reward the players with something for good, concise combat actions. perhaps a bounty, experience or reputation or the in game inspiration!
give other players the authority to award good play, "I give klarg my inspiration advantage for his dance with that orc"
you might want to manage the number of combatants, so that each player has a job. gorestrike lifts and holds the portcullis whilst klarg rescues the villagers and the great benizy and sir yannick keep the warden busy... i.e. synergize the encounter with the players in question. remember don't railroad, just offer a task with their name on it.
if they are bored, then they aren't properly playing the combat encounter. There should be no time for being bored.
6 seconds .. next player
6 seconds … next player
6 seconds … next player
And so on and so on. So they have very little time to look at their character sheets, plan their next moves/attacks/spells, check any rules they need to refresh themselves with - grab a quick drink from their cup (no leaving the table) and then … go …. player 5, its your turn …. "I disengage move 10 feet over here, so I can help out player 3 and cast firebolt"
Next player ….
So if they are bored during combat encounters, they are not playing properly. Or perhaps they are not really all that into this type of game and would rather do something else, like a campaign full of solving puzzles or political intrigue or something.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
each player has 30 sec to resolve their turn, use an eff timer stop watch etc.
30 seconds is well too long Gigaflop. In 30 seconds 5 players should have each had a turn. 60 seconds (one minute) should see each player have 2 turns and the whole encounter should last no more than five minutes of real world time.
Each player gets 6 seconds to act and that includes speaking, moving, attacking. During turns they should be preparing their next move/spell/attack/what they are going to say or anything that they need to do (check rules or whatever) and then on their turn, they get 6 seconds do act it out.
its entirely possible to say to an encounter lasted an hour or an hour and a half of in game time but no encounter, unless its a boss level encounter, should last longer than 5 minutes of real world time.
This is just the way I run my games, I know there is lots of other ways but I run community games with teens (typically fidgety or like talking over each other and get easily bored) and sticking to this method for combat encounters, I have been able to keep my players engaged and entertained.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
This might not be the best solution for keeping it fast, but to keep them engaged you can use miniatures... instead of figurines you use gummy bears (just make sure your players don’t go full murder hobo for them)
You can also try to offload your work during a run. I stole this from Sly Flourish's Lazy DM guide that I really recommend. Have a player track initiative, have another track how much damage they have dealt to each monster. This speeds up how much time you spend doing the math and keeping track of "public" information while also keeping the players engaged.
6 second rule is good, and if they are still not engaging or otherwise confused and can't decide in 6 second then their character is overcome woth sensory overload and clearly canot make a decision so that is there turn.
Do that once, maybe twice, and they'll be paying attention
Are you describing the action to them with passion and gusto? If you aren't into it why should they be?
When you can give them the intel they need to make a plan before encounters. The less snap decisions they have to make the better.
If someone is using multiple attacks at once, roll them all together. Even have them roll damage at the same time so of they hit its one less step.
I would heartily disagree with the 6 second rule. Not everyone can think quickly and even martial classes may have a lot to think about. Battle Masters, for instance, need to be careful about the decisions on using their battle manouvres effectively to not waste them, time to assess the situation, study the layout and think of where they can move. The 24 seconds they have before it becomes their turn again (if there are 4 other players) is not enough time to do all this. And even if you know what you want to do, you don't have enough time to actually do much.
"I move around the enemy Klarg is fighting and try to -" DING 6 seconds done, and you've done nothing because you didn't even have time to state where you are going or why. But let's say you did, let's say you just moved your mini to a flank position and you have the optional rule of getting advantage and went "I attack". You're a high level fighter with 3 attacks. You would now have 4 seconds to roll 6 d20s adding modifiers, being told which hit or not, then to roll damage die, doing quick math in your head. Maybe you can achieve it. Great, but that is only if you are quick, using an easy weapon (only 1 die, no magic effects) and are not using any features like manouvres because you seriously do not have time to think about them or use them.
And you certainly don't have any time for description or to do anything that very short blunt statements "Attack Orc #2", "move there" and move mini, etc. You cannot describe your attacks, your thoughts, and the entire combat is now nothing but 5 players going "I attack".
The reason why a round in a game is 6 seconds of in-game time not real time is because your characters have had the years of training to think quickly in a battle situation. Most of us in real life have not.
I am not a fan of set timers. Everyone thinks and speaks at different paces. If it was taking a long time then I would start to pressure it, but I wouldn't base this on a set time. I'd rather have somebody take a few extra seconds and make good, effective use of their turns than somebody who has to scrap their plans because they didn't have time especially if the character taking the turn immediately before theirs just did something big that changes things.
Forcing players to think super fast on everything or lose out because it's combat can be VERY stressful for some people and being pressured like that is not fun at all. Perhaps don't punish your slower thining players just because you don't know how to engage them in combat better?
Perhaps, rather than putting the work on the players to "just be faster" you can instead just do your job as a DM and come up with more interesting combat? Assess the combats you make and see what you can do to make it more interesting. Perhaps there's a trap an enemy can spring on a PC, maybe there are flammable things and they set them alight to create hazards that their allies can use against the PCs. Maybe there are hostages. Perhaps their are enemies hidden waiting for the best moment to come in and stir things up. Perhaps an enemy drinks a potion and turns into something bigger and more terrifying - not only does this mean they have a stronger enemy to deal with but also the intrigue of what the potion was and where it came from and if there's more - there's an adventure hook the PCs may be baited by. Perhaps the lead enemy spends a turn to monologue giving sound, justifiable reasons for their actions and now the PCs have to decide if they agree or not and whether to continue the attack perhaps suspending the combat for some social interactions to find out more and depending how those go it could mean the combat ends or resumes. Maybe the enemies start to flee and now you have a chase sequence. A natural disaster occurs and now they have to choose - continue fighting in the suddenly very unsafe situation or get out or even work together so innocents do not die (not all enemies will be the "kill everyone" kind, in fact it could be entirely possible the enemy is a "good" character but they're out for revenge against the benefactor your PCs were hired to protect).
Just a few thoughts, not had chance to test any of these ideas because I've been a DM for all of 2 sessions but I think I would try these over "think as fast as I do or be useless".
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To clarify, I give them 6 seconds to start announcing what they are doing, not 6 seconds to shout the entirety of their turn. Between descriptions and everyone else's turn, most players should know what move they are making. I run a group of 8 and it is seamless with this method, but could be just my group.
I was actually referring more to SocialFoxes ruling which was that the 6 seconds included everything for the turn (moving, attacking, actions, speaking). It seems that despite saying this was a good ruling you're now saying you actually disagree with it and give your players more than 6 seconds per turn.
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Oh you want to argue because people don't agree, got it. Move along backseat DM
This confuzzles me. I'm not arguing anything with you. I disagreed with SocialFoxes ruling and expressed why, because it is a discussion forum, and was confused by your clarification because you originally said you agreed with SocialFoxes ruling but your clarification is of a different ruling which seemed to contradict your earlier post and confused me. I confirmed my dislike was only of SocialFoxes' rule not yours (That post was only made because it seemed like you only wanted to clarify because of what I said. ) and you now reply telling me to move along "backseat DM", a rather insulting way to phrase things. And yet you upvoted my post.
Suffice to say: o.O wut?!
Well anyway, for what it may be worth, I agree with your idea of 6 seconds to "start" the turn but able to take more time for their turn if needed.
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And just to clarify my intended meaning. I meant 30 seconds as a maximum time, I did not mean to say all players must take 30 seconds. When people see a time limit they react, human instinct I suppose. Also 30 seconds was arbitrary. The point is put pressure on players to act, but be flexible and remember, it's not up to the dm to decide what the players are interested in so work together with your table.
There is no way that 6 seconds is practical unless there is only 1-2 people playing.
Actually it is. You seem to have misunderstood me meaning 6 seconds per round. Thats not what I meant. I meant 6 seconds per turn.
So 10 turns would be two turns per player every 60 seconds, assuming 5 players.
In practice, each turn lasts longer than 6 seconds because you have to roll to hit then roll for damage then the DM has describe what happened and make any rolls for the NPCs
This is where the 5 minute rule for normal battles comes into play. The extra time allows for rolls and descriptions.
Only set piece combat encounters should be lasting longer than 5 minutes of real world time. So that is boss level and story arc required battle encounters.
But, and this is the but; if the player can't act on their turn within 6 seconds, then their character is incapacitated that turn and the order moves on to the next player.
If you have a good group of players who are getting into their characters and really roleplaying the encounter, then I would not apply the 6 second/five minute rules because rules should not be getting in the way of the players enjoying the game.
That was not the senario that the OP described though.
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To try and keep the players from getting bored, while waiting for their turn in combat, I've tried to keep it streamlined, but not by time restriction ( which was my first impulse as well - I even have 15 second egg timers :p - it seems a natural thought ).
Players pre-roll initiative 4 times at the beginning of the session, and one of them calls the initiative ( after I tell them the opponents initiative ) - so the action doesn't suddenly break as everyone stops to roll initiative.
Attack and damage rolls are made simultaneously - sure it wastes the damage roll if they miss, but who cares?
However, in my last two sessions, combat was really fast and fluid, with high player attention, for a different reason - we tried out Narrative combat, instead of miniatures on a battle-mat ( the first time accidentally, and the second time on purpose since the first one was so fluid ).
I'm not going to argue the pros and cons of Narrative vs. Miniature combat resolution here ( that's a whole other thread, and I haven't decided whether Narrative combat is worth it or not yet ), but I found that players paid attention to keep track of where everything was as they couldn't just zone out and check the battlement when their turn came up, and as a result had their intended actions right on tap when their turn in initiative came up.
We ended up having the party split into 3 groups, 2 of them fighting in different areas of a larger battle setting, and one character having a hurried conversation with the military commander in the middle of combat (!), flipping action back and forth between groups, and still managing to keep events flowing fluidly enough that no one was sitting around bored.
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I was actually referring more to SocialFoxes ruling which was that the 6 seconds included everything for the turn (moving, attacking, actions, speaking).
No, no you misunderstand me. When I said 6 seconds should include speaking, moving, attacking and everything - I didn't mean that one turn should only last a max total of 6 seconds. I meant that they should be able to do everything they need to do - speak, move, attack in 6 seconds. If you have planned out your next move, speech, attack - its easy to do it in 6 seconds.
Added to the 6 seconds is rolling to hit, rolling for damage, the DMs description of what happens, the DM clarifying what you mean if they need to, the DM rolling for their NPCs. Add that all together and a turn actually lasts longer.
I see what you might have meant before now that I think about it. You meant 30 seconds for everything to happen, including rolls and DM stuff right? That is actually entirely possible and if the 30 seconds includes all of that, I wouldn't say that makes each turn too long - but if you are giving players 30 seconds per turn to start doing anything, move their pieces, speak, attack; then that is way to long because then you have to add on the time for rolls, DM stuffs as well - that's easily taking each turn up to 60 seconds or more and if players are having to wait 5 minutes for their turn an the entire encounter is taking nearly an hour of real world time - then that right there is why players are getting bored.
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Even when I have all martial characters who don't get bogged down by spells, running with my 5 PC's always leads to the same thing: One or more players get bored and zone out in combat and have no idea what is going on when it's there turn.
Anyone have any tips on how to get players to stay engaged even when the Monk is punching 6 things on their turn? Any mechanics (homebrew or official) that I can use to motivate my players to pay attention?
To keep players engaged even outside their turns, I try to invite them to use the reactions in creative ways, mostly for useful checks.
The most common use is to identify spells (as explained in Xanathar's Guide). Others are to determine immunities, resistance or vulnerability, special traits, or to recall useful bits of lore.
Granted, it depends on the situation, there must be a trigger of some kind, but I find it a nice way to use a resource (the reaction).
each player has 30 sec to resolve their turn, use an eff timer stop watch etc.
demand that players participate in narrating of their actions. instead of a "I attack orc#3" expect "I, klarg seeing the vile orc go for a big overhand swing, block it by stepping inside the swing and catching its wrist before the axe can come down, I then stare this orc in the eyes as I plant my dagger deep in its gut..." if the players are being engaged by their friends they are more likely to listen to them, IMO.
reward the players with something for good, concise combat actions. perhaps a bounty, experience or reputation or the in game inspiration!
give other players the authority to award good play, "I give klarg my inspiration advantage for his dance with that orc"
you might want to manage the number of combatants, so that each player has a job. gorestrike lifts and holds the portcullis whilst klarg rescues the villagers and the great benizy and sir yannick keep the warden busy... i.e. synergize the encounter with the players in question. remember don't railroad, just offer a task with their name on it.
hopefully something works for your grou
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
if they are bored, then they aren't properly playing the combat encounter. There should be no time for being bored.
6 seconds .. next player
6 seconds … next player
6 seconds … next player
And so on and so on. So they have very little time to look at their character sheets, plan their next moves/attacks/spells, check any rules they need to refresh themselves with - grab a quick drink from their cup (no leaving the table) and then … go …. player 5, its your turn …. "I disengage move 10 feet over here, so I can help out player 3 and cast firebolt"
Next player ….
So if they are bored during combat encounters, they are not playing properly. Or perhaps they are not really all that into this type of game and would rather do something else, like a campaign full of solving puzzles or political intrigue or something.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
30 seconds is well too long Gigaflop. In 30 seconds 5 players should have each had a turn. 60 seconds (one minute) should see each player have 2 turns and the whole encounter should last no more than five minutes of real world time.
Each player gets 6 seconds to act and that includes speaking, moving, attacking. During turns they should be preparing their next move/spell/attack/what they are going to say or anything that they need to do (check rules or whatever) and then on their turn, they get 6 seconds do act it out.
its entirely possible to say to an encounter lasted an hour or an hour and a half of in game time but no encounter, unless its a boss level encounter, should last longer than 5 minutes of real world time.
This is just the way I run my games, I know there is lots of other ways but I run community games with teens (typically fidgety or like talking over each other and get easily bored) and sticking to this method for combat encounters, I have been able to keep my players engaged and entertained.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
This might not be the best solution for keeping it fast, but to keep them engaged you can use miniatures... instead of figurines you use gummy bears (just make sure your players don’t go full murder hobo for them)
You can also try to offload your work during a run. I stole this from Sly Flourish's Lazy DM guide that I really recommend. Have a player track initiative, have another track how much damage they have dealt to each monster. This speeds up how much time you spend doing the math and keeping track of "public" information while also keeping the players engaged.
6 second rule is good, and if they are still not engaging or otherwise confused and can't decide in 6 second then their character is overcome woth sensory overload and clearly canot make a decision so that is there turn.
Do that once, maybe twice, and they'll be paying attention
Are you describing the action to them with passion and gusto? If you aren't into it why should they be?
When you can give them the intel they need to make a plan before encounters. The less snap decisions they have to make the better.
If someone is using multiple attacks at once, roll them all together. Even have them roll damage at the same time so of they hit its one less step.
I would heartily disagree with the 6 second rule. Not everyone can think quickly and even martial classes may have a lot to think about. Battle Masters, for instance, need to be careful about the decisions on using their battle manouvres effectively to not waste them, time to assess the situation, study the layout and think of where they can move. The 24 seconds they have before it becomes their turn again (if there are 4 other players) is not enough time to do all this. And even if you know what you want to do, you don't have enough time to actually do much.
"I move around the enemy Klarg is fighting and try to -" DING 6 seconds done, and you've done nothing because you didn't even have time to state where you are going or why. But let's say you did, let's say you just moved your mini to a flank position and you have the optional rule of getting advantage and went "I attack". You're a high level fighter with 3 attacks. You would now have 4 seconds to roll 6 d20s adding modifiers, being told which hit or not, then to roll damage die, doing quick math in your head. Maybe you can achieve it. Great, but that is only if you are quick, using an easy weapon (only 1 die, no magic effects) and are not using any features like manouvres because you seriously do not have time to think about them or use them.
And you certainly don't have any time for description or to do anything that very short blunt statements "Attack Orc #2", "move there" and move mini, etc. You cannot describe your attacks, your thoughts, and the entire combat is now nothing but 5 players going "I attack".
The reason why a round in a game is 6 seconds of in-game time not real time is because your characters have had the years of training to think quickly in a battle situation. Most of us in real life have not.
I am not a fan of set timers. Everyone thinks and speaks at different paces. If it was taking a long time then I would start to pressure it, but I wouldn't base this on a set time. I'd rather have somebody take a few extra seconds and make good, effective use of their turns than somebody who has to scrap their plans because they didn't have time especially if the character taking the turn immediately before theirs just did something big that changes things.
Forcing players to think super fast on everything or lose out because it's combat can be VERY stressful for some people and being pressured like that is not fun at all. Perhaps don't punish your slower thining players just because you don't know how to engage them in combat better?
Perhaps, rather than putting the work on the players to "just be faster" you can instead just do your job as a DM and come up with more interesting combat? Assess the combats you make and see what you can do to make it more interesting. Perhaps there's a trap an enemy can spring on a PC, maybe there are flammable things and they set them alight to create hazards that their allies can use against the PCs. Maybe there are hostages. Perhaps their are enemies hidden waiting for the best moment to come in and stir things up. Perhaps an enemy drinks a potion and turns into something bigger and more terrifying - not only does this mean they have a stronger enemy to deal with but also the intrigue of what the potion was and where it came from and if there's more - there's an adventure hook the PCs may be baited by. Perhaps the lead enemy spends a turn to monologue giving sound, justifiable reasons for their actions and now the PCs have to decide if they agree or not and whether to continue the attack perhaps suspending the combat for some social interactions to find out more and depending how those go it could mean the combat ends or resumes. Maybe the enemies start to flee and now you have a chase sequence. A natural disaster occurs and now they have to choose - continue fighting in the suddenly very unsafe situation or get out or even work together so innocents do not die (not all enemies will be the "kill everyone" kind, in fact it could be entirely possible the enemy is a "good" character but they're out for revenge against the benefactor your PCs were hired to protect).
Just a few thoughts, not had chance to test any of these ideas because I've been a DM for all of 2 sessions but I think I would try these over "think as fast as I do or be useless".
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
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To clarify, I give them 6 seconds to start announcing what they are doing, not 6 seconds to shout the entirety of their turn. Between descriptions and everyone else's turn, most players should know what move they are making. I run a group of 8 and it is seamless with this method, but could be just my group.
I was actually referring more to SocialFoxes ruling which was that the 6 seconds included everything for the turn (moving, attacking, actions, speaking). It seems that despite saying this was a good ruling you're now saying you actually disagree with it and give your players more than 6 seconds per turn.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Oh you want to argue because people don't agree, got it. Move along backseat DM
This confuzzles me. I'm not arguing anything with you. I disagreed with SocialFoxes ruling and expressed why, because it is a discussion forum, and was confused by your clarification because you originally said you agreed with SocialFoxes ruling but your clarification is of a different ruling which seemed to contradict your earlier post and confused me. I confirmed my dislike was only of SocialFoxes' rule not yours (That post was only made because it seemed like you only wanted to clarify because of what I said. ) and you now reply telling me to move along "backseat DM", a rather insulting way to phrase things. And yet you upvoted my post.
Suffice to say: o.O wut?!
Well anyway, for what it may be worth, I agree with your idea of 6 seconds to "start" the turn but able to take more time for their turn if needed.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Well said cybermind.
And just to clarify my intended meaning. I meant 30 seconds as a maximum time, I did not mean to say all players must take 30 seconds. When people see a time limit they react, human instinct I suppose. Also 30 seconds was arbitrary. The point is put pressure on players to act, but be flexible and remember, it's not up to the dm to decide what the players are interested in so work together with your table.
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
Well then I do aplogize
There is no way that 6 seconds is practical unless there is only 1-2 people playing.
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Actually it is. You seem to have misunderstood me meaning 6 seconds per round. Thats not what I meant. I meant 6 seconds per turn.
So 10 turns would be two turns per player every 60 seconds, assuming 5 players.
In practice, each turn lasts longer than 6 seconds because you have to roll to hit then roll for damage then the DM has describe what happened and make any rolls for the NPCs
This is where the 5 minute rule for normal battles comes into play. The extra time allows for rolls and descriptions.
Only set piece combat encounters should be lasting longer than 5 minutes of real world time. So that is boss level and story arc required battle encounters.
But, and this is the but; if the player can't act on their turn within 6 seconds, then their character is incapacitated that turn and the order moves on to the next player.
If you have a good group of players who are getting into their characters and really roleplaying the encounter, then I would not apply the 6 second/five minute rules because rules should not be getting in the way of the players enjoying the game.
That was not the senario that the OP described though.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
To try and keep the players from getting bored, while waiting for their turn in combat, I've tried to keep it streamlined, but not by time restriction ( which was my first impulse as well - I even have 15 second egg timers :p - it seems a natural thought ).
Players pre-roll initiative 4 times at the beginning of the session, and one of them calls the initiative ( after I tell them the opponents initiative ) - so the action doesn't suddenly break as everyone stops to roll initiative.
Attack and damage rolls are made simultaneously - sure it wastes the damage roll if they miss, but who cares?
However, in my last two sessions, combat was really fast and fluid, with high player attention, for a different reason - we tried out Narrative combat, instead of miniatures on a battle-mat ( the first time accidentally, and the second time on purpose since the first one was so fluid ).
I'm not going to argue the pros and cons of Narrative vs. Miniature combat resolution here ( that's a whole other thread, and I haven't decided whether Narrative combat is worth it or not yet ), but I found that players paid attention to keep track of where everything was as they couldn't just zone out and check the battlement when their turn came up, and as a result had their intended actions right on tap when their turn in initiative came up.
We ended up having the party split into 3 groups, 2 of them fighting in different areas of a larger battle setting, and one character having a hurried conversation with the military commander in the middle of combat (!), flipping action back and forth between groups, and still managing to keep events flowing fluidly enough that no one was sitting around bored.
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No, no you misunderstand me. When I said 6 seconds should include speaking, moving, attacking and everything - I didn't mean that one turn should only last a max total of 6 seconds. I meant that they should be able to do everything they need to do - speak, move, attack in 6 seconds. If you have planned out your next move, speech, attack - its easy to do it in 6 seconds.
Added to the 6 seconds is rolling to hit, rolling for damage, the DMs description of what happens, the DM clarifying what you mean if they need to, the DM rolling for their NPCs. Add that all together and a turn actually lasts longer.
I see what you might have meant before now that I think about it. You meant 30 seconds for everything to happen, including rolls and DM stuff right? That is actually entirely possible and if the 30 seconds includes all of that, I wouldn't say that makes each turn too long - but if you are giving players 30 seconds per turn to start doing anything, move their pieces, speak, attack; then that is way to long because then you have to add on the time for rolls, DM stuffs as well - that's easily taking each turn up to 60 seconds or more and if players are having to wait 5 minutes for their turn an the entire encounter is taking nearly an hour of real world time - then that right there is why players are getting bored.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.