For those who have followed for a time, my primary group these days is a rather overcrowded group of up to 10 players. This has been good and bad in many ways, but is a natural extension of our gaming style, rarely turning away players, and wanting to create a new group several years ago. During the game, it provides for many players, which helps to accomodate for schedules without having to cancel games. However, it also tends to dramatically bog down the progression of the story – especially since for the last several years, we have been in “tutorial” mode with me as the GM having to explain and understand all of the character mechanics and rules.
Not so, with our new upcoming campaign. At this stage, I do not consider any of the players “novice”, and I also do not consider them immature players. All have aged a bit since the first time gaming, and have played in several campaigns – not all of my own. At this stage, I am comfortable expecting all players to take responsibility for their own characters, options, and respective rules. If they don’t know, then they are either skipped until they do, or I will make a snap judgement, right or wrong.
As such, the focus is much more at the player level – I expect everyone to know their characters, their abilities, and their options, and I will not be providing guidance, help, or hints during the game. All characters should know their bonuses, target numbers, and spell effects, and have them ready to go as needed – without having to look them up at the start of their turn.
In an effort to speed combat mechanics up significantly, I am taking a much more hardline approach to the game. Initiative is still the same – roll once at the start, rotate thru. However, with the virtual tabletop tracking the order, and all players being attentive, I am expecting all characters to be able to act quickly and efficiently. That is to say, all players will have 6 seconds (a combat round) to declare their actions and start the process. They dont need to complete the dice rolling and results – many actions are too complex – but they should be able to quickly and concisely commit to and provide a description (I move up and attack, I cast fireball, etc). If that cant be done within 6 seconds, then I have to assume the character is too confused, and thus we skip their turn. This will be likely very rough for some of our players initially – we have had a history of 10+ minute actions in the past as various tactics and options are considered, and the respective rules are researched. But that also has meant that a single combat scenario could easily occupy the entire evening of a game.
To minimize distractions, we will be setting all electronics – phones, etc – to the side before the game. This does provide some challenge to those who have spells and other lengthy mechanics. For those players, they are expected to either know the rules clearly before the game, and/or print out whatever reference material is needed. Certainly rulebooks can be used, but again the focus is to know the details before your turn, so that we are not waiting.
In theory, these changes should make the game flow much smoother and faster – relying on the players to know their mechanics, and not pausing to hint or explain if something is uncertain. Remains to be seen if the theory actually works in practice however.
