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3 years ago ::
Apr 18, 2010 - 3:54PM
#51
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2003
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This thread deserves more props - there's no substitute for win-win time-savers!
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3 years ago ::
Apr 18, 2010 - 4:18PM
#52
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Date Joined:
Feb 17, 2009
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Most of the ideas are great with some prompting to ask if you find your losing out on role-playing? With the push to run your turn so quickly does it become more of "Iuz you up, Kas you next" reply "18 to hit", "you hit", "5 damage ongoing 5 save ends", "ok, Kas your up...." Which why this End inevitable combats early (describe the outcome narrative).
- Charge PCs a healing surge each when you do this.
stood out for me, that's just an awesome idea.
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3 years ago ::
Apr 19, 2010 - 5:46AM
#53
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Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2001
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Most of the ideas are great with some prompting to ask if you find your losing out on role-playing?
I think this risk is independent of combat speed / accelerators. It is something that players face (or ignore) in combat in general. It is easy to focus on the dice and the stats and the positions in combat, and to let the narrative fall by the wayside. For myself, I do my best to *not* do this.
For those for whom combat is a roleplaying obstacle, it could easily be argued that speeding up combat makes room for greater enjoyment of the RP aspects of the game, making combat the events that happen between RP rather than RP being the events that happen between combat.
Here are the PHB essentia, in my opinion: - Three Basic Rules (p 11)
- Power Types and Usage (p 54)
- Skills (p178-179)
- Feats (p 192)
- Rest and Recovery (p 263)
- All of Chapter 9 [Combat] (p 264-295)
A player needs to read the sections for building his or her character -- race, class, powers, feats, equipment, etc. But those are PC-specific. The above list is for everyone, regardless of the race or class or build or concept they are playing.
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3 years ago ::
Apr 19, 2010 - 2:18PM
#54
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Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2004
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it could easily be argued that speeding up combat makes room for greater enjoyment of the RP aspects of the game
This!
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3 years ago ::
Apr 20, 2010 - 9:58PM
#55
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Date Joined:
Apr 18, 2005
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In my group we use post-it flags for conditions and other effects. Red is always bloodied, the others we decide in advance. If we forget, we can write on them too. The players can use them for each other too: "Bob has +1 to his attack from my power/effect/mantle/whatever" Player jots +1 on a white flag and sticks it on Bob's mini. We also use the pointed flags for the players marks and warlock's curse. Each player that marks or whatever has their own assigned color that they apply to monsters. So if the fighter's mark is blue arrow and the warlock's curse is green arrow, I know at a glance whats on the monsters. They're cheap, plentiful, and lightweight. I have a dozen or so in my dice box just so I have extras at all time.
Far, far too many people seem to be enraged by the very thought of other people enjoying a version of the game that they don't.
Follow my my blog and my twitter, I also write stuff over at NewbieDM.com sometimes!
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3 years ago ::
Apr 21, 2010 - 5:49AM
#56
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Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2001
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Original Post updated to here.
Here are the PHB essentia, in my opinion: - Three Basic Rules (p 11)
- Power Types and Usage (p 54)
- Skills (p178-179)
- Feats (p 192)
- Rest and Recovery (p 263)
- All of Chapter 9 [Combat] (p 264-295)
A player needs to read the sections for building his or her character -- race, class, powers, feats, equipment, etc. But those are PC-specific. The above list is for everyone, regardless of the race or class or build or concept they are playing.
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3 years ago ::
Apr 21, 2010 - 10:37AM
#57
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Here's what we do...
Alea Markers - worth the money, super quick and easy. Will try and post our latest color meaning table.
Initiative Cards - I also started pulling the next card from the back so the players could see the back of the cards with names on them and know who was up next or "on deck".
Initiative Cards - For players, I used them to track encounter and daily powers (so they wouldn't use them twice) but I think adding what each attack targets would help. I found myself asking what defense they were rolling against all the time.
Initiative Cards - For monsters, if you use a bigger card, you can probably print the Monster Builder stats right on each card! Then just mark it up in pencil (so you can reuse the card later).
6 Second Round - When a player doesn't start describing their action, hold up your hand and count down 5 fingers (took 1 second to put your hand up) if they don't have something they delay. Call it the fog of war.
Cross Talking - Ask players to gameplan IC, this will greatly reduce the amount of players telling other players what to do on their turn and then subsequent deliberation. And encouraging IC convos is never a bad thing. Have the bad guys talk to each other too, and the PCs!
Play Loose - Not every action (standard, move, and minor) need to be used every round by every player. Play a little sloppy with the monsters. Have the goblins rush in and then mill around building up the courage to fight the dragonborn in plate mail. This is also a great contrast when you play a monster with tactical acumen.
End Fights - Talk to your players about how fights can and should end. Discuss that sometimes it's okay for the bad guys to run away. Remind them they should focus fire the last NPC and not start looting while the defender chips away at it. When the end of the fight is coming up, get there quickly.
And Be Clear - If players know what their choices are, they can make quick decisions. If every turn starts with questions and rule clarifications, you can't hope to be quick. The time it takes to describe the terrain and dungeon well the first time is considerably less than answering player questions or having players come up with a plan only to realize they can't reach the other side of the dungeon because of difficult terrain. Just write it on the battlemat if you have to.
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3 years ago ::
May 17, 2010 - 12:57PM
#58
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I use MapTool so most of these accelerators are basically rolled into the play environment.
But there is one tip that applies to digital and face-to-face play:
Watch out for encounters with too many "interesting" creatures.
That is, you don't want to limit the number of creatures with more than just a basic attack. As the DM, you're constantly switching contexts and you'll probably forget the Gnome's Immediate Reaction and the other guy's Aura or something.
In my last encounter I found it very refreshing when nearly 50%+ of the creatures (a mixed group of skeleton archers and warriors) was basically select a target and shoot. Made their turns go very quickly.
"At a certain point, one simply has to accept that some folks will see what they want to see..." Dragon 387
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3 years ago ::
May 17, 2010 - 2:11PM
#59
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Date Joined:
May 13, 2004
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Part 2:
So how do you prepare for your first night of encounters? One of the assumptions in D & D 4E is that you are using a square grid battle map. Unless you are using the online battle table, this means you also must use mini’s. This means you need mini’s for the characters and the monsters. This can run into some expense. The way our group handled this is that every week everyone kicks in a buck. When we had enough, we went and bought some packs of mini’s. We bought low level stuff first: kobolds, goblins, rats, zombies, skeletons- normal low level fair. We also bought Lexan sheets (that are clear plastic with square grid) and colored dry erasable markers. That way we could slide terrain underneath; we found this to be much quicker and cheaper than dungeon tiles (sorry WotC). Now as the DM, I picked out the mini’s I needed ahead of time for each possible encounter and put them in plastic sandwich bags. Since we have multiple Lexan boards I also usually draw the maps ahead of time as well. If you just have one Lexan sheet or a battle-mat, the players will have to wait while you redraw the maps. I would also buy one of those initiative boards or use index cards. I usually let one of the players keep track of initiative. I also let another of the players keep track of monster damage (its no big secret when the monster gets to bloodied that it’s at half hit points). So have players role their initiative, and call it out to the initiative tracker, and then you give the monsters initiative afterwards. This allows you to keep the action moving and tell the story without being bogged down in game mechanics. (This is also good training for the next DM when you would like to role up a character and just enjoy playing)! Another thing you can off load to the players is the “keeper of the ongoing.” This could be a veritable plethora of situations in 4E that includes, but is not limited to: ongoing damage, ongoing status effects, marks, curses, quarries, vulnerabilities and on and on. Players get excited and forget things like, savings throws or taking damage. The keeper of the ongoing reminds everyone (including the DM) of these important situations including death ticks (which normally are not forgotten). By assigning out these small but important jobs you involve the group in the running of the game and being an active participant. This helps keep players engaged while the spotlight is not on their character. I also assign a person to “run the battle board” This person is the only person during combat empowered to move the mini’s. This person keeps all moves legal. The last person in a group of five keeps the props: markers, area of effects stuff, rule books and looks up all rules. The only thing I allow on the tables for players is a character sheet (and pencil), the PHB, and a drink (with a sealable lid), and one set of dice. Yes, pizza boxes get passed around, chips and candy also make the rounds as well, but as for dwelling on the gaming table, I keep it to PHB, character sheet & pencil (and eraser), one set of dice, and a drink with a sealing lid. (If you think this is harsh, play a few games with some guys that are a little lacking in grace, you will come around; I promise you)! I would highly suggest to a new DM, to keep down clutter at the gaming table, buy at least the core books online. I use Microsoft products and many computers have Word and Excel. It is very easy to open the Monster Manual, copy and paste the monster entries for the evening into Word, and then print them off. It takes a little practice and patience, but I can usually do the entire weeks “monster roster” in about 20 minutes. This does use some paper-sorry trees! The other handy tool with using Excel is the DM can drop the experience for the evening and treasure into Excel and hand it out to the keeper of props who can then dispense it as the party wishes within the guidelines you set. This saves a lot of time! By delegating some of the responsibilities out to the players, you can keep the game moving without getting caught up in the game mechanics. This allows you to concentrate on telling the story, the most important and un-assignable part of your job. So plan ahead-get some minis’ and battle map and get the encounter groups ready (this is old stuff for war-gamers). If you take my suggestion, get the core books especially the MM online, drop the encounter sets into Word and experience awards and treasure into Excel and print it off, no need to bring the MM to the table except in the case of unforeseen events. community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
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3 years ago ::
May 18, 2010 - 6:22AM
#60
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Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2001
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Added a few from here and other threads.
Formatted the initial post a bit more.
Here are the PHB essentia, in my opinion: - Three Basic Rules (p 11)
- Power Types and Usage (p 54)
- Skills (p178-179)
- Feats (p 192)
- Rest and Recovery (p 263)
- All of Chapter 9 [Combat] (p 264-295)
A player needs to read the sections for building his or her character -- race, class, powers, feats, equipment, etc. But those are PC-specific. The above list is for everyone, regardless of the race or class or build or concept they are playing.
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