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How long are scenarios supposed to run? I have always assumed they were designed for 4 hours but on a another thread I was told they were designed for 5 hours.
This is a big issue in the store I organize, we have a 4 hour hard stop. So if in fact scenarios are now designed for 5 hours then we'll have to move into another time slot of just cancel PFS at the store.
This is an issue due to the length of some recent scenarios running well over 4 hours for most groups. 6-22, 6-23, 6-99, and 7-02.
6-10 to 6-19 were awesome and had awesome run times.
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Your right I'm jumping the gun, but I really need to know if campaign leadership is sticking with Mike Brocks mid-year statement or if they are ignoring it. Because that determines what game system I spend hours of time organizing ad GMing in the future. And that in turn impacts a dozen or so PFS gamers at the store I organize.
But, I'll try to be patient and see how things shake out.
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How long are scenarios supposed to run? I have always assumed they were designed for 4 hours but on a another thread I was told they were designed for 5 hours.
Scenarios are supposed to take four hours? The GenCon slots are listed for 5 hours is for extra time for mustering/etc, I think? ie, killing playtime for admin issues to squeeze it into the four hour slot would reduce play enjoyment/experience/whatnot?
Someone who knows a bit more please correct anything I missed, or if I'm in error?
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I would say that 4 hours is the median scenario length. There are some that can be done in under 2 hours, there are some that I've had take 7 hours. A four hour hard-stop is doable, but I'd be concerned about it, personally.
There are a number of time saving things that could skim down the length of the slot, but it would take a lot of commitment from both the players and GMs. Things like "group rolling" dice, condition cards, and turn limits (if it takes more than 30 seconds for you to decide what spell you're going to cast, you delay) all can shave off a lot of time from combat.
Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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Scenarios always aim for 4 hours of play time. Cons usuallys lot 5 hours as you need to get the people to your table, maybe switch a few if you have six barbarians and the other six wizards (or something), do introduction, ect.
Also, scenarios with lenghty combat or special mechanics can run long. Your best bet, if strapped for time, is to look at the reviews people leave for scenarios. If something tends to run long, its usually in a review.
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We also play with a 4-hr time limit. That said due to familiarity with the slot length our group has become pretty good about getting even long scenarios done in that time. Making sure people show up and are ready to go on time, pre-rolling attacks, grouping initiatives, a well prepared GM, and often players who like non-violent solutions can all help run on time.
By grouping initiative I mean
2 Zombies - 14
2 Skeletons - 19
Player 1 - 21
Player 2 - 9
Player 3 - 17
Player 4 - 20
PLayer 5 - 26
Player 6 - 12
I'm going to run Players 1, 4, 5 as a group (they can hold for each other without changing order anyway), so I let them go in the order that's convenient for them
Then the Skeletons
Then Player 3
Then the Zombies
Finally Players 2 and 6
Repeat as necessary.
It runs slightly faster then fully actualized initiatives, with everyone still in (basically) the correct place. (I find it slightly easier on the GM too, but YMMV) I think it also helps with some of the Analysis Paralysis - though it happens occasionally.
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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If you're planning on running DnD encounters, note that it must be run on Wednesday and registered at least a month in advance in order to get WOTC materials. I tried to get Encounters started at my FLGS when it came out and it was a major hassle. As an owner, I'd rather have PFS in my shop as it is self-regulating and requires me to do nothing except reserve space. Encounters requires me to be involved in the process, and it's an annoying process.
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In my experience, PFS games are designed to be run in a 4 hour playing slot, with some time on either end for slop. Personally, none of my GMd sessions run over 4 hours of game time unless my players are intentionally going off the rails. And if we have time for that--I don't mind. I have also been running games of PFS for 4 years now, so I've had lots of time to improve my GMing process.
I always aim for efficient tables but I know they don't always happen. We have an excellent 5 star GM in our area that routinely pushes to 4-5 hours. It's just a different style. My recommendation, if your FLGS is strict about time, would be to a) speak with them and explain the nature of an RPG, maybe get them to play so they can understand why some games might run long and b) host a quick GM 101/201 session and focus on ways to speed up your table-efficient combat, keeping on track, predrawing maps, etc.
Developer
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The decision to push for 4-hour scenarios (average game time, not including paperwork) was one made by the entire campaign team, which maintains this as a priority. Our writers' guidelines still express this goal to the authors, and it is still something we assess while developing an adventure. I understand that several adventures in the past several months have not fit this model as effectively, but this does not signal any fundamental shift or backpedaling on our standards.
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Keep in mind if you expect the scenario to run in four hours and you gave exactly four hours, when do you sign chronicles and such?
That's why when we set up a new store we ensure we have at least 5 hours. The stores, overall, either have hours that already accommodate us, or they actively accommodate us. Those who don't, we don't run at.
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Keep in mind if you expect the scenario to run in four hours and you gave exactly four hours, when do you sign chronicles and such?
At home, before the game.
I usually bring 5 chronicles that have the following already filled in: Event, Event Code, Date, Signature, GM #, XP = 1, and all initial boxes. I leave everything else blank. I also bring another blank chronicle in case I have 6 players.
If I have 4 players, I give each of the players a pre-filled chronicle (and finish filling in the last few boxes), and I take a chronicle for myself. I give the blank chronicle to my VL/EO to put into the scenario hard copy for the next GM.
If I have 5 players, they each get a pre-filled chronicle, and I fill out the blank one for myself when I get home.
If I have 6 players, then 5 of them get pre-filled chronicles, and I fill out the blank chronicle for the sixth player. I print out another chronicle for myself when I get home.
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I rarely have issues running in 4 hours time slots. 7-02 is an exception to this. I ran it twice once not expecting the length and I had to cut lots of stuff to get to the end. The 2nd time I had to guide the players exactly where they needed to go and it still went over the 4 players. (and my the way one player solved the puzzle in that scenario quickly in the second run)
Then I read other reviews and listen to other players talking about a lot of the recent scenarios running really long. And no one responded to the length concerns of any of these comments.
So, my conclusion was it was not a consideration in scenario design anymore but John comments above are sufficient to keep my worries about this alleviated.
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Keep in mind if you expect the scenario to run in four hours and you gave exactly four hours, when do you sign chronicles and such?At home, before the game.
I usually bring 5 chronicles that have the following already filled in: Event, Event Code, Date, Signature, GM #, XP = 1, and all initial boxes. I leave everything else blank. I also bring another blank chronicle in case I have 6 players.
If I have 4 players, I give each of the players a pre-filled chronicle (and finish filling in the last few boxes), and I take a chronicle for myself. I give the blank chronicle to my VL/EO to put into the scenario hard copy for the next GM.
If I have 5 players, they each get a pre-filled chronicle, and I fill out the blank one for myself when I get home.
If I have 6 players, then 5 of them get pre-filled chronicles, and I fill out the blank chronicle for the sixth player. I print out another chronicle for myself when I get home.
I would ask you please to at least hold off on signing the chronicles until your players have correctly filled them out. One of the major things I noticed at GenCon was how generally bad my players were at keeping up with their paperwork (except for Silbeg's group, they rocked!), including some people that should know better. I had people giving me blank looks all weekend long when I would ask them to fill out their chronicles, and I was running 7-11's all weekend, with two tables in subtier 10-11 for the specials, and the entire weekend I only had to give out one PFS number that weekend. Habits like these start on the local level, and as local GM's we should be striving to teach our players best practices so they don't have any troubles when/if they go to a convention.
My tips for helping to keep table times down:
1. Start paperwork beforehand. I completely agree that prefilling most of a chronicle can be a great way to save some time at the table, I would just ask that you wait to sign off on chronicles until they've filled out their chronicles. When time is an issue, I have players sign in. Once they've all signed in, I pick someone to introduce their character (and let me know if there is something mechanically funky about their character they need me as a GM to know) and while they're doing that, I'll mark whether they're in or out of subtier, and cross off any faction specific boons they're not eligible for.
2. Keep the party on topic during the scenario. As much fun as it can be to reminisce about that one time My -1 dd that hing during that one scenario, that is easily the leading cause (that I've seen) for tables going over time. This doesn't mean I keep my players from talking to each other about off topic things, just that if it starts to derail the table I make sure to get them back on track.
3. Keep the party on point during combat. Combat is hard. The state of the battlefield is changing constantly, making it difficult for people to decide on the correct course of action. Making sure your players are paying attention can help reduce the time they take when their turn arrives. If someone is taking an excessive amount of time to decide, put them in delay until they decide (if I have to do this, I always give the player in question another chance to act before the enemy goes, if they still haven't figured out what they're doing).
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I should add the 3 closest PFS stores to me all have a 4 hour hard stops, that is non-negotiable, I think it has allot to do with store employees are paid to stay and the store owners are not the ones staying. Role playing games don't bring in the money to the stores that other games do. So to request they stay open later than any other game is a hard sell. These stores are Endgame in Oakland - 5-6 tables every Monday night. Heretic Games -San Bruno 1-2 tables Thursday night, and Legends In Cupertino 2 tables each Friday night.
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I would ask you please to at least hold off on signing the chronicles until your players have correctly filled them out.
I fill in all of the GM boxes. I'm not going to babysit my players while they do the math on their sheets. They are adults.
The local ethic is that players will take the sheet, fill in the amounts at home, make any purchases, have the next GM sign off on those purchases.
If I was at your table and you told me I needed to fill in the sheet before you would sign it, I would have laughed. "Whatever, dude."
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I would ask you please to at least hold off on signing the chronicles until your players have correctly filled them out.I fill in all of the GM boxes. I'm not going to babysit my players while they do the math on their sheets. They are adults.
The local ethic is that players will take the sheet, fill in the amounts at home, make any purchases, have the next GM sign off on those purchases.
If I was at your table and you told me I needed to fill in the sheet before you would sign it, I would have laughed. "Whatever, dude."
Same here locale etiquette is players make purchases at home.
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If I was at your table and you told me I needed to fill in the sheet before you would sign it, I would have laughed. "Whatever, dude."
Despite what you think of me or my policies, if you are playing at my table then I would expect you to treat me with the same respect I would treat you with if you were GM'ing a table I was playing at. Not cool.
If you laugh in my face and are disrespectful to me at a convention, I'll shrug it off, because conventions bring in all sorts.
However, if you were at a local game and acted that way, you would find yourself barred from future tables I GM, and I would give other GM's a heads-up on your behavior.
Just because local customs differ does not make a good excuse to be rude. In our area, we figure out the gold we have at the end of a scenario, then subtract any purchases made between scenarios off of the next chronicle.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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If I was at your table and you told me I needed to fill in the sheet before you would sign it, I would have laughed. "Whatever, dude."
At least at my table, that's the expectation as well. I'll hand my players the Chronicle with the new values earned. They then show me (a) the character's most recent previous Chronicle, and (b) this Chronicle with the totals filled in. If the character had bought anything between last time and this session, I'll want to see the ITS, too. I then sign the Chronicle.
I let my players know this at the beginning of the session. That way, if they don't have the Chronicles, they can go run grab a pre-gen. If they have them, but haven't filled them in for several sessions, they can get that work done during the next four hours. (A tip of the hat to Kyle Baird for this system.)
If your attitude is dismissive, you'll walk away without a signed Chronicle.
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But yes, I fill in as much information as possible before the session starts and during the character introductions. That's also when I have PCs make their Day Job checks. It starts the session off with a small success that everybody can cheer about, and gets that out of the way when everybody's trying to clean up and leave.
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Organized Play Developer
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You can make most scenarios fit into four hours and under, but it depends on the GM and the table. There are a few, notably Cultist's Kiss and other RP-heavy scenarios, that can take longer than the usual time slot. If you have time constraints, make sure your players understand that and do your best to keep the scenario moving, such as cutting optional encounters for time and not doing the now-optional faction missions found in pre-season 5 scenarios.
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Organized Play Developer
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How long are scenarios supposed to run? I have always assumed they were designed for 4 hours but on a another thread I was told they were designed for 5 hours.
This is a big issue in the store I organize, we have a 4 hour hard stop. So if in fact scenarios are now designed for 5 hours then we'll have to move into another time slot of just cancel PFS at the store.
This is an issue due to the length of some recent scenarios running well over 4 hours for most groups. 6-22, 6-23, 6-99, and 7-02.
6-10 to 6-19 were awesome and had awesome run times.
Realize that you can also run PFS from home or other locations. It may not be ideal to invite people you don't know that well into your home, especially if you don't have adequate gaming space, but we have several local groups of gaming friends who play PFS at someone's house and have Warhorn signups. This removes the time constraint issue.
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But yes, I fill in as much information as possible before the session starts and during the character introductions. That's also when I have PCs make their Day Job checks. It starts the session off with a small success that everybody can cheer about, and gets that out of the way when everybody's trying to clean up and leave.
I assume that if a player indicates they want to make their Day Job check at the end of the adventure as indicated in the Guide, you would still allow them to do so?
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Developer
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Keep it clean, folks.
The organized play format enables us to play games with people from all around the world, and inevitably small amounts of regional variation occur in the order of operations to accommodate local needs (e.g. limited window in order to complete paperwork or just a different culture of what it means to be a courteous player). The nuances of how someone on the other side of a continent handles paperwork shouldn't be cause for ridicule.
The campaign has several different programs in place to reward GMs, yet the best reward often involves you a simple thank you, attentiveness during the game, and respect. Try to keep that in mind, even if a GM does things a little differently (but still within the scope of the Guide or rules) than you do.
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I, personally fill almost nothing in on my chronicles and thus don't expect it from my players. If I have a question about what they have how they got it I ask. However, I also keep extensive records of my Inventory and ITS through Excel and have it with me anytime I play. I started by filling in all sheets 100% correctly, but found I had too many characters/GM credits for my own good - as a computer person organizing through the computer is easier for me. (My excel workbook includes a scenario tracker, a page of useful tables, an ITS for every character, and an Inventory shhet for every character.)
This also means for sake of time, I pre-fill a number of boxes on chronicle sheets if at all possible.
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As far as chronicle sheets I fill out the bottom before the scenario starts. and at the end I spend about 3 minutes filling out the rest.
But if you have a scenario that lasts 4 hours, and you have to be out of the venue in 4 hours, you don't have 3 minutes, right?
Plus you have to figure out how many prestige to assign, what boons they earned, did they get full gold...
Edit: I guess the point I'm trying to make, is that scenarios can't be designed to only last a specific amount of time. The developers can do their best to try and keep time down to whatever maximum they are currently working from. Whether it was pre Season 3 with a 4 hour maximum to Season 4 and 5 with a 5 hour maximum (where often the higher level scenarios would go 6 or 7 hours sometimes). Mid Season 6, Mike did indeed indicate they were going to do their best to develop scenarios to last 4 to 4-1/2 hours rather than go to the 5 hour mark.
But, in my experience, scenarios last longer than 4 hours for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with the scenario. You have the meet and greet time, when players show up, figure out what tables they are to sit at, pick what character they want to play, figure out APL, make last second purchases, filling out the tracking sheet, etc. This takes a minimum 10 minutes, but can often take up to half an hour. All this time is exacerbated when the particular game day doesn't have the scenario pre-planned and/or don't use a strict RSVP system. Then you have to spend time figure out what to play and doing your best to accommodate all the folks who didn't register to play.
Then you start play. And invariably, there is a moment during the scenario where everyone decides to take a break for snacks, drinks, restroom, etc. Usually about 5 minutes.
Then at the end, if you aren't reporting the scenario yourself, you need to have the tracking sheet fully filled out for the coordinator. If someone died and was playing a pregen, they get to either resolve the condition or choose an unused number to assign the chronicle to. You have to resolve conditions. Figure out what reporting check marks to mark (A, B, C, or D), figure out prestige, gold, etc.
All that takes time. So to accommodate all the time, the scenario should actually take 3-1/2 hours, rather than 4.
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Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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As far as chronicle sheets I fill out the bottom before the scenario starts. and at the end I spend about 3 minutes filling out the rest.But if you have a scenario that lasts 4 hours, and you have to be out of the venue in 4 hours, you don't have 3 minutes, right?
Plus you have to figure out how many prestige to assign, what boons they earned, did they get full gold...
I know my players. I know what parts they will strugle with or fail on. If they have a 'remove' gold condition, I highlight it in the scenario.
So at the end of the game, I know what conditions they failed (primary/secondary). I might have to calculate gold. But I can do that while I make everyone roll their day jobs.
Boons, like prestige is easy. I just sat four hours with these people so I know what they earned and now. I cross of what they did not get. Fill in gold/prestige/XP.
I honestly spend more time coming up with a fun quote or a funny drawing to put on their chronicle (so if they read back they think, hey, yeah, I did that), then with filling them out.
The bottom part is already filled out.
Honestly, the rest is just book keeping I can do while the players discuss if they are going to enter trough the window or the back door.
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But if you have a scenario that lasts 4 hours, and you have to be out of the venue in 4 hours, you don't have 3 minutes, right?
. We've been known to go to the locakl McDonalds on occasion to do end of game paperwork
Edit: I guess the point I'm trying to make, is that scenarios can't be designed to only last a specific amount of time. The developers can do their best to try and keep time down to whatever maximum they are currently working from.
I don't see your point at all. Obviously, developers can't be perfect in guaging time. Equally obviously, they can make scenarios longer or shorter and can aim for a particular time. We're just saying that time that they aim for should be 4 hours or perhaps a little less.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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I recently heard of a play group gaming out of a library, where they have "quiet space" closed door meeting rooms that the PFS team has been able to schedule in advance.
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Having a hard 4 hour cut off for PFS is terrible, and I'm dismayed to hear that all the shops in your area follow this model. As an owner myself, I'm always happy when people close out my shop around midnight or 1 AM, although I can see that not being viable for everyone.
PFS and other free events don't need to have a direct correlation to sales, as something like FNMs do, but having people consistently in your store is critical to making sales in retail. I wonder if you could work something out with the owner of the shop to get your time slot extended by an hour. Even if it's by helping out taking out the trash or vacuuming the space you use, that extra hour is needed when it comes to bigger scenarios, especially if you want to run multi-table events down the road.
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Having a hard 4 hour cut off for PFS is terrible.
Its pretty common to have fairly hard limits.
Even if the store is accommodating, lots of players really aren't. People want to get home at a reasonable hour while also wanting to have enough time to get to the game after work (assuming week night games).
I think moving to somewhat shorter scenarios was a wonderful move. I'm glad the policy hasn't changed and that John is aware of the issues
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If you cater to a few of the people, or cater to the stores, then you are left with a hard cutoff. I'm assuming 7pm to 11pm?
If you tell everyone that the start time is 6pm or 6:30pm, and then ask the store to stay open to 11pm or 11:30pm, I find that directly asking them actually works.
You'd be surprised at how accommodating people can be, if you set the limits. If they want to play at store X, then the start time is Y and the end time is Z. If you get finished sooner, great. Otherwise, that's what they can plan for.
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Venture-Agent, Pennsylvania—York
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The store I play at closes at 9pm. We play 5-9, and the owner is kind enough to let us stay a bit later to finish up paperwork etc.
The problem is the start time of course. We routinely run two tables and start the minute we have a legal table. Others join in as they arrive, frequently straight from work! It's hectic and a bit crazy sometimes, but it's what we have.
I too fill out as much paperwork as I can in advance. Local culture here is for people to take care of the math and any purchases at home and have it available for a GM to examine at the next session. For us, everything boils down to time, time, and time. We make it work somehow. :)
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Yarrr!
Roy is in the SF Bay Area, and I do indeed wish we had longer slots at many of our venues, no need to beat Roy up about something outside of his control though. There are about a dozen stores that run PFS in my area, many of them weekly and in many cases the store already remains open late to accommodate us.
While this isn't a stat for commercial rent, I find that many people outside of the Bay Area don't understand how mind boggling high our rent is, (Hell I live here and I still have trouble wrapping my mind around it. There have been double digit % increases year after year in the recent past)
As of May 2015, average apartment rent within 10 miles of San Francisco, CA is $3803.
One bedroom apartments in San Francisco rent for $3213 a month on average and two bedroom apartment rents average $4385.
(This means to get rent for a 2br apartment down to 1/3rd of your income, you'd need to earn $157,860 a year after tax, or about $250,000 before tax)
The 3 stores Roy mentions are...
Endgame, our regularly most popular location, 5-6 tables normally, hit 7 for a few weeks in a row earlier this year. Game store closes at 7pm but keeps its play area open until 11pm for us. Recently they've been a little bit lax and have let us stay a few more minutes past for cleanup, but finishing up paperwork on the sidewalk outside after closing is not an uncommon sight.
Heretic, Roy is the coordinator here. They play from 6-10 with the game store's listed closing time as 8pm, they already have 2 extra hours.
Legends, Is in a mall and has strict closing times based on mall policy.
How to best deal with paperwork and such in a time tight environment is a subject I'm interested in, but lets save that for another thread.
Also thank you John for your reassurances, maxing adventures at 4hrs is a pretty important/touchy subject in this area. :)
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The players all know how to add and subtract as well as I do (and after I'm done running a game, in all likelihood better)
You know your characters name. You know your pfs number. If i have time i'll fill out the gold, otherwise its just the PP XP sign date my pfs number. Event. Players know the rest. Event code? Usually don't get one of those till I report it when i come home, and I have no idea what someone would do with it anyway. Sign sign sign i hereby bequeeth my immortal soul Whoops i just gave you 507 xp cross out switch places. Done thanks for putting up with us.
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Wish I had the time/patience to audit once in a while. I've tried before but it's just not part of our local brand of gaming culture. "Hmm... yes, awkey, huh where'd the money disappear between these certs? Oh, sundries, righto. What? Inna hurry? Off you go then!" etc. I dunno, I much rather keep on trusting my players.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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Dang Rob, those are some harsh numbers. I just got back from Cape Cod and I thought stuff was expensive out there.
The talk of 4 hour game times makes me happy both my shop and the other FLGS that runs PFS in the area stay open late enough that our players never finished rushed or anything. I bet they don't even know how good they have it!
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Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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The shop we game in, games run 6-10 and even so about 5-10% of our players are regularly late due to commute times from work.
The game shop (and the private game rooms) closes at 10:00. The attached gaming area stays open till 10:30 *if* an employee volunteers to stay and lock up after everyone leaves (as far as I can tell, they aren't paid for this, but there is a board game night the same night we game, and they stay late to play the board games.)
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Here in Jacksonville, FL we generally run 4 tables on a Tuesday night.
The store manager has a hard cut off at 11 pm. One advantage we have is a lot of experienced GMs so we have a very good feel for what scenarios run long, and plan those for the weekend games. We give a time warning, best is the 90 minute mark so GMs can skip the optional encounter if their table is running slow.
Filling out part of the Chronicle sheet helps, the rest can be filled out sitting outside the store if need be.
You can also split sessions for the long scenario, just have the players sign up for both nights.
This can be a problem if players don't show up for part two of course.
One thing I would like to see if more feedback on the Paizo site under each scenario, for the GMs about how long it took to run.
I hope this helps and good gaming!
P.S. most Seasons 0 and 1 run shorter...most season 4-5 run a bit longer. Also tables of 6-7 players run a lot longer than tables of 4-5.
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Its pretty common to have fairly hard limits.
Having a hard 4 hour cut off for PFS is terrible.
Most of the in-person gaming I do nowadays is at monthly gamedays. The gamedays start at 10AM, and end at 11PM.
For PFS, we have three slots: 10AM-2PM, 2:30PM-6:30PM, and 7PM-11PM. You can view the first two slots as 4.5 hour slots if you wish, but the truth is that some of us like to have lunch or supper sometimes....
These are four hour slots. In practice, the first one doesn't start right at 10. The last one has a fairly hard cutoff; the other night, I didn't get out of there until 11:15 (and that only with some fairly egregious rushing), but the staff of the game day was wandering around wondering when we were going to be done so that they could close up and go home. None of the slots can really afford to run over, because the next slot is coming up. It's like a mini-convention.
The beginning and end time of the gamedays are set; we can't change those. I suppose we could decide that there are only two PFS slots available, which would remove the time pressure, but if games really can fit in 4 hours (and, often, we manage to finish scenarios in less than 4 hours-- just not always!) it's nice to be able to have three of them. (Remember that this is a monthly event. I, personally, have to drive an hour to get to it.)
It'd be nice to just be able to say "a hard 4-hour cutoff isn't really reasonable, be flexible", but a lot of us just aren't in a position to have that flexibility.
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Also tables of 6-7 players run a lot longer than tables of 4-5.
This is very true. Combats in particular take a lot longer with 6-7 players. Yeah, if it's one of those combats that gets stomped in the first round, then it can be over fast. But if the combat takes a couple of rounds, the time it takes to run a combat seems (without my actually having taken data) to go up faster than linearly with the number of people at the table. It does depend on the individuals as well. Some people just take longer than others, and some combinations of people take longer than others.
I would love to never run a 7-player table again, but alas, I really don't want to turn people away, and that's what it would take. I would also love to have 4-player tables be the standard, with 6-player tables being seen as "OK, this can still work, but we're stretching", but I recognize that in most places, the GM/player ratio makes this impractical.
(By the way, all the advice I've seen about rolling the dice all at once -- attack plus damage, or multiple attacks at once -- are, in my experience, way off base. The actual rolling of the dice is a tiny, tiny fraction of the amount of time it takes players to perform their turn in combat. It's deciding what to do, deflecting the few know-it-all players at the table telling them what to do, the debates and arguments about what they should have done, the rules conflicts, the players being really sure that their spell works in the wrong OP way they think it works, and then, finally, the 30 seconds necessary to figure out what your bonus is this round with all the situational modifiers, and add that number to the 7 you just rolled on the dice -- all of that is what takes all the time.)