How can I make combat run more efficiently? Our encounters are taking way too long [duplicate]

Question

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Speeding Up Combat

I'm thinking of starting my own campaign with a few of my friends with me as DM, primarily because I wasn't extremely impressed with the campaign my friend was DMing. When I started thinking about the things I really didn't like, one of the biggest ones ended up being combat. It's possible that our DM just wasn't creating very interesting encounters, but it seemed like combat always took way too long, was just a bunch of us sitting around rolling dice, and every single one was the same.

The big problem I notice with the speed combat encounters is that they involve a TON of dice rolling, a fair amount of rules to remember, and a lot of waiting for other people.

Dice rolling:

My first thought was to automate the process on my computer. I'm a fairly competent programmer and am working on my own combat simulator. But in the meantime, is there any software that automates not only rolling the dice, but also keeping track of the health of the various characters and monsters?

Another idea would be to change the combat system to involve less dice-rolling. Has anyone done something like this? The most obvious things I could see would be to eliminate hits and misses and give everyone a constant damage roll, but this seems like it would be a trade-off. However, I could see it working well if combat encounters weren't the focus of the game. We could also try to make people roll dice simultaneously as much as possible, and once the players all have the rules down I think I'll try to implement that.

Rules:

I'm not too worried about this part but I thought I'd mention it. Sometimes we get bogged down with technicalities in the rules (Does this provoke an opportunity attack? Does he have cover here if he's standing at this exact spot? Does that count as a minor action? AHHHHH!!!) The only way to 'fix' this would be to play a little more freely and not worry too much about minor technicalities, which is exactly what I plan on doing. Once I have a complete grasp of the rules I'll narrow them down to what I feel is necessary for the group.

Waiting for other people and turn length:

This is where things get interesting. Sometimes we end up taking our turns very carefully, counting squares, and examining the benefits of a melee vs. ranged attack. But the characters don't have time to make these decisions, and everything on the board definitely doesn't sit still and wait for whomever's 'turn' it is to end before moving.

I'm not advocating simultaneous movement of all pieces, but I think if all the characters had to figure out their moves within the same 10-15 seconds it could make things pretty intense. They would have to talk to each other very quickly to figure out who would do what, and since they would all move at the same time they wouldn't be able to see the results of the other player's actions before their own move. Once they players moved their markers they would not be able to move them back (unless they had enough speed to do so), and at the end of 15 seconds they would tell the DM what they did and the DM would tell them all the result of their move.

Granted, the players would end up doing things that weren't allowed (oh, those rocks were difficult terrain and you didn't get close enough to the monster to hit it), and would all but eliminate their ability to consult the DM about things like that. You could say it would be more realistic, but in order for the players to make good decisions they need to know a fair amount of things about their environment that they'd normally be able to see in an instant, but that they have to ask the DM about in a RPG. But I think with a fair DM it could be pretty fun. Has anyone played this way?

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What ideas have you used to speed up combat? How have you minimized slowdowns due to dice-rolling and rule hangups? Does anyone have any suggestions about how to make the idea of simultaneous and timed player actions work as smoothly as possible?

Thanks guys! (sorry for the giant wall of text... :)

Answer 1

By far, the biggest thing that our group has done to speed up combat has been to give players only a brief window of time to decide what to do (just like you described).

The Dungeon Master describes what the characters see, then goes around the table to ask each player what their character is doing. Each person has only a few seconds, and if they can't decide what to do, the DM moves on to the next player.

The first time we tried this, it was with the consent of the group. It took a bit of time getting used to, but it soon became routine for us.

Since then, we've been using this system for years, and it's always worked well for us. If you're using a roll-for-initiative scheme, this tells you what order to ask the players' actions in. If not, just go one way around the table one time, then the opposite way around the table the next.

As for rules questions, if they come up in combat, the DM makes an on-the-spot ruling and we use it. Then, after combat (when things are a bit calmer) someone can look up the correct rule if they want. If the DM's ruling turns out to be incorrect, we now know the right thing to do the next time, but we don't go back and change the on-the-spot ruling.

Answer 2

(writing this for dnd 4.0)

dice rolling

one way of speeding up combat is to encourage your players to make their attack and damage rolls at the same time. this way they only have to roll once, and if it's a hit they just add up the damage. encourage players to have their own dice (give out experience for it if you have to), and enough to support most of their common attacks (so if you're paragon tier and rolling 2d8's, have 2 d8's to roll with your d20).

turn length

encourage players to have their attacks ready before it gets back to them. Sometimes it is rough to plan out your attack if the whole battlefield shifts, so have some leeway, but they also need to learn to adjust to rapid changes. Now that said, you also need to be a bit firm and tell them that they're taking too long. Taking the back seat and not saying anything will just encourage them to take their time.

rules

remember, as the DM you are the rules arbiter, so what happens essentially is up to you. if you have someone (or someones) constantly clogging up combat because they're being finicky about the rules, talk to them outside of the game about it. Rules are nice to have but, in the end, it's just a game.

memorize feats and attacks

another major slowdown that I've noticed comes from players not knowing how their attacks work, and it seems like you might be running into this issue. I would encourage your players to make sure that they fully read and understand all of their attacks, that way they're not asking questions in the middle of combat. If you're players have just leveled up you could always run a scenario to have them test their new stuff out.

Answer 3

Maybe a radical thought but why not change system to something like Fate/Fudge or a diceless system akin to Amber or even dump systems altogether?

Answer 4

I would not automate dice rolling because many people enjoy the feel of dice. In my high level D&D games, the problem was never the dice rolling but the adding of big numbers and the keeping track of all the buff spells. For my own D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder campaigns, I usually use the house rule that we play up to level 10 to prevent that from being a major problem.

In addition to that, I have decided to no longer run modern D&D variants. I prefer old school systems like Labyrinth Lord. I'm not sure you want to change the rules you use as drastically as that, but it's what I ended up doing. It also meant that I lost most of my former players, but now I get to play a system I feel more comfortable with.

As for waiting for people, I tried to force people to be quick about their decisions, but that led to a lot of unhappy faces. It wasn't working for me. Not even throwing a plush puppy their way and shouting GRENADE! helped speed up play. What I'm doing now is this: if players dither for a few seconds, I'll say "Ok, you delay." and I'll go to the next person. I make absolutely certain to come back to them after all the other party members have gone. By asking them again before monsters go, I was able to build up trust. Delaying is not skipping a turn. That was the important part.