In my group some players take too long for their turn. Ie. Player waits for his turn to look through his spells, players look up rules only during their turn.
I was thinking of add a 30 sec. turn limit, where you have 30 sec. to act. Is that too long to short? And is there a better way to handle it.
At the beginning of game session, note the expectation and stick to it. Your players should be thinking ahead when it isn't their turns. This helps reinforce that concept. I'd say 30 seconds (or a minute if you prefer) is more then reasonable.
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If a player takes too long, tell them they are delaying. Do not budge on this, do not allow retroactive actions. It might be upsetting and suck at first, but players will acclimate and be happier for it.
When it comes to spells, get the players to print out all the spells they know/regularly prepare so they can quickly reference them outside their turn. Also demand players know any rules regarding what they plan to do.
I would however make exceptions for corner cases, like if something is really confusing and needs to be quickly discussed.
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Like Tom said, telling the 'on deck' player is a very good way to go. Most prepared players take 30 to 60 seconds to take their turn. This should give the next player enough time to get ready.
When it comes to a player's turn, I give them about 20 seconds to tell me what they are going to do. After 20 seconds, I will start counting down from 5 to 0. When I hit 0, the player automatically holds his action until after the next player or monster. When it comes to his turn again, if the same thing happens he looses his turn for the round because his character is unsure what to do. I have yet to have a player completely miss their turn.
For new players that just don't know how things work yet, I usually suggest several options on what they could try. Eventually, new players won't need a lit of options to choose from and I will treat them the same as the others.
I do not like looking things up during combat if I can avoid it. I tell my players that they should know their abilities or have a reference handy when they need it (a print out, tablet app, etc). For home games, I also try to read up on any abilities, items, etc the characters have. While I may not remember every little detail, I remember most of it.
It definitle depends. If you are trying to integrate or introduce new players, or a playing with new rules sets or books, etc. You should allow there to be more time per turn. Additionally it would be a good idea for you to assist players in finding what they are looking for and encouraging them to keep their skills, feats, spells, weapons, etc on a sheet somewhere for quicker reference.
Also, when there is a new concept, creature, or situation that may require additional research or thinking you can adjust accordingly.
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...I will start counting down from 5 to 0. When I hit 0, the player automatically holds his action until after the next player or monster. When it comes to his turn again, if the same thing happens he looses his turn for the round because his character is unsure what to do.
This would be a great way to have me leave the table and never come back, whether I was the player being punished or not.
Some people don't think quick on their feet. I'm one of these people. And no amount of badgering can fix this. In fact, it usually makes things worse. The key to having faster combat is calmly discussing the issue and working with players who are having problems, not antagonizing them.
People have already mentioned a number of really good ideas, including making sure to notify the player who's turn is coming up next. Having an actual spellbook of prepared spells, or an attack and damage matrix based on common buffs provided by the party can be invaluable for quick reference. But the number one thing that should speed up play is familiarity with the game rules. When most of the games rules become second nature, decision making becomes much easier to process. And it's really up to you how much you want to push the players to study, or familiarize themselves with the rules.
I have one group I play with that contains a father/son pair. Son is pretty good with the rules, dad not so much. But he's a busy guy with a family, more than a single hobby, and is mostly playing to spend time with his son. Nobody begrudges him the minute it might take to figure out his actions in game, and nobody tells him he has to do better to learn the rules, because doing so is just unreasonable. And forcing the issue would likely just result in the loss of one, if not two of our players.
That being said, instituting a delay if unprepared rule can work. But is definitely the sort of Rule 0 sort of thing that should be discussed, and agreed upon by all players before being implemented. And, while it can help a newer player become acclimatized to the game rules, it can just as easily condition the player to simply not act in combat, which as a GM, I find a worse problem than a minute delay every combat round.
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...I will start counting down from 5 to 0. When I hit 0, the player automatically holds his action until after the next player or monster. When it comes to his turn again, if the same thing happens he looses his turn for the round because his character is unsure what to do.This would be a great way to have me leave the table and never come back, whether I was the player being punished or not.
Some people don't think quick on their feet. I'm one of these people.
It is not a punishment and I don't do it in a badgering or cruel manner. If anything, I have found that it adds a bit of tension to the moment not only for he player but for the players who are watching. But, of course, the whole point is to keep the game moving along. It can be a huge immersion killer for other players to have to sit and wait for an indecisive player to finally make a decision. I have seen whole tables become agitated or bored because of it.
I would rather have you walk away from my game than make it a poor experience for others simply because you cannot make a decision.
Oh, and I also GM PFS from time to time and I do not have a problem using this same technique.
Now I want to start doing this, but using the Sonic the Hedgehog drowning theme.
It would even give them more time - 16 seconds instead of 5!
30 seconds is nowhere near enough time for some people, especially if they're unfamiliar with the rules or unfamiliar with a new class they're playing.
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Do you count out loud? That would make me unable to think, even if I was prepared.
Having all dice you may need and rolling everything at once also helps, It's amazing how many people are still rolling one dice at a time... like when a player has a character with a companion and he's rolling one d20, checking his bonuses, then rolling damage, checking his bonus, then the next attack, etc.
My son plays a druid with a cheetah, he's been playing PFS at conventions since he was nine. I remind him to be ready as his turn approches, we have color coded dice for each attack blue d20 with blue d3 for one claw, and yellow d20 and yellow d3 for second claw, etc (with dice with 1-3 on them so that we don't need to calculate 1d3 out of 1d6)
We also write down all of our current bonuses (based on all current conditions etc) for each attack so I can glance down at my notes for each attack.
At PaizoCon in our last session we were trying to finish the boss battle and time was up. I was even prerolling everything so when it came to my turn I could just say what I got, and if it was a hit, say damage.
One thing I will say is that as I'm looking up spells so I can be prepared it makes it harder to follow the combat. It's easy to miss things.
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This reminds me, for the PFS Special at PaizoCon, I was handed an 8th level pre-gen brawler to play... at any time he can pick ANY two combat feats to use. Man that's hard! So many times I spent the whole round looking for a good set of feats, only to have it come my turn and just do a default action because I had not found something right for the situation. By the end of the session I had a good list of feats I could grab, but the brawler is something you have to have many pre-built contingencies for!