Limiting Long, Boring Planning Sessions using IQ Attribute

[Killer Cyborg]

I haven't tried it, but it sounds like a decent idea.

If just using the highest IQ seems like too short of an amount of time, you could try taking the top 2.
Or 3.
Or, for fun, the top 1d4 IQs.

[Cinos]

If just top IQ feels too short, make it Top IQ + Top ME. You have the brilliance, but also the determination of the group. Or perhaps top IQ + Average ME, planning often tries patience.

[mobuttu]

You could also add 1/10th (or full value) skill percentage such as Intelligence, Undercover Ops, Wilderness survival, Military Fortification, Naval Tactics, Find Contraband, Streetwise or Lores (etc.) depending on the plan to execute.

[The Oh So Amazing Nate]

Wait..you plan things? You use actual game time..to plan what you're going to do in the game.like actual strategies and such?

Sorry, my mind is boggling. Maybe it's because I've never played in a game with more than 3 actual people (each playing multiple PC's) and never had to coordinate a group effort. But still. you stop playing..to plan out how you're going to play?

Then this happens..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU

[Galroth]

Just make the real time discussion how much time passes in the game. If they are in town then no problem. If they are stopping to make plans before bursting through a door and the bad guys might notice then bad things are going to happen when they get done planning (or in the middle of their planning session).

[Spinachcat]

Wandering Monsters.

Don't run a static world that waits for the PCs to act. Have the world constantly flowing around them so if they take too long to plan, the situation has changed.

PCs make enemies. Have those enemies act against them and show up at the worst of times.

Think like a movie director. If the audience is bored, make something explode.

[scottypotty]

Dead time in a game is a killer. Maybe they need a party leader to make the final decision. I've had this problem playing before. My character was made party leader....only because he would make a timely decision and go with it, not because it was possibly the best. Have one person be the final arbiter and nudge them a little if it's taking too long.

Not that I think your solution is wrong or won't work, but as a rule I don't like to add more rules if I can help it. Especially for things that can be handled out of game.

[Noon]

A time limit seems a good idea - but you need the consequence of reaching the time limit - if you get to the end of the time and say "Times up! ... What do you do now?" they'll just keep planning, of course!

I think you'll need to say 'Barring a plan that says otherwise, if the planning time runs out, then the party enters the enemy base here and proceeds forward, weapons in hand.'

Just make clear that when the time ends, the action instantly starts.

[Noon]

A time limit seems a good idea - but you need the consequence of reaching the time limit - if you get to the end of the time and say "Times up! ... What do you do now?" they'll just keep planning, of course!

The consequence is the event they are planning for actually happening. And if that doesn't apply, interrupters are always useful ("Sorry to cut the planning short guys, but our agent just radioed in that the general is ahead of schedule -- he's on his way right now!"). If they are taking too long to get to the 'thing' simply have the 'thing' get to them instead. Ready or not, they WILL play.

That doesn't really make any sense as a consequence - because (in the GM's opinion) they took too long in real life the general is coming now instead of latter? How are those two in any way related? It might get them into doings stuff/play, but they are just going to find the GM irritating for doing that and not learn to reduce their planning time.

If you declared the general is coming in one hours time in the fiction and also declared in RL they have one hour to plan, that'd make sense.

[Noon]

It doesn't make sense that if they take five minutes to plan, then the general turns up two hours latter (as first anticipated), but if they take forty five minutes to plan (a boring amount of time), the general shows up on the forty sixth minute. It's a non sequitur.

It's not a result of in character events. It's a result of a GM getting bored and making game events happen, but not acknowledging he's doing so because he's bored.

[Noon]

It doesn't make sense that if they take five minutes to plan, then the general turns up two hours latter (as first anticipated), but if they take forty five minutes to plan (a boring amount of time), the general shows up on the forty sixth minute. It's a non sequitur.

It's not a result of in character events. It's a result of a GM getting bored and making game events happen, but not acknowledging he's doing so because he's bored.

Is it not the GMs job to create the action? If they want to spend hours and hours planning something fancy, they have the time between sessions to do this. Would you really expect the GM to sit there patiently and just watch the clock run?

Not this guy. As a GM, I need to get mine too [entertainment]. If that isn't acceptable to the party, they are going to have to finish the planning session elsewhere because I refuse to spend six hours head butting the table doing nothing.

Some time is okay, but there's no reason artificial limits cannot be introduced if it runs too long.

You mean something like "I think you'll need to say 'Barring a plan that says otherwise, if the planning time runs out, then the party enters the enemy base here and proceeds forward, weapons in hand.'"?

I don't mind a GM who says "Hey, if I get bored, I speed things up" - indeeed, that's my actual advice in a nutshell! But as far as I can tell you said the general arriving was a consequence of the players actions, rather than a consequence of the GM getting bored. When it's actually a consequence of the GM getting bored, needing to get yours [entertainment] doesn't change that fact.

[Noon]

But they aren't being inactive - they are planning? Which is talking, which if we can be said to do anything at a game table, it is doing something. To them it'll look like they were playing properly.

The players just aren't going to learn to keep their planning short this way - because their is no logical cue (because it's not based on logic, but instead on the GM getting bored) to alter their own behaviour by.

So you'll be stuck playing den mother time and time again, cutting them short each time.

If you don't mind doing so over and over AND they don't resent the GM throwing these plot twists in all the time, okay, I guess that works out. That's not an impossible situation to have, it can occur, just not my favorite and perhaps not a prefered one for others.

[hollowecho]

I Gm a vampire game once that grinded to a stand still cause there where 5 PC that need to go some where and they only had 4 cars ( 2 sports cars ( a corvette,and a porsha,) and BMW, a 76 GMC truck 6 hours to decided who should ride with who....cause two of the clans didn't get a long, so I know about that. I relished then you need a time and location that are short window of overtunity ie... You need to stop the general and still get. He arrives at 7pm ...it 530 and you got an hour drive....

[Goliath Strongarm]

I just would take a smoke break. If, when I came back, they were still talking and hadn't made any decisions, interruptions hit. OR, to be evil, I would start planning for the villain. And made sure the players knew the longer they took, the longer the villain got.

[The Dark Elf]

I dont limit them at all. I just log their xp for deductive reasoning and clever ideas. The players themselves usually limit themselves due to fear of getting bored. One of them will usually say something like:

"lets just go with the first idea we had!" and the others agree. But these sessions are when they earn the most xp.

[Niji]

My group of six players are often frustrated because they can often consume several hours of a gaming session with just debate and planning. As a GM, I'd like to both alleviate their frustrations and challenge them--making it a bit more fun.

Does any one out there limit the amount of time their players have to plot or plan? I'd like to use the IQ attribute as a means to establish a limit for the amount of time (in minutes) a group of characters has to plan.

1. I thought about adding all the IQ attributes of the characters participating in the planning together to provide a time limit, but that really doesn't help when you have six players.

2. I considered taking the highest IQ in the group and having that be the limit (in minutes), but that seems to short of a time to plan.

Any thought? Anyone out there use or have a solution?

I try to play it straight, allowing no more time to come up with a plan than their characters would("stretching time" based on the intensity of the situation, the more intense the more time they have, if its a non-fight or flight situation than they have exactly the same amount of time as their characters would), as otherwise games would take much longer than a few hours.

This idea seems good in theory but horrible in practice, someone with a 30 IQ can think MUCH faster than someone with a 7 IQ who would more likely act on instinct... Rather instead you should have your player's on an individual base (based on their characters IQ, a 3-8 acts very quickly on gut instinct(and often more successful) a 8-16 "over thinks" things and loses out in battle(losing initiative for taking to long maybe so lost in a thought they fail to notice things so take penalties in combat or planing per se), a 16-24 thinks quickly on their feet and comes up with knee jerk plans, maybe even getting a bonus to the success of the plan(even if the plan sounds silly from a GM perspective the rules in the game universe don't have to meet "logic' the same way) and a 24-30 gets even better bonuses though could fall into the "Xanatos" plan level tropes, generally a player shouldn't play a Xantatos level intellect if they can't plot and plan the same way(they the ones that can...scary as crap when their plans come to fulmation lol).