So combat in our group is... slow. Very slow. We have myself and one of the players who knows exactly what the characters will do on their turn, and are capable of switching ideas as things happen around them. This player also DMs occasionally, we take turns depending on schedules. It's not even that we know the players, and have often underutilized features. We just move faster.
Then I have two players who literally take a full minute, sometimes two, before doing anything. Not just in combat either. In town, "What do you want to do? Where do you want to go?" Solid two minutes of thumb twiddling while my players think and look at their pages. Much of the game focuses on my one player who DOES know what she wants to do, and I say "Ok, we'll switch to you to give the other two time to think." But that takes away from the game, and giving them time to think rarely actually works. We still end up waiting. Granted this is not always the case, but usually.
I tried incorporating a 10 second rule, in which in combat each player had a maximum of ten seconds to talk and decide what they wanted to do, and if they did not, the monster or someone in the mob (usually the NPC nearest the player) got a free action. This did not go over well, and I now understand that 10 seconds may be too little time.
Try to talk to them, and convince them that D&D is fun even when the actions are improvised on the moment, and not programmed. Imposing a timing can be done, but some may not take it nicely.
I've DM'ed groups ranging from 4-10 players, so I have a bit of experience through trial and error.
1. When announcing whose turn it is in the initiative order, also announce who is "on deck". Let that person know they're next, so they can prepare what's they're going to do next while the current player goes. Example: "Jane, your turn. John, you're on deck." That being said, someone needs to design an initiative order app that causes their phone to vibrate when it's their turn.
2. Encourage your players to be descriptive in what they're doing. Instead of "I attack", have them come up with something like "I draw my longsword, and slice at the goblin from left hip to right shoulder with one fluid motion." A) This gets them thinking about the cinematic aspect of what they're doing, and will help them familiarize themselves with their skills and how they translate to in game narrative. B) It helps with #3 below.
3. Be descriptive in what happens. Instead of saying "You rolled a 17? That's a hit", say something like "You feel the reverberation in your grip as the blade connects on the upward swing. Roll for damage." Then go on to describe what the damage did to the opponent. Describing things this way will not just make the combat more flavorful, it will also give the next player that tiny extra bit of time to think about what they want to do as well as giving them an idea of what they can do. "Oh, Jane slashed the goblin? Maybe I can sidestep around to its backside and plant a knife between the shoulder blades while it's distracted." Getting them to think about what to do narrative-wise can help them decide which in-game ability to use.
4. Add an unofficial time limit with some minor consequence. Party bickering a little too much about the overall strategy to this encounter? "As you guys bicker loudly, the goblins look at each other, then decide to take advantage of your distraction and creep forward." Player taking too long deciding what they want to do? "As you stand there frozen with indecision, the goblin takes advantage and throws a rock at you." Don't add an official time limit. Sometimes people need a little time to explain what they want to do. But if they're taking more than a minute to decide or bicker, throw something at them (literally or figuratively). "As you reminisce about your training to see what skill you can bring forth to battle, one of the goblins takes a horn from its belt and blows, sending an alarm throughout the cave. Additional goblin reinforcements arrive to bolster their forces."
5. Talk to your players after each session. Talk about what each person liked, disliked, and what can be improved. Let everyone know that this is a no-judgement conversation. As a DM, you genuinely want to give the players the best experience possible. But in return, ask them how they think your group might be able to speed up the combat process. And definitely, as @filcat said above, improvisation should always be encouraged. This helps create narrative, and gets people to think of it as if their characters were in a movie, not just playing an elaborate board game where you hit things then damage things.
6. If you still have problems, especially if it's one or two specific players every time, outside of the session, go through their characters with them. Explain what each ability does, what each spell does, etc. Emphasize creativity the most. "Tell me what you want to do, and I'll let you know if that's something you can do." There are so many rules to the game, so many things that fall into one or more various categories of skills and abilities, that it's easier to just tell the DM what they want to do, and you can decide which ability to use to attempt it. In addition, have them print out spell/ability cards. Organize them into (I disliked 4E but this part helped) At-Will, Encounter, and Daily powers (I call them common, uncommon, and rare, from my MTG days). Have them set aside a couple common powers they should always have ready for when they're indecisive, and their other cards in another pile that they can go through as they have time.
I'd let them (the entire table so nobody is singled out) know that D&D is about action, about agency, about doing things. Now that they've played together a bit it's a good time to reflect on what makes the game fun. Action. Doing something. Even if it's not perfect. A great character is doing things. No matter how reclusive the background says they are. They may be reluctant, but they are doing things.
Double down on that with the notion that corollary to the action is that it's also about pace. Characters trying things, not sitting for minutes and hours sorting out perfection.
You can explain it in movie terms. If Indiana Jones studied the relic he's about to take out of some lost temple for thirty minutes, on the screen, before doing anything - the movie would suck. D&D's similar. If you are at a grand ball with all the nobles of the land, step forward and talk to someone. Learn things. Make alliances. Discover secrets. Influence the court. Be the dark and brooding loner in the corner, but talk to the other loners as well. Or the serving staff. Engage with the moment. Do things. It's a dance. You don't think about the next step you and your partner are going to take, you take it. :)
what I usually do is set the tone for how combat works in the very beginning. Let the players know that rounds are in real time (or close to it) It should not be hard to get people having go-to actions without 3 minutes of think time.
Look at the table and count down initiative. Know whose turn it is because you noted the rolls and order of turn. Give that person a chance to speak up, ask a question quickly that is committed to action such as "in my phase I check the back of the room for a quick exit will our enemies jockey for defensive positions." Then the DM can work with what happens next. Both you and the PCs have to think fast. I would be that if your players sped up, you would have to react too. If your players, or some of them do not speak up, the DM should look them square in the face and say "The orc nearest you is closing in and raising his broadsword, what do you do? You have about 3 seconds till he's on you." This creates combat tension, and that is the best way to get people committed and shouting out their actions. No time to look at 3 options and optimize the die rolling then...
a round of combat is supposedly about 6 seconds of time. no person can reasonably plan something too sophisticated in that amount of time. that might be something you would want to communicate to the players, and also allow some leeway to penalize severe over-thinking. having said that, it's usually better to encourage better behaviour through a carrot rather than a stick.
A bunch of very good advice from wisetiger7 above!
I'll just add that Mike Mearls' Greyhawk Initiative variant brings back an interesting old system of rolling initiative at the begining of every round of combat. Even if you don't use anything else from that variant this will speed up combat and introduce some anticipation from the players because it requires some action planning. Maybe it will help. Check it here:
So combat in our group is... slow. Very slow. We have myself and one of the players who knows exactly what the characters will do on their turn, and are capable of switching ideas as things happen around them. This player also DMs occasionally, we take turns depending on schedules. It's not even that we know the players, and have often underutilized features. We just move faster.
Then I have two players who literally take a full minute, sometimes two, before doing anything. Not just in combat either. In town, "What do you want to do? Where do you want to go?" Solid two minutes of thumb twiddling while my players think and look at their pages. Much of the game focuses on my one player who DOES know what she wants to do, and I say "Ok, we'll switch to you to give the other two time to think." But that takes away from the game, and giving them time to think rarely actually works. We still end up waiting. Granted this is not always the case, but usually.
I tried incorporating a 10 second rule, in which in combat each player had a maximum of ten seconds to talk and decide what they wanted to do, and if they did not, the monster or someone in the mob (usually the NPC nearest the player) got a free action. This did not go over well, and I now understand that 10 seconds may be too little time.
Any suggestions to speed along combat?
Try to talk to them, and convince them that D&D is fun even when the actions are improvised on the moment, and not programmed. Imposing a timing can be done, but some may not take it nicely.
I've DM'ed groups ranging from 4-10 players, so I have a bit of experience through trial and error.
1. When announcing whose turn it is in the initiative order, also announce who is "on deck". Let that person know they're next, so they can prepare what's they're going to do next while the current player goes. Example: "Jane, your turn. John, you're on deck." That being said, someone needs to design an initiative order app that causes their phone to vibrate when it's their turn.
2. Encourage your players to be descriptive in what they're doing. Instead of "I attack", have them come up with something like "I draw my longsword, and slice at the goblin from left hip to right shoulder with one fluid motion." A) This gets them thinking about the cinematic aspect of what they're doing, and will help them familiarize themselves with their skills and how they translate to in game narrative. B) It helps with #3 below.
3. Be descriptive in what happens. Instead of saying "You rolled a 17? That's a hit", say something like "You feel the reverberation in your grip as the blade connects on the upward swing. Roll for damage." Then go on to describe what the damage did to the opponent. Describing things this way will not just make the combat more flavorful, it will also give the next player that tiny extra bit of time to think about what they want to do as well as giving them an idea of what they can do. "Oh, Jane slashed the goblin? Maybe I can sidestep around to its backside and plant a knife between the shoulder blades while it's distracted." Getting them to think about what to do narrative-wise can help them decide which in-game ability to use.
4. Add an unofficial time limit with some minor consequence. Party bickering a little too much about the overall strategy to this encounter? "As you guys bicker loudly, the goblins look at each other, then decide to take advantage of your distraction and creep forward." Player taking too long deciding what they want to do? "As you stand there frozen with indecision, the goblin takes advantage and throws a rock at you." Don't add an official time limit. Sometimes people need a little time to explain what they want to do. But if they're taking more than a minute to decide or bicker, throw something at them (literally or figuratively). "As you reminisce about your training to see what skill you can bring forth to battle, one of the goblins takes a horn from its belt and blows, sending an alarm throughout the cave. Additional goblin reinforcements arrive to bolster their forces."
5. Talk to your players after each session. Talk about what each person liked, disliked, and what can be improved. Let everyone know that this is a no-judgement conversation. As a DM, you genuinely want to give the players the best experience possible. But in return, ask them how they think your group might be able to speed up the combat process. And definitely, as @filcat said above, improvisation should always be encouraged. This helps create narrative, and gets people to think of it as if their characters were in a movie, not just playing an elaborate board game where you hit things then damage things.
6. If you still have problems, especially if it's one or two specific players every time, outside of the session, go through their characters with them. Explain what each ability does, what each spell does, etc. Emphasize creativity the most. "Tell me what you want to do, and I'll let you know if that's something you can do." There are so many rules to the game, so many things that fall into one or more various categories of skills and abilities, that it's easier to just tell the DM what they want to do, and you can decide which ability to use to attempt it. In addition, have them print out spell/ability cards. Organize them into (I disliked 4E but this part helped) At-Will, Encounter, and Daily powers (I call them common, uncommon, and rare, from my MTG days). Have them set aside a couple common powers they should always have ready for when they're indecisive, and their other cards in another pile that they can go through as they have time.
Hope this helps.
I'd let them (the entire table so nobody is singled out) know that D&D is about action, about agency, about doing things. Now that they've played together a bit it's a good time to reflect on what makes the game fun. Action. Doing something. Even if it's not perfect. A great character is doing things. No matter how reclusive the background says they are. They may be reluctant, but they are doing things.
Double down on that with the notion that corollary to the action is that it's also about pace. Characters trying things, not sitting for minutes and hours sorting out perfection.
You can explain it in movie terms. If Indiana Jones studied the relic he's about to take out of some lost temple for thirty minutes, on the screen, before doing anything - the movie would suck. D&D's similar. If you are at a grand ball with all the nobles of the land, step forward and talk to someone. Learn things. Make alliances. Discover secrets. Influence the court. Be the dark and brooding loner in the corner, but talk to the other loners as well. Or the serving staff. Engage with the moment. Do things. It's a dance. You don't think about the next step you and your partner are going to take, you take it. :)
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what I usually do is set the tone for how combat works in the very beginning. Let the players know that rounds are in real time (or close to it) It should not be hard to get people having go-to actions without 3 minutes of think time.
Look at the table and count down initiative. Know whose turn it is because you noted the rolls and order of turn. Give that person a chance to speak up, ask a question quickly that is committed to action such as "in my phase I check the back of the room for a quick exit will our enemies jockey for defensive positions." Then the DM can work with what happens next. Both you and the PCs have to think fast. I would be that if your players sped up, you would have to react too. If your players, or some of them do not speak up, the DM should look them square in the face and say "The orc nearest you is closing in and raising his broadsword, what do you do? You have about 3 seconds till he's on you." This creates combat tension, and that is the best way to get people committed and shouting out their actions. No time to look at 3 options and optimize the die rolling then...
Our truth is the lies we love.
a round of combat is supposedly about 6 seconds of time. no person can reasonably plan something too sophisticated in that amount of time. that might be something you would want to communicate to the players, and also allow some leeway to penalize severe over-thinking. having said that, it's usually better to encourage better behaviour through a carrot rather than a stick.
A bunch of very good advice from wisetiger7 above!
I'll just add that Mike Mearls' Greyhawk Initiative variant brings back an interesting old system of rolling initiative at the begining of every round of combat. Even if you don't use anything else from that variant this will speed up combat and introduce some anticipation from the players because it requires some action planning. Maybe it will help. Check it here:
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/greyhawk-initiative