I DM a group online using Roll20 and Discord every week. I'm pretty new to DM-ing, only been doing it for about a year. I think I'm too slow when I run combat. Simple encounters seem to take a long time. How can I speed things up without putting time limits on a player's decision-making time? Should I not remind a player if they forget movement or bonus action and just skip to the next initiative order? What kind of tips and tricks do seasoned DM's use to expedite combat so that a player isn't waiting around for 10min for a round that takes 6 seconds in-game?
Combat encounters have a tendency to last longer than one might think. Do not remind players if they forget to use movement or bonus actions, simply ask them if they are finished with their turn. Since you want to avoid making a time limit on player actions, make sure to tell them all to think about what they want to do before their turn comes up. If it is still a problem, you may need to put in a rule that their character takes the dodge action if they take over a minute to determine what their character is doing. I realize you do not want to put in a time limit, but sometimes they become necessary.
Welcome to D&D where 30 seconds takes 2 hours and 2 days takes 6 seconds.
As emrfish6 pointed out, combat inherently takes a long time, more than is usually anticipated. There are a few things you can do to speed it up, but I don't think it's something you need to worry about too very much. Start by rolling monster initiatives before the game starts, you'll be able to plug the initiative in right away and you can simply ask what the player initiatives are. From there, prompting the next player in the order with "You're on deck" will help a lot, and give them time to plan their move. Ask the player to describe what they're doing in simple terms. Elaborate flourishes of narrative, on the player side, can get troublesome for those who aren't adept at it. As a DM you can take a moment to describe the action, "Grom whips his battle axe around to hit the Troglodyte and buries it deep, a nasty wound is opened up on the creature", then move on to the next player.
Remembering the 3 steps of DMing will also help keep things at a good pace as well: Set the scene > Ask for the players' actions > Resolve the action > Repeat. Each time a player, or creature comes up on the initiative, set the scene "The Troglodyte has been hit by Grom's axe, blasted by Hythen's Fire Bolt, and now it seems angered and badly hurt. Grom, does a 16 beat your AC? It's claws are bearing down on you". This type of approach makes it short, sweet, and succinct, everything necessary to keep the pace of combat quick and still bring it to life in the players' minds. As well, a minor time limit is always a good thing in combat, prompt them after a short time to see what their decision is, if you have to ask more then once, then it's time to have them take the dodge action, or come back to them at the end of the initiative. Most people will learn to speed up when they realize they've missed their opportunity to act.
One helpful thing to do on your side as DM is to group together the initiative of all or several monsters. Instead of rolling initiative separately for all 8 hobgoblins, just roll once and use that # for all eight of them.
I would also recommend keeping some physical dice with you so that using the Roll20 widget isn't the only way to roll dice. Since you're the DM, you're not going to cheat at your own game and sometimes being able to roll with the computer dice and the physical dice can speed things up a little.
Don't feel bad with that first and foremost. My group of seven took two hours to kill a single beholder. Lol. That was a long and very fun battle.
To speed things up there is a players or mobs turn. As they are figuring things out I tell the next player in line that they are next so they can prepare. Soon I'll start telling the person after that as well if a battle it's going long.
Also encourage players to roll both their attack and damage rolls at the same time. Get them used to it. It's small but it takes off a little time. If a player just can't figure it what they want to do and they are looking on the book for something I would give them ten seconds to figure out their move or lose their turn. It's harsh at first but players will soon learn to be a bit faster.
But then again it's a game. There is no real time limit. Have some in between rp moments with the baddies and the players with banter back and forth.
If you can have things printed out or hard copy monster manual stats, I would go with those. In my experience, a lot of my slowness is because of going back and forth between tabs. Or if you can have two screens that might help now.
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I DM a group online using Roll20 and Discord every week. I'm pretty new to DM-ing, only been doing it for about a year. I think I'm too slow when I run combat. Simple encounters seem to take a long time. How can I speed things up without putting time limits on a player's decision-making time? Should I not remind a player if they forget movement or bonus action and just skip to the next initiative order? What kind of tips and tricks do seasoned DM's use to expedite combat so that a player isn't waiting around for 10min for a round that takes 6 seconds in-game?
Combat encounters have a tendency to last longer than one might think. Do not remind players if they forget to use movement or bonus actions, simply ask them if they are finished with their turn. Since you want to avoid making a time limit on player actions, make sure to tell them all to think about what they want to do before their turn comes up. If it is still a problem, you may need to put in a rule that their character takes the dodge action if they take over a minute to determine what their character is doing. I realize you do not want to put in a time limit, but sometimes they become necessary.
Welcome to D&D where 30 seconds takes 2 hours and 2 days takes 6 seconds.
As emrfish6 pointed out, combat inherently takes a long time, more than is usually anticipated. There are a few things you can do to speed it up, but I don't think it's something you need to worry about too very much. Start by rolling monster initiatives before the game starts, you'll be able to plug the initiative in right away and you can simply ask what the player initiatives are. From there, prompting the next player in the order with "You're on deck" will help a lot, and give them time to plan their move. Ask the player to describe what they're doing in simple terms. Elaborate flourishes of narrative, on the player side, can get troublesome for those who aren't adept at it. As a DM you can take a moment to describe the action, "Grom whips his battle axe around to hit the Troglodyte and buries it deep, a nasty wound is opened up on the creature", then move on to the next player.
Remembering the 3 steps of DMing will also help keep things at a good pace as well: Set the scene > Ask for the players' actions > Resolve the action > Repeat. Each time a player, or creature comes up on the initiative, set the scene "The Troglodyte has been hit by Grom's axe, blasted by Hythen's Fire Bolt, and now it seems angered and badly hurt. Grom, does a 16 beat your AC? It's claws are bearing down on you". This type of approach makes it short, sweet, and succinct, everything necessary to keep the pace of combat quick and still bring it to life in the players' minds. As well, a minor time limit is always a good thing in combat, prompt them after a short time to see what their decision is, if you have to ask more then once, then it's time to have them take the dodge action, or come back to them at the end of the initiative. Most people will learn to speed up when they realize they've missed their opportunity to act.
One helpful thing to do on your side as DM is to group together the initiative of all or several monsters. Instead of rolling initiative separately for all 8 hobgoblins, just roll once and use that # for all eight of them.
I would also recommend keeping some physical dice with you so that using the Roll20 widget isn't the only way to roll dice. Since you're the DM, you're not going to cheat at your own game and sometimes being able to roll with the computer dice and the physical dice can speed things up a little.
Don't feel bad with that first and foremost. My group of seven took two hours to kill a single beholder. Lol. That was a long and very fun battle.
To speed things up there is a players or mobs turn. As they are figuring things out I tell the next player in line that they are next so they can prepare. Soon I'll start telling the person after that as well if a battle it's going long.
Also encourage players to roll both their attack and damage rolls at the same time. Get them used to it. It's small but it takes off a little time. If a player just can't figure it what they want to do and they are looking on the book for something I would give them ten seconds to figure out their move or lose their turn. It's harsh at first but players will soon learn to be a bit faster.
But then again it's a game. There is no real time limit. Have some in between rp moments with the baddies and the players with banter back and forth.
If you can have things printed out or hard copy monster manual stats, I would go with those. In my experience, a lot of my slowness is because of going back and forth between tabs. Or if you can have two screens that might help now.