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One idea: Don't bother with initiative order and going through each player individually, one after the other. Get them all to roll at once!

If they are doing some special move, then okay, they say that before the big roll off. But usually they just attack, so everyone roll their attacks all at the same time, instead of slowly one after the other.

That way for twelve players, for example, it takes only as long as it would have taken one player to roll, since they all roll at the same time.

Well you have a large group...so it is tough.
But some suggestion...
1) Roll initative for NPCs in groups...
2) Cut out sone of the NPCs by having them fight away from the PC so you don't have roll their actions out. You can decide what happens. Focus the action on the PCs.

Logus Vile wrote:I see how I can make them all roll at the same time if I have them do group initiative, but they would still have to state beforehand what they intend to do since with modern weapons they have to decide on aimed shots, or the different types of bursts. In this case would you have them all attack the same target, choose individually or group them up automatically?

I'm imagining they pretty much do the same attack each time, whether it's a burst or whatever. They don't really need to declare what they are doing - just assume it's the same as usual. The only declare when they are doing something different from that.

Also, do they need to declare? If they are doing a burst, they just handle the change in bonus to hit and damage. Unless you have cheaters, in which case it's the cheaters slowing down your combat.

I'll often have a player serve as GM assistant to handle the details of combat (tracking initiative, number of attacks etc) in order to speed things up. Often for NPC allies, I won't bother with the details at all. I'll fudge the NPC's contribution to the fight to fit however well the PCs are doing.

I've found that my fastest paced battles are those which have a huge number of extremely weak enemies. In those cases, I generally don't worry about hits and misses nor damage, as a single shot will generally kill these sorts of enemies, and the player group always has the initiative against the "horde". As long as the group is falling back, few of the attackers are generally able to strike before being killed. The action is much more intense though as they are constantly trying to find ways out - bottlenecks that they can hold, and going through tons of ammo given the bursts and sprays necessary to hold back the swarming force. As they run out of ammo, one by one, it starts to get really interesting... and you can sense the panic.

Its not about the number of attacks, accuracy or damage, its sheer numbers. Good battles involve rapidly changing elements. The most boring are the long statistical/number tracking slogs.

if they hesitate a few seconds too long then their PC loses their attack as they also hesitate in combat.

Well, they could just default to what they used before, if they hesitate - it doesn't have to mean they lose their whole attack.

But either way would work - so it's up to what you think each option adds to play and since your GM'ing, which option you wanna take.

Hey, any actual play report of how it goes is appreciated if you can post it here. Even if it's just one sentence, that'd be good to hear

Very good! And I'm glad you had fun!

I use...

1) Static Initiative that is 10 + Bonus for all PCs and NPCs.

2) Init Cards to flip through so it goes smoothly as we travel through actions.

3) Tokens for actions. Everyone has beads to represent their action pool and they "spend" them for attacks, actions and active defenses.

4) Mook rule. If the NPC doesn't have a name, he has 1/2 MDC, 1/2 SDC and 1/2 HP.

5) Morale. Self-aware NPCs usually do not want to die. Once down to 1/2 health, they will flee or surrender. Of course, in SF lesser bugs will fight to the death, but smarter bugs will put survival first.

6) No delaying actions. You can ready a specific action "if X happens then I do Y", but if you snooze you lose.

7) Fudge the details. If something is cool and fun, it will have a bigger effect on the battle.

Apply anything that streamlines GM combat and works well with your GMing style. Try minor things that seem logical and go from there. If its complicated or confusing it won't likely speed things up.

Check the following link for a quick way of streamlining combat in Rifts. Specifics may not be helpful but the principles may be.

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