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I'm currently running Rise of the Runelords with a good group of consistent players. As the GM my main goal is to maintain a steady flowing game and play to the PC's decisions.
However, I find that every time the PCs decide to head to the market and buy supplies it brings the entire game to a screeching halt. Between discussing which items to buy for the group, costs of new items , looking up scroll and potions costs, etc. the gameplay essentially ends until everyone has their items they wish to purchase figured out.
I've thought about putting a time limit in order to speed up the process, but I want the group to get the things they need; which it seems varies after every encounter.
Has anyone found a good system to avoid what I feel derails the game flow?
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We have an unwritten house rule that shopping doesn't happen during the session. We do pretty much all of our shopping in between sessions through Facebook Messenger and email. The players put together their lists and the GM gives them the OK, or tells them something isn't available.
We'll do this in advance to having the actual money at times. If I know that there is an opportunity to shop coming up in the next session, I will mention it to the players and whoever is tracking loot will give everyone an approximate amount of money they are going to spend. Then people will put together their wish lists in between sessions, with the gp amount next to each item. When the shopping trip comes, it is a simple as saying...You have your stuff now. Granted we aren't exactly role-playing the shopping, we tried that and it didn't work for our group. As the GM, I also do my best to put the shopping trips at the end of the session.
tl:dr - Shop or preshop through social media between sessions.
My 2cp is never cut someone off from shopping. My favorite thing about a RPG is sitting around a table being a geek with friends. My second favorite is getting new stuff be it levels or lewt. Talk to your players and see if there is a better way to go about it but remember shopping may be someones favorite part of the game.
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Have players shop between sessions. Tell them up to what gold value of items is commonly available in the town/city. If they have something that exceeds that value they can tell you specifically what they're interested in and you can rol for it. I believe any item that is 80% of a community's spending limit is considered commonly available. Thyat may not be the exact nummber but it's something like that.
My only question is, does this bother you the GM or all your players? Are the players enjoying the shopping? If they are what's the problem?
Yeah, +1 to most of the suggestions. We always just sorta scribble out what we want while other players are taking their turn to RP in the town, and then on our turn we list off what we need and GM says yay or nay. But that's only if we need something mid session, otherwise we typically write up our shopping lists between sessions as others have said.
But only the other members of your group know the dynamic like you do, you ought to ask them if they feel like this is even a problem before taking corrective action.
Maybe they like it, and maybe that means you get a nice little break mid session because you don't have to stress about the flow of the game ^^
I'm currently running Rise of the Runelords with a good group of consistent players. As the GM my main goal is to maintain a steady flowing game and play to the PC's decisions.
However, I find that every time the PCs decide to head to the market and buy supplies it brings the entire game to a screeching halt. Between discussing which items to buy for the group, costs of new items , looking up scroll and potions costs, etc. the gameplay essentially ends until everyone has their items they wish to purchase figured out.
I've thought about putting a time limit in order to speed up the process, but I want the group to get the things they need; which it seems varies after every encounter.
Has anyone found a good system to avoid what I feel derails the game flow?
I would suggest this:
Ask the players if shopping in game is something they enjoy doing. If so, then just let them do it.
Keeping a good narrative pace is nice and important but not an absolute must 24/7 in a game. If they are having fun then let them.
Also, no pressure down time, if they are safe in a city, would narratively be reflective of the characters actual feelings while there. Why is this bad?
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My only question is, does this bother you the GM or all your players? Are the players enjoying the shopping? If they are what's the problem?
These are the problems that I see while this is happening:
- Certain players take a much longer time 'shopping' leaving the rest twiddling their thumbs.
- They don't appear to be having fun trying to figure out the cost of each item since they didn't know or prepare before hand.
The biggest issue though is the amount of time it takes out of our play sessions. We are limited to only one 4 hour sessions a week (due to everyone's schedule) when shopping alone takes an entire hour it becomes a problem.
I'm all for letting the players do as they wish so long as everyone is having fun; my observation is that no one really enjoys the shopping bits except maybe one PC.
I really appreciate all the input, I'll put this all together and figure out what would work best for my group.
Thank you all!
My only question is, does this bother you the GM or all your players? Are the players enjoying the shopping? If they are what's the problem?
These are the problems that I see while this is happening:
- Certain players take a much longer time 'shopping' leaving the rest twiddling their thumbs.
- They don't appear to be having fun trying to figure out the cost of each item since they didn't know or prepare before hand.The biggest issue though is the amount of time it takes out of our play sessions. We are limited to only one 4 hour sessions a week (due to everyone's schedule) when shopping alone takes an entire hour it becomes a problem.
I'm all for letting the players do as they wish so long as everyone is having fun; my observation is that no one really enjoys the shopping bits except maybe one PC.
I really appreciate all the input, I'll put this all together and figure out what would work best for my group.
Thank you all!
In that case then perhaps handling shopping via email between sessions is the way to go. Just remember to tell them what restrictions may be affecting their purchases before you end the game. Obviously if they stop in a Major metropolis they will have access to more options than they would in an agricultural hamlet for example.
My view is all the math should be done away from the table, count up loot, determine what you want to purchase, locate items for sale, adjust inventory. All that should happen by email BEFORE the session starts. Then when there is an in game opportunity, you can roleplay the shopping trip, but the long part, the math, the searching through books all has been done, all thats left is the talking to the shopkeep or what have you. Which can either be roleplayed or handwaved as desired.
I don't get when people say 'who cares?' if the players enjoy it. Who cares? The DM that's who. Ya, that guy who spent 3 hours during his week prepping a bunch of cool stuff that doesn't want to waste an entire game session playing Dungeons and Accounting.
His fun matters too.
If they like the shopping part, RP out a little of it and at when it starts dragging, change to do doing it all OOC so you can keep the game moving and go on to more important stuff.
This is why there's still certain friends I'll turn down any invites to play RPGs with. Their style and mine just will not work together, and we'll end up resenting one another's presence in the game. Doesn't stop us being friends, or finding any one of 101 non-RPG things to do together, I'd just rather find players that are on the same page I am to play games with.
That said, whenever I see (or use) the term "who cares, as long as the players are having fun?" I assume the GM to be included in the definition of "players" in that particular case.
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I make it simple (and I'm running RoTRL as well). Have shopping prepped between sessions (basically a buy list) and buy things. Everything is available; with the money the PCs are spending they teleport in what they need.
It's worked great and stops the downtime. Yes, it makes special magic items a little less special; but the players do make good use of what they find and I've had no problem providing them a challenge.
+1 for shopping between sesions.
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Given that this seems to be a one-player problem, and this player for some reason really enjoys shopping (which, as an aside, is not that unusual. I can happily consume 3 game sessions doing nothing but spending money from a game adventure!), run the shopping with the other player via email/twitter/some-other-social-media-outlet so that game time is preserved.
I would absolutely NOT simply make it 'hand me a list and youre done'. If the player truly enjoys that interaction, doing so might be enough to send them elsewhere.
It is a problem in some groups and not in others. I have one GM who is like me. You want it? You have the money for it? Write it down on your sheet and we can come up with an anecdote about buying it later if it will add to the game. I also know a few GMs who like to prepare to the point of us shopping throws off all the CRs. I tend to suffer a lot in those games and usually end up leaving or not playing in the first place. I don't want my main motivation to be to get back to town so I can simply buy the things I need to survive. Many players hate that, and I find it generally indicates a game with a GM vs. Players style. I am cool with that style only with good friends who like to play by the RAW and no house rules or dice fudging. I don't want to compete against someone who doesn't have to worry about the rules.
One solution is to have the players be members of an organization. By doing so you can eliminate the entire find, kill it, take its treasure syndrome. The characters can then be equipped by the organization as appropriate to their rank (Level). I ran a campaign where the players where members of the eagle knights. All expenses were covered by the government, so the player did not have to track wealth. I had a basic package that everyone got and then let them spend the rest of the WBL as they saw fit, subject to my approval. At the beginning of an adventure or if they headed back to base they were able to restock their equipment.
This works very well for a lot of concepts that should not be greedy. The paladin was able to stop worrying about treasure without having to worrying about having appropriate gear. It also meant my players did not have to slow themselves down lugging around a lot of loot. I even threw in a couple of cool magic items tailored to each character. Think of any James Bond movie where he gets the latest gadgets.