Greetings gamers from all systems, places and timelines.
2020 was definitely a year to remember. Because of all of the insanity that befell the world, like so many others, I found myself with serious time on my hands. Time which, for me, turned into an opportunity for some equally serious gaming.
From all of this time spent both running and playing games, it provided me with a degree of D&D-related clarity. There are three observations I would like to share with you now so we can continue refining both the quality of our games and styles as players going into 2021 and beyond.
Here’s Part 2. Part 1, on Character Death, ran last week. Look for Part 3 in the weeks ahead.
Observation 2: All game-related time should be spent wisely
This feels like something that a master of the obvious would exclaim proudly, like its pure original genius. But being a DM can be a daunting task, and even seasoned ones can get lost spending their time in the wrong places.
1. Story Framework
Did you ever spend hours working on a module/story and then realize you were barely any closer to wrapping it up than when you started?
This is why I advise focusing on the framework of the story, its key people, places and things, and then go back to build out the details later. I know, DMs who like details can’t wait to let the party discover there’s a guard in the mine with a limp because he took an arrow to the knee in the war. But let’s first determine how many rooms are in the mine, what monsters roam the halls, whether there are traps and treasure – a plot-based reason for the party to be here would be pretty nice, as well.
2. Don’t Get Lost in Your Maps
I have said this on the podcast repeatedly, but burning too much time messing with maps can be the kiss of death, either at the tabletop or roll20.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually like maps ( at least to some extent). But I have invested more time in 2020 trying to hunt down terrain templates than I care to admit. The good news is, when you are comfortable with roll20, it’s not hard to upload the images needed for either monsters or maps. Where this turns into a time sinkhole is when your party is having a battle in a generic forest clearing or snow-covered landscape, and you find yourselves using google repeatedly to stare at hundreds of results from your keyword search.
3. Scene Control
If this is not already a term, it should be!
Just as I have witnessed DMs frantically searching for a monster stats mid-battle, I have likewise watched players freeze combat for 5+ mins as they play their turn like it’s a game of chess in the Olympics. Compound this with having a group with a lot of members, and you might find yourself drinking coffee like you are getting paid by the cup just to make it to the end of the encounter.
Now, if you are experiencing these issues at your table, there are a few things you can do. The first is to make sure that, as the DM, you are controlling the monsters in terms of combat fluidly. (And that’s harder than it sounds!)
Monsters don’t typically only attack with the infamous claw-claw-bite combo. You have to be familiar with their abilities and how they function in terms of everything from range, radius of effects and DC. For this reason, I am a huge fan of the 5E Bestiary app, which will put every SRD monster and their powers right at your fingertips.
Now, if a player is having a hard time making decisions in combat, outside of the game you could always approach them and make sure they understand all of their character’s abilities. You may find that the character they picked operates differently than what they were expecting and now they feel like a fish out of water, and that can be fixed.
However, if this isn’t the case, then you have to work with the things within your control. As the DM, this is your monster line up. In short, most of the combats you design should not look like the final battle from the movie 300.
As an unofficial rule, I prefer not to use more than three or four different creature types in any one encounter because it can delay the turn order. This can especially be the case when the players find themselves vastly outnumbered. Even a computer slows down when too much is happening at once, and your game flow is no different. Not to mention, it’s easier for a player to decide how to proceed with their turn when there’s four monsters on the map and not fourteen.
All players at the table, even at the virtual one, should be mindful of the clock. ( And I am not talking football here! ) While getting information towards a plot is time well-spent, most players aren’t going to want to listen to a 15-minute dialogue between one person and a throwaway NPC.
My point here isn’t about avoiding role-playing, but rather that the players should be considerate to each other when it comes to screen time. Everyone at that table is there to contribute to the game and have their own cool moment, which in turn moves the plot along. Make sure everyone gets their chance and keep your party peers involved as much as possible.
In my experience, that’s what the best players do. Not just trying to be the coolest person at the table at all times, but helping their party have real chemistry.
Final Thoughts
The importance of game time management applies to everything from preparing a session to each individual scene within it. If executed correctly, your time management and planning will lay the foundation within your campaign for the players to have characters with solid chemistry. ( That magic which makes the cast of a story memorable.) Before you know it, they might be practically writing the script for you.
As players, it means making sure everyone has their chance to bring their best material to the table. And in the end, your character, no matter how cool, is in a party, and their success is also yours.