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I'm currently running Into the Nightmare Rift, which is the 5th part of the Shattered Star AP. The characters are currently 13th level and will soon be 14th.
The players and I are finding that combat is taking an inordinate amount of time.
Having run 10th level modules before I've found that this is symptomatic of the Pathfinder game.
Does anyone have any ideas on how we can speed things up or maybe simplify things?
Prux
Players can make 'spell / ability' cards that they can easily reference. That way they could have the cards in hand and have an easy way to pick what to do when their turn comes.
You can also inform people whose next in turn. "John it's your turn, Alice you're next ready your actions."
If you want to be more strict you can give them a time limit, "You've used your 2 minutes, your character is struggling with indecision, he'll come up next after Robert's taken his turn."
My group use a 1 minute hourglass to you declare your actions and start rolling. We also roll all die that the action requires at same time, and if it requires too many rolls, use a virtual roller.
Well, if it's the rolling, you can do several things:
* Roll initiative for groups of equal enemies. The necromancer gets his own roll, but the two bodyguards end up in the same initiative slot.
* Roll many initiative values out of the session. Write them down. During the session you only have to add the initiative modifier of the creature.
* Combine die. 3d6 is the same as 1d20, in average (3*3.5 vs 10.5). So you can replace 3d6, 6d6 etc. by 1d20, 2d20. It increases the variance, depending on player type that's a bonus or 'wrong'. If you don't mind minor rounding up, you can turn 2d4 into 1d10 or 4d4 into 1d20.
* Stop rolling weapon damage die. With e.g. 1d6+20 the dice result doesn't really matter anymore, so you could allow the player to take 4 at damage (3.5 rounded up). I'd still roll anything else, though.
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How many players are in your group, and how many of them have companions/cohorts/eidolons? If either of these numbers are high, you may need to just reduce the size of your party.
Don't let your players use their own homemade character sheets. Unless it doesn't slow them down.
Insist your players actually learn the mechanics of their character.
This is more so for ladies than men, and maybe it's just my personal group, but make sure that they keep non game gossip and Internet surfing to a minimum. And especially social networking should be halted.
I'm currently running a game for 7 players at 14th level, so I'm also interested in more ideas.
I currently;
1. Roll my initiatives in advance, and have a sheets that I write down everyone's specific order (a chart).
2. I tell everyone who is up and the next three PCs roll their dice for whatever they may be doing. That way when it is their turn, we're not waiting for the wizard to roll 14d6 and add it all up.
3. I have the top tactics for each monster written up, makes my decisions a little quicker.
4. I may start just using average damage for each attack on my monsters to speed things along, similar to what someone just mentioned regarding reducing the number of dice.
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I have an initiative board on a chair that everyone can see so that they know when their turns are.
I had 5 players but 1 just quit as he was frustrated by the pace of the game, so at our next session we'll be down to 4.
I do at least 2 hours prep work per session so that I have a good understanding of the monsters abilities.
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Hero Lab can actually help a lot. When I run I have all the characters entered in my system and use the tactical console for combat. This allows me to apply spells and conditions to not only the players but the enemies. It also has a dice roller built in that I can use to make attacks and saves. This works really well for combats that have lots of lower level creatures. One click and I can roll 20 saves, or 20 attacks and just go down the line. It also allows me to look up any ability or spell the character has quickly and easily.
I have found that the biggest slowdown in combat is actually the GM. It makes sense because as a GM you have to keep track of a lot more than the players. The players only have to keep track of their character and maybe a companion or cohort. I have to keep track of everything else. Anything I can do to speed up my end really helps. When I take too long the players start to get distracted. I can’t really blame them because watching someone read a rule book or stat block is boring.
The other thing I do is make sure I know what monsters will be used for the game and familiarize myself with what they can do. More importantly I also make sure I know what the characters can do. For example if you have a druid in the group make sure you understand how wild shape works. The last thing you need is to have to stop the game to look up how a class feature works.
Spells are another thing that you need to be familiar with. Spontaneous casters are not that much of a problem because they have a limited number of spells so you know what they can do. Prepared arcane casters have more spells, but still have limit. Prepared divine casters are the worst to keep track of as they know every spell on their list. Before a game begins I require my prepared casters to state what spells they have memorized and to inform me on any changes they make during the list. If the spell is one I am not familiar with I glance over it quickly before the game.
Proper GM prep goes a long way to keeping the game moving. If your game is moving along at a good pace your players are more likely to pay attention.
I think it would also help to know where you feel the most time is being spent during combat. It can be hard to give suggestions to alleviate symptoms that we aren't aware of. Personally I find spells and less used abilities are where issues come in for my group as well as keeping track of buff/debuff modifiers. Most of my players are new, so I provide blank cue-cards they can use to write down their modifiers for attacks and damage and then adjust them during combat as buffs/debuffs happen. It doesn't muck up their character sheet and it is a lot easier than them trying to keep track in their heads. I also go them to print spell cards for the spells they use the most/have access to as well.
Ask your players to roll their attacks and decide on what actions they will take prior to their turn, so that when their turn comes around all they do is give you the numbers. - this means that people are not getting up and going to get snacks, etc during other players turns, then coming back to the table clueless of what is going on.
Casters should (obviously) have their spell lists prepared in advance and know what those spells do prior to the game session.
Ensuring that communication from the DM to the players is crystal clear will also help. Make sure you clarify things so that the players understand the situation in no uncertain terms for each encounter. If players have to ask clarifying questions that generally means you are contributing to slowing down the encounter.
If a player is unsure, I give them 30 seconds to a minute to make their decision or they lose their turn. No exceptions.
I can generally burn through high level encounters with large numbers of variables in a short time, but a lot of that is just practice and making sure I am overly generous with the information I give to the players when setting up the encounter.
Players can make 'spell / ability' cards that they can easily reference. That way they could have the cards in hand and have an easy way to pick what to do when their turn comes.
This needs to be an official product. I'd buy multiple decks.
You can also inform people whose next in turn. "John it's your turn, Alice you're next ready your actions."
I do this, seems to help quite a bit.
PLAYERS:
DM:
Don't let your players use their own homemade character sheets. Unless it doesn't slow them down.
Insist your players actually learn the mechanics of their character.
This is more so for ladies than men, and maybe it's just my personal group, but make sure that they keep non game gossip and Internet surfing to a minimum. And especially social networking should be halted.
I agree with everything here. I dislike herolab quite a bit. If you cant explain to me how your bonuses add up or where an ability came from, I'm likely to take them away from you.
I have found that the biggest slowdown in combat is actually the GM.
Yes. Absolutely yes. I say this because I needed to be reminded- my game is getting progressively slower, and I had not stopped to think "Hey- maybe it's friggin ME". Thank you!
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1-We use software and an external screen, initiative is displayed on the external screen, monsters/their hp/their conditions are displayed only for GM.
2-We limit number of models on the board. The group agrees on who can play Hunters/Druids/classes with extra models.
3-More experienced players help less experienced ones. Rather than waiting for our 4th level ranger to figure out how his two weapon fighting works, it's a)written down for him b)the person next to him is always more experienced, and will point out modifiers etc
4-We have a non-defined time-limit on turns. If someone is unable to decide on an action, the GM will start saying 'tick tock' or similar, and sometimes even skip their turn (this is used only for indecision, not for players having trouble figuring out rules)
5-Rules debates/disagreements over how things work are limited to 30 seconds. After that, GM rules and takes it up after game.
6-All casters have records of what book/page their spells are on, so if we don't have internet access, we can quickly consult printed text.
7-Mutual understanding that we all want a turn, so people who hold things up are gently reminded not to do so... then not so gently... then we throw dice... then we put them in stocks.
I rarely find the GM to be the problem, as he has four other turns during which to decide his next action...
8-As GM, I usually group monsters by type (all skeletons, all orcs) and have them go at the same initiative. Our current GM doesn't. Not sure how much it affects initiative, due to point #1
9-As GM, when making caster NPC badguys, I usually have a rough idea/flowchart of which spells to use in which situation. Also, if BBEG has prior knowledge of PCs, I plan an ambush scenario, as well as defensive scenarios, and try to pick spells that work for both (if prepared caster).
Basically, in all situations, as GM or Player, thinking ahead is key.
10-Have your dice on the table, JUST the ones you need.
11-Keep scrap paper around, if you don't use a computer
12-Have an erase if you use paper
13-Encourage new players to learn mechanics, do NOT penalize them for not knowing them. Be patient. If they don't have fun, you will lose a player.
This is a problem that feeds upon itself: if combats start getting slow, then players start getting bored. Bored players look for distractions (chatting, iPhones, internet, video games, whatever). Distracted players don't know what's happening, so when it's their turn, they have to figure everything out. When that happens, combat slows down even more. When it slows down even more, players get more bored, more distracted, less informed, etc.
It crashes into a death-spiral of game-destroying long combats.
Nipping it in the bud can prevent the entire spiral. Mostly. Much of what has been said here can help nip the bud:
INSIST that all players know what their character can do and have ALL their abilities written down. This includes every spell on a spell card for the caster. Alternately, I accept a player bringing his own books with Post-It notes sticking out of the book for each spell as long as his spell list gives references to the Post-It notes (e.g. on his character sheet it says "Fireball - Core book, red #7" so he knows which book, which color of note, and to find note #7. Doing this lets him look it up about as fast as having it printed on a card, so I'm OK with it.
It also includes martial characters having as many lines as they need for their attacks. Each line says things like "Greatsword, +15/+10, 2d6+8, 19/20/x2" and "Power Attack, +13/+8, 2d6+14, 19-20/x2" and "Power Attack with Enlarge, +13/+8 (reach), 2d6+16, 19-20/x2" and "Power Attack with Enlarge and Bless, +14/+9 (reach), 2d6+16, 19-20/x2" Etc. Each line should be one combination of his own abilities plus common buffs the party uses. His combat sheet will get pretty long, maybe with a couple dozen lines of values. It's good to use a spreadsheet (but a paper printout for the table is fine) because when he goes up a level, it's a pain to recalculate all the numbers. I help them set this up if they want.
There are electronic tools out there that do both of these things already.
It's a good idea to disallow electronics at the game table. Sure, people need a phone in case they get an important call. Life happens. But no sitting around texting, no playing video games, no surfing the web. If you feel like you need to do that, let's talk about how I can make the game more fun for you.
Players need to pay attention. Watch the battle. I'll move it at a good pace so your turn comes up fairly quickly, but you need to pay attention so when it's your turn you know what to do. Period. You waste everybody's time when you take 5 minutes deciding to step up and swing, just because you have to ask questions about which monster is the most wounded, does anyone need healing, or other tactical questions that you should know the answer to if you had been paying attention.
And of course the GM needs to be extra prepared. He is the bottleneck, so he needs to move the game quickly which he cannot do if he's unfamiliar with the material he's presenting. This is especially hard in combat since each new monster is new and each new battleground is new too. Plan ahead before the game. Imagine the battles. Figure out what all those monsters can do and look up any abilities you're not sure about, then write down notes so you can use it quickly. Remember, if you slow the game down even a little, then that death-spiral begins.
Just doing simple things like this can keep the death spiral from ever even starting.
I find that dice generators are great for large numbers of dice (Fireball damage etc) but slow for small numbers.
Suggest using them only for 4+ dice.
It still amazes me how many people throw one d20 for an attack, then roll a d8 for their longsword and add damage, then roll another d20 for their second attack, etc.
On the other hand, I used to love it when houstonderek played characters with multiple attacks. The man was a god of efficiency. If I told him a monster's AC, he'd throw one big handful of color-coded dice and announce the total damage in less time than it's taking me to type this.