Tips for Speeding up play

[scytale2]

One of the big bugbears for On-line D&D is the speed (or lack of) that the game runs. For the DM, there is little substitute for proper planning and preparation and for players clearly it's up to them to make sure they are ready to take their actions, so as not to delay the rest of the group.

I thought it would be useful to compile a thread of ideas for speeding up play and so here it is.

Here are one or two things that might be useful:

DMs
a) Check your watch frequently during play. Sometime time passes without anything happening and a time check can prompt action
b) If players don't take an action in combat, delay them on the tracker and move onto the next. Use the bell on the characters.
c) Use the roleplay time (if DM not included) to predict and set up the next encounter. If you're wrong, then at least you tried
d) Prepare the tokens at the correct size for the map - it's quicker
e) Make sure you know the module (or what you wrote) ahead of time
f) Ask players to check the rules, when they are in doubt - they have the books too and have more time on their hands
g) Size your maps and tokens for fast download
h) Agree (if possible) on joint breaks at specific times.
i) Don't make combats too ambitious and don't worry too much, if you've forgotten one of those minion's attacks - presume they missed:)

Players
a) Set up hotkeys
b) Know your character's abilities (powers) and in 4th edition type them into the character sheet, so everyone can read them
c) Pre-prepare your typed action ahead of time (if using text)
d) Make your own portrait and email the GM a top down token for your character, sized appropriately
e) Remember that when you have the combat flag, no one else does, so don't make them wait longer than they need to.

Hope others can add!

[Sorontar]

h) Agree (if possible) on joint breaks at specific times.


Not sure this is ideal because then you have to schedule in "giggling fits" and "munchies breaks".

Sorry I'll leave now :D

[longarms]

Didn't see voice chat on your list. Heard that helps alot.

Your first item, a), is huge. We might rotate the GM role for a game or two in our group, and your item a) was my biggest advice for the interested player.

I DMed for over two years with 3.5 edition. Tried all the tricks on your list, and more (though I never really gave voice a chance), and none of the tricks I tried made it fast enough for me.

The solution for me was to just switch rulesets to one oriented for a faster less prep play style. While everyone probably already knows I switched to savage worlds, that's not the only choice (although it may be the most popular alternative here). I think switching to, say, AD&D 2.0 would also address the speed issues. I am sure there are others out there that are more knowledgable about other rulesets conducive for speed.

[Griogre]

b) is very important too. In 4th edition especially, it is really important that the players not zone out even when it is not their turn because with a warlord and other powers they will often taking actions on someone else’s turn.

I have found there is one ruleset change that really helps speed things up – double clickable fields that roll the dice and annotate the roll for you. JPG’s and the Savage World rulesets both have this feature. Josh posted the code for this a while back and it is a real time saver for the GM.

On the DM’s side with 4th edition one trick I use with minions is that when I hit the first minion on the tracker I just look at the map and move and attack with all the minion figures just using the first minion on the tracker to roll attacks. It’s not worth the time to cycle through each minion – find it on the map – and move *that* one. Just start with the minions on the map closest to the PC’s and move out.

[azbo]

The trick for speeding up combat is to be ready on your turn. Know what you're going to do and build your stack ahead of time. Don't wait until your turn to think about what you will do.

Plus if you build common modifiers and rolls into hot keys you can build your stack very quickly and have it ready. You know before your turn if you're going to have flanking or combat advantage usually, if there's a bard in your party make a hot key for "bard song +1", if you have point blank shot feat "+1 PBS" if you're a 5th level rogue "/die 3d6 sneak damage", if you're a 4th level cleric "/die 1d8+4 cure light", things like "-1 pwr ATT", "+1 pwr dmg", or "-2 two hand fght" etc are all going to be common rolls or modifiers. Being ready to roll and quickly being able to create your modifier stack all make the game flow more smoothly and having labels on the modifier stack gets rid of confusion.

If you make a roll with your 3rd level fighter who normally attacks with a +9 (+3 str, +2 sword, +1 focus, +3 BaB) and it's "long sword +2" (15)+12=(27) people will not be sure where the plus 12 came from but if you have "long sword +2" +9 (+2 flank) (+1 bard song) everyone easily understands what the attack is.