Help with combat pacing/speed

[J. Lionheart]

Using a mini or a stand-in (like a distinctive die) for each player is definitely a good way to help speed up combat, because you don't have to stop and describe positions continuously. You don't have to use them at other times, just set them out on the table when combat starts, in an approximation of the layout. Use some spare pens or pencils to indicate walls, roads, or other geography, and you're set. I have a brick of 100 small D6 in white for masses of enemies, with a dozen or so of the same sized D6 in other colors to indicate special types of opponents. Put them facing with 6 up to start, and as they're injured or knocked down, adjust the facing number downward as you feel is appropriate, to help you remember which one has been hit, which hasn't, etc, or use the numbers to indicate attacker ("I'm attacking number 4!") to make it easy to call combat.

Ask each player to plan their attack during other peoples' actions, so they're ready with it when their turn comes. If you get to them and they take more than 10 seconds to decide what to do, start a verbal 5 count on them, and skip their turn due to indecision if they don't make a move. They don't have time to think through everything in combat, and they shouldn't waste time at the table. Make sure each player has their dice in front of them, and in particular, has the ones for their weapons collected and ready to roll. Make sure they have enough dice to make the roll (5D6, not 1D6 five times) and have community dice ready to supplement theirs if they don't. If they are incapable of quickly doing the simple math of adding up the damage, have another player or yourself do it for them.

As a GM, have the basic stats of every player, NPC, and opponent already written down in front of you, with sufficient room to do combat calculations and subtraction for each. Get these at the start of the game, and avoid having to hand character sheets back and forth, or repeatedly ask what bonuses they have. Tally as you go. Call for the next player's action while marking down the result of the previous one. If there are multiple people working together to mutually attack a single target or perform a certain action, have all of them do their rolling simultaneously, and then go around the table getting results instead of handling each person singularly. If you want, you can even have everybody do their strike and damage rolls at the same time, only counting the damage if the strike landed.

If players are quick thinking and make good plans or demonstrate group leadership while under heightened duress from speed of action, reward them. It doesn't have to be a lot, but 25xp here or there, or seeing something and telling them it's because of their quick action, encourages and reinforces positive behavior and sends the message about what you're looking for. If a player goes off on some tangent, hesitates too much about taking action, or isn't paying attention, make that person the target of the next attack, and make it clear that the enemy saw they were distracted and went after them. Even if the attack doesn't hit, something whizzing past their head that could have been lethal is usually enough to remind players what the matter at hand is. You're not here to railroad the players, but that doesn't mean you can't stick-and-carrot them.

[mrloucifer]

Not bad Lionheart!

[Dog_O_War]

That's a rough design. What do you think. Criticism, helpful suggestions welcome!
I particularly like the suggestion that players roll their attacks at the same time. The challenge with that is the diversity of player actions. We have a very diverse group! Lots of magic and psionics. Regardless, I think I can come up with a flow something like this:
1) All players have about 15 seconds to determine in their mind what they want to do and who they want to do it to, including position/location they'll be in when they do it.
2) Move "markers" or dice to indicate each player's position/location and indicate who they're attacking and how in turn
3) All players that need "To Hit" rolls roll.
4) GM rolls parries/Dodges on enemy
4) Those that "Hit" roll their damage, but hold on to it while...
5) GM rolls saving throws for enemy against magic and psionics
6) Magic and psionic attacking PC's role damage against Sv failures
7) Initiative and other mitigating factors taken into account (ie. Monster had initiative and teleported away before PC could hit).
Damage assessed.

-Rifter6

This doesn't look any different than the way combat already is supposed to function, though you should be assessing damage before making saving throws (as a dead enemy/PC need not save), and "initiative factors" like teleporting away should be taken care of first (otherwise it just drudges up gm/pc conflicts).


I suggest though that you use average/max damage for enemies that your PCs face, so that it cuts down on your dice-rolls; this works by using average weapon damage for hits, and max weapon damage for criticals. Basically, you prepare it before-hand so that it does not slow things during. For "special" enemies, go ahead and roll damage during.

Dice and markers can be nice, but a point to note is that sometimes combat takes place in areas were this isn't feasible; a shoot can be a kilometre or more away, and a standard PC move-action might only be around 50 feet. On a scaled map, this looks like he's hardly moved at all - kind of anti-climatic. Just keep that in mind when you want to use the larger scales for combat purposes; it's better to be aware of this ahead of time than to have it spring up on you.