There are a variety of topics I would like advice on. One is pacing of the games. How do you keep the pace of your game moving?
I have found that our games slow down at times when we have to look up rules.
In going through the council of thieves module, the pace really slows down because there is room after room of encounters that don't really contribute to the ultimate objective.
Battles tend to get repetitive. We surround the baddies in a room and start rolling 20's. Yes, we try to flank. Yes, our magic guys cast cool spells. But the CoT campaign seems to have a lot of repetitive battles.
Do your adventures progress quickly or do they sometimes turtle? Do you have any house rules or techniques that you have adopted to purposely make things move faster?
Thanks for your help.
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I can at least answer the slowing down due to looking up the rules, if its causing problems during the game you as the GM can make a temporary decesion on it and then they can look it up later when it doesn't effect the game speed. As a GM remember its your ruling on it so make it fair to both sides and I promise you if it is more effective from the standard rules your players will remember it the next time. As for fighting I would say try to change up the tatics of the npcs and through off the normal routine of the players. If they have been fighting the same enemy for awhile then they know there tatics and remember as a GM you control the pace of the battle so reward creative action that players do so it can become a intresting fight. This is coming from a player who has headbutted hook horrors to persuaded a beholder to become a temporary ally, Im that person who always looks for that off the wall tatic that is a complete success or failure. Anyway I hope this helped you.
A little intelligence on the enemy's part can go a very very long way. Also to keep things moving, if the PC's only have X amount of time to do something, set a real life timer. That'll stop those tactical savants from taking 5 minutes to plan out the optimal use of the turn. Have something bad happen if the clock runs out. It doesn't necessarily need to be planned out ahead of time for every encounter, it could even be a ruse, but just get them to play quickly.
There are a variety of topics I would like advice on. One is pacing of the games. How do you keep the pace of your game moving?
I have found that our games slow down at times when we have to look up rules.
In going through the council of thieves module, the pace really slows down because there is room after room of encounters that don't really contribute to the ultimate objective.
Battles tend to get repetitive. We surround the baddies in a room and start rolling 20's. Yes, we try to flank. Yes, our magic guys cast cool spells. But the CoT campaign seems to have a lot of repetitive battles.
Do your adventures progress quickly or do they sometimes turtle? Do you have any house rules or techniques that you have adopted to purposely make things move faster?
Thanks for your help.
If it is the same rule every time I suggest writing the rule down on an index card. If it is a different rule then eventually the rules will be memorized, and the game will speed up, most likely. If I was the DM I would switch strategies so you could not always surround my bad guys. If every fight is the same it makes them boring.
Sorry, thought this thread was about me.
Here are 10 things to help speed up play:
1) Roll attack, damage, and miss chance all at once. Use all the same color for each attack. Let's say you have two attacks, then attack 1 is your red dice and attack 2 is your blue dice.
2) Have each player that needs specific rules have those rules printed out. For example, if someone grapples a lot, then it is that player's responsibility to have the grapple rules printed or bookmarked for quick reference. We have all the conditions printed out on a single page for every player to reference.
3) Remember that most times you can just give a +2 or -2 adjustment and then look up the rule later.
4) If something seems too complex and it's slowing down play, then make a quick ruling and take a quick note so you can look it up later.
5) Don't worry too much about it. As you use those rules more an more, you will find yourself needing to look them up as often.
6) Have spell casters use spell cards (you'll have to scroll down to find them but they are very useful)
7) If you have a computer at the table, use the PSRD or the d20pfsrd sites since they're bookmarked and have search functions.
8) As GM, go through and make sure you have notes on what the opponents' stats will be with their buffs up. Have the players use some shortened stat blocks pre-written for their buffs.
9) Players should also be planning out their actions on other players' turns. As GM, you can have some of the opponents' actions predetermined too.
10) Enforce the Take 10 rule as much as possible. In fact, if you assume the characters Take 10 unless that would fail, you will be able to move through skill checks faster.
Do a search on Google on tips to speed up convention play. There's bound to be tons of ideas.