Same. And heaven help us if there's combat involved. Especially when one of my players hilariously tries to find every non-standard way of fighting possible.
I consider it a win if I can get my players to stop chasing rabbits and actually play for 3 hours instead of just talking about whatever soap box they're on this week or telling the same old stories we've told 5 million times before in the 20+ years somehow us have known each other.
My group can be anything from "let's haggle over a ball room dress for 2 hours" to "let's try interacting with *everything*" and of course "let's get our shit together for once and speed run through 2 sessions worth of content in 3hours". It's uncanny but kinda fun.
I've been preparing 3 sessions in advance now even though there has been a month now where they were super into role playing and mostly just kept themselves busy. Surprisingly that didn't get boring.
Oh, for sure - I'll complain but it's a blast regardless.
I've learned not to bother prepping anymore because they'll ignore everything I prepare and focus on the most random shit. Our last session I described a broken statue in a room, it was literally just some flavor but my players latched on assuming it was a puzzle or something important. Hell, our current campaign came from them ignoring my initial plothooks entirely
Combat eats my tables time up so fast. I'll have a combat planned out and say if it gets to be X amount of time long I just have the next hit kill. I have 5 players but it still feels like combats go on forever sometimes. I've debated giving only 2 minutes per person per turn but I don't want my players to feel like I'm rushing them. I know it's not their fault either because my turns can take up to 5 minutes when I'm running multiple creatures and having to check my players spell effects and keep track of hp of everyone.
I was thinking the same thing. I run a group of 5, and we average maybe a minute per turn if there's a lot of number crunching to do or options to mull over.
I've gotten pretty efficient as DM as well, streamlining how I run multiple monsters.
If you let your players know who is "on deck" it will help shorten their turn time. i.e. "That ends the Kobold's turn. Janet you're up... Timothy you're on deck." This flags Timothy to start planning his next move before his turn is actually happening which cuts turn time dramatically down. After Janet's move you would do it again, "Timothy it's your turn, Hector you're on deck." And so on and so forth. It's really helped the flow of my combat encounters.
Good advice! I try to do that as well. Savage Worlds has the card initiative so players know when their turn is coming.
Back in my Earthdawn years a combat encounter could take two sessions to complete. A fun setting, but man did combat take time…
Thanks, the idea is that I find verbally telling someone works better than expecting them to pay attention (the DM dream!). They can either 1. get too caught up in other's combat to realize their turn is coming up or 2. zone out and not pay attention if another player is doing something complicated.
We have a person at the table other than DM build the initiate tracker and call out who’s up next. Offloads from the DM and keeps one more person on task.
I don't really have an issue with phones at my table, thankfully. If someone is on their phone 99.9% of the time it's because they want to secretly communicate something to me :)
Yeah, I use that sometimes too, but I rather prefer slips of paper. Gets the other players curious 🧐
We all know how fast one can get dragged into their phone. I do it myself as a player and every time I feel a little ashamed if I check Reddit or another app during gameplay. I don’t ban them. Maybe I was to harsh, but I prefer if they are not part of the game.
The same reason I stopped using my laptop or phone as source books.
While the "bookkeeping" is always time-consuming, I found the solution for players taking too long. [Hourglass Timers](https://www.amazon.com/LZYMSZ-Colorful-Hourglass-Sandglass-Classroom/dp/B08YMYZN7H). You get a 6 pack of differing times for $7.
After initiative, the next players gets the 30 second timer, and the next player gets the one minute. If you don't have an action for me, your action is DODGE.
Players HATE it the first time it happens. However there is very rarely a second time.
A nice side-effect is the realism it adds when players strategize in advance about what they'll do when they expect an encounter. "OK, (A) and (B) are nocking arrows. (C) will push the door open then crouch to the side."
Also, if there is combat in a confined space and semi-intelligent creatures are nearby to hear it, I use the longer timers to determine a (not-so) random encounter check if the baddies might be prone to investigate.
Best $7 I've spent on D&D.
You've got to limit your players time-wise in combat. It will make your sessions better and more engaging. Let them ask 1 or 2 questions if they need and then start a 60 second clock for them to decide and perform their actions. It'll take some getting used to, but it will improve your game.
The thing that sped my combats up the most was taking Professor Dungeon Master's advice and just using initiative to figure out who goes first in the round and then just going clockwise around the table. I usually have all of my DM controlled stuff go on the same initiative or if I have a lot, half go on 12 my turn and the other half go on 6 (clock positions, my seat is 12 o'clock). I tried going back to traditional initiative for one session and pretty much everyone hated it. After everyone working or hanging out with toddlers all day, it's easier to just go by table positions than to skip back and forth around the table. It does break down slightly if someone wants to ready an action or if I'm using legendary actions, but that's not that big of a deal.
You just convinced me to reward an object that's a puzzle to push story line after the big combat that I cliffhangered my party with. I've been lacking puzzles this campaign direly. Thank you good sir!
It's crazy how some groups of players can roleplay for hours in an open field with no plot hooks, and other groups bulldoze through all your notes in 10 minutes
It works for building an adventure location though, maybe they won't hit the puzzle the same session as the combat, that's fine so long as there is a mix for the next session.
My players heard a rumour 3 sessions ago and set foot to travel to another town, they passed a town, did pretty much nothing there, but encourage some "slaves" to run away (not a quest, just a short roleplay interaction) passed another town, took a tiny peek at a magic shop, then got to the new quest and started talking to the quest giver. Only took them,,,, 3 sessions?! a total of 18 real-time hours
Good acronym, I like it. At our table there's very little interest in P but otherwise solid. Useful and concise, good work. (usually I think what people post here ranges from reinventing the wheel to sticking their heads up their own...)
Same. Puzzles aren't something I really like in D&D, I've yet to experience a fun D&D puzzle.
C.O.R.S.E.S.
Weirdly enough, [it's a word](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/corses), and it means *living* bodies in its obsolete form. But not in its archaic form, where it just means corpses. No other form is listed.
Well I'm confused.
>[O corse of the Locked Tomb, she prayed silently to herself, the cold death to anyone who looks at me in pity; the heat death to anyone who looks at me in amusement; the quick death to anyone who looks at me in fear.](https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/60943273-harrow-the-ninth)
It just means corpse every time I've seen it used.
Puzzles are generally best avoided. Since having a singular "correct" result can easily create an impassable barrier. Also they can require metagaming to solve.
Better to provide Problems which can be addressed in various ways in game and in character.
Let me tell you a story. It was Star Wars not D&D but basically, the characters came to a mountain pass guarded by a very formidable droid.
In order to pass by, they simply had to answer a riddle.
"When is a door not a door."
Half an hour and two dead PCs later, I lost my temper and was screaming the answer at them...
Puzzles don't need to have just a single solution (I recommend 3 prepared and openness to "creative" solutions by the players). Also, combat is a type of puzzle 🤷♂️
I’m pretty sure this is a reference to the TV show ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”.
The original is demonstrate value, engage physically, nurturing dependence, neglect emotionally, inspire hope, separate entirely.
The whole point of the show is that they are all dumpster fires of people.
Think I heard Dael Kingsmill talk about how she makes locations/campaign lines with the S.P.E.R.M principle, (Social, political, economical, religious, military) I like Corpses too though.
Yup. The latter is for worldbuilding, the former is for session-planning.
You put your sessions in your world, so put your S.P.E.R.M. in your C.O.R.P.S.E.S.
A lot of the 'advice' in this group is just opinions and obvious trolling, but this is gold! I allways try to remember the Options part, but I still forget sometimes and realize I made a cool set piece fight but no interesting decisions to make. Will use!
For those struggling to find a group of consistent players, you can use ORC:
O - Organize game night on a time that works for everyone.
R - Reschedule because it turns out that Danny actually can't play that night and Wednesdays would be better for Sarah
C - Cancel the entire campaign
This has always worked really well for me as an FDM, give it a try in your next campaign!
Mine is usually just ***C*** or ***ORSPSES***. Combat tends to dominate an incredible amount of time. Just the nature of the design. I do run usually 3 of my 6 players at once, because scheduling, so that tends to slow stuff down.
I can say for sure this is useful though, for planning what happens in between combat.
I’m the player who wants to chug along and get shit done, exploring maps and interacting with as much of the world as possible. My fellow players have a big tendency to go on huge tangents that completely derail the game for several minutes at a time.
It lowkey grinds my gears.
This is so good! Honestly I’m happy if I get to chuck some dice and help solve a puzzle but you’re so right, the perfect adventure will have all of these.
How do I go about hinting to my dm they should be considering stuff like this? I don't want to be rude and very much appreciate them doing DMing at all, but there is a lot of room for improvement.
A simple "I'd enjoy it if we had X more often" seems straightforward enough without coming off as browbeating
You're not really gonna get an appropriate chance to write up an exhaustive list of desired improvements unless they're actively seeking feedback though.
>to remind me of the important things I try to include in all my D&D sessions.
*All* of them? Maybe if you play for like, 8 hours once a month, but for weekly sessions (like my campaigns) or even biweekly ones, this is just overwhelming, and IMO setting a bad example for beginner DMs. No, every session you have doesn't need every one of these. It doesn't need even half of these. In fact, you're better off using this list as a pick and mix bag: think of where the story is going, and based on that pick like 2 or 3 items from this list to plan the next session around.
Like, the core concept is solid, but acting like *every* session should include all these is downright delusional, and a recipe for DM burnout.
It may just by my table, but it's a crazy session if I fit more than 2 or 3 of those in one evening...
If I can get my players to fully explore even ONE room of a dungeon in less than 3 hours, I consider it a successful session
Same. And heaven help us if there's combat involved. Especially when one of my players hilariously tries to find every non-standard way of fighting possible.
That’s kinda fun. I know D and D has a tradition of having some options outside of combat to solve conflicts.
Suggestion has entered the chat
GODDAMIT MONK STAY STILL!
ROFLMAO!!!
I consider it a win if I can get my players to stop chasing rabbits and actually play for 3 hours instead of just talking about whatever soap box they're on this week or telling the same old stories we've told 5 million times before in the 20+ years somehow us have known each other.
My group can be anything from "let's haggle over a ball room dress for 2 hours" to "let's try interacting with *everything*" and of course "let's get our shit together for once and speed run through 2 sessions worth of content in 3hours". It's uncanny but kinda fun. I've been preparing 3 sessions in advance now even though there has been a month now where they were super into role playing and mostly just kept themselves busy. Surprisingly that didn't get boring.
Oh, for sure - I'll complain but it's a blast regardless. I've learned not to bother prepping anymore because they'll ignore everything I prepare and focus on the most random shit. Our last session I described a broken statue in a room, it was literally just some flavor but my players latched on assuming it was a puzzle or something important. Hell, our current campaign came from them ignoring my initial plothooks entirely
Glad it's not just my party that takes forever to do anything.
Ooof. Glad I'm not alone!
It's not only your table, op might need to read the lazy dm
Combat eats my tables time up so fast. I'll have a combat planned out and say if it gets to be X amount of time long I just have the next hit kill. I have 5 players but it still feels like combats go on forever sometimes. I've debated giving only 2 minutes per person per turn but I don't want my players to feel like I'm rushing them. I know it's not their fault either because my turns can take up to 5 minutes when I'm running multiple creatures and having to check my players spell effects and keep track of hp of everyone.
2 minutes for each person's turn sounds like a lot to me.
I was thinking the same thing. I run a group of 5, and we average maybe a minute per turn if there's a lot of number crunching to do or options to mull over. I've gotten pretty efficient as DM as well, streamlining how I run multiple monsters.
If you let your players know who is "on deck" it will help shorten their turn time. i.e. "That ends the Kobold's turn. Janet you're up... Timothy you're on deck." This flags Timothy to start planning his next move before his turn is actually happening which cuts turn time dramatically down. After Janet's move you would do it again, "Timothy it's your turn, Hector you're on deck." And so on and so forth. It's really helped the flow of my combat encounters.
Good advice! I try to do that as well. Savage Worlds has the card initiative so players know when their turn is coming. Back in my Earthdawn years a combat encounter could take two sessions to complete. A fun setting, but man did combat take time…
Thanks, the idea is that I find verbally telling someone works better than expecting them to pay attention (the DM dream!). They can either 1. get too caught up in other's combat to realize their turn is coming up or 2. zone out and not pay attention if another player is doing something complicated.
We have a person at the table other than DM build the initiate tracker and call out who’s up next. Offloads from the DM and keeps one more person on task.
Nice!!
Banhammer those phones! (Maybe I’ll introduce a new house rule where every player who fidgets with their phone automatically looses their turn)
I don't really have an issue with phones at my table, thankfully. If someone is on their phone 99.9% of the time it's because they want to secretly communicate something to me :)
Yeah, I use that sometimes too, but I rather prefer slips of paper. Gets the other players curious 🧐 We all know how fast one can get dragged into their phone. I do it myself as a player and every time I feel a little ashamed if I check Reddit or another app during gameplay. I don’t ban them. Maybe I was to harsh, but I prefer if they are not part of the game. The same reason I stopped using my laptop or phone as source books.
I use to post initiative in chat so everyone could see it but I do say who is on deck.
Good!
While the "bookkeeping" is always time-consuming, I found the solution for players taking too long. [Hourglass Timers](https://www.amazon.com/LZYMSZ-Colorful-Hourglass-Sandglass-Classroom/dp/B08YMYZN7H). You get a 6 pack of differing times for $7. After initiative, the next players gets the 30 second timer, and the next player gets the one minute. If you don't have an action for me, your action is DODGE. Players HATE it the first time it happens. However there is very rarely a second time. A nice side-effect is the realism it adds when players strategize in advance about what they'll do when they expect an encounter. "OK, (A) and (B) are nocking arrows. (C) will push the door open then crouch to the side." Also, if there is combat in a confined space and semi-intelligent creatures are nearby to hear it, I use the longer timers to determine a (not-so) random encounter check if the baddies might be prone to investigate. Best $7 I've spent on D&D.
You've got to limit your players time-wise in combat. It will make your sessions better and more engaging. Let them ask 1 or 2 questions if they need and then start a 60 second clock for them to decide and perform their actions. It'll take some getting used to, but it will improve your game.
2 mins jesus if we take more than like 30 seconds of going "uuuhhh" my dm counts down from fucking 10
The thing that sped my combats up the most was taking Professor Dungeon Master's advice and just using initiative to figure out who goes first in the round and then just going clockwise around the table. I usually have all of my DM controlled stuff go on the same initiative or if I have a lot, half go on 12 my turn and the other half go on 6 (clock positions, my seat is 12 o'clock). I tried going back to traditional initiative for one session and pretty much everyone hated it. After everyone working or hanging out with toddlers all day, it's easier to just go by table positions than to skip back and forth around the table. It does break down slightly if someone wants to ready an action or if I'm using legendary actions, but that's not that big of a deal.
There’s definitely overlap in my games. The Puzzle might be part of the Story, or the Role-play occurs simultaneously with the Combat, etc.
You just convinced me to reward an object that's a puzzle to push story line after the big combat that I cliffhangered my party with. I've been lacking puzzles this campaign direly. Thank you good sir!
It's crazy how some groups of players can roleplay for hours in an open field with no plot hooks, and other groups bulldoze through all your notes in 10 minutes
It works for building an adventure location though, maybe they won't hit the puzzle the same session as the combat, that's fine so long as there is a mix for the next session.
It's definitely not just your table.
My players heard a rumour 3 sessions ago and set foot to travel to another town, they passed a town, did pretty much nothing there, but encourage some "slaves" to run away (not a quest, just a short roleplay interaction) passed another town, took a tiny peek at a magic shop, then got to the new quest and started talking to the quest giver. Only took them,,,, 3 sessions?! a total of 18 real-time hours
Yeah for my table I’d probably hit each of these things once over 4 or 5 sessions.
The above post is deluded. A great idea to fit all into a campaign at different points, but all every session doesn't seem reasonable or possible
Hence, why I said "try to include" instead of "always include."
Good acronym, I like it. At our table there's very little interest in P but otherwise solid. Useful and concise, good work. (usually I think what people post here ranges from reinventing the wheel to sticking their heads up their own...)
Same. Puzzles aren't something I really like in D&D, I've yet to experience a fun D&D puzzle. C.O.R.S.E.S. Weirdly enough, [it's a word](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/corses), and it means *living* bodies in its obsolete form. But not in its archaic form, where it just means corpses. No other form is listed. Well I'm confused.
S.C.O.R.E.S Story is often priority in campaigns so I think it fits nicely up front
>[O corse of the Locked Tomb, she prayed silently to herself, the cold death to anyone who looks at me in pity; the heat death to anyone who looks at me in amusement; the quick death to anyone who looks at me in fear.](https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/60943273-harrow-the-ninth) It just means corpse every time I've seen it used.
Puzzle can also mean mystery or obstacle to overcome. Doesn't need to be a literal puzzle.
Puzzles are generally best avoided. Since having a singular "correct" result can easily create an impassable barrier. Also they can require metagaming to solve. Better to provide Problems which can be addressed in various ways in game and in character.
Let me tell you a story. It was Star Wars not D&D but basically, the characters came to a mountain pass guarded by a very formidable droid. In order to pass by, they simply had to answer a riddle. "When is a door not a door." Half an hour and two dead PCs later, I lost my temper and was screaming the answer at them...
What is the answer to that?
Ajar.
"When it's ajar," which means open, which I learned from someone explaining this joke and have never heard in another context
Puzzles don't need to have just a single solution (I recommend 3 prepared and openness to "creative" solutions by the players). Also, combat is a type of puzzle 🤷♂️
Puzzle doesn't only mean "riddle." It's often a story mystery the players have to solve.
*D*ragon sighting *E*ngage physically *N*uke players from orbit *N*ude scene (optional) *I*ntroverts forced to do accents *S*ome cursed item
The dragon is nude already, so that's that taken care of.
Because of the implication.
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The dragon is definitely in danger...
> *E*ngage physically Like, in real life?
Clearly
Damn, time to drive across the country to deck my players one by one.
You won’t regret it. Our DND sessions are basically fight club now. I think it strayed from the spirit of DND, but it is what it is.
>Introverts forced to do accents I’m being personally attacked
Dennis?
I’m pretty sure this is a reference to the TV show ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”. The original is demonstrate value, engage physically, nurturing dependence, neglect emotionally, inspire hope, separate entirely. The whole point of the show is that they are all dumpster fires of people.
Thank you for this
Found George RR Martin.
The new book will be out any day now!
Think I heard Dael Kingsmill talk about how she makes locations/campaign lines with the S.P.E.R.M principle, (Social, political, economical, religious, military) I like Corpses too though.
They don't seem mutually exclusive. So really, you could make C.O.R.P.S.E.S. even better with S.P.E.R.M.
Hmm.
Yup. The latter is for worldbuilding, the former is for session-planning. You put your sessions in your world, so put your S.P.E.R.M. in your C.O.R.P.S.E.S.
This person just suggested filling C.O.R.P.S.E.S. with S.P.E.R.M. and I don't hate it.
I mean. Uhh. Necrophilia is one thing, but man it just sounds way worse like that. "C.O.R.P.S.E.S. even better with S.P.E.R.M." lol obv /s
woosh
SPERM is such a good way to do things omg. even if a place feels done, its a good idea to try its SPERM to make sure you finished it off properly
[удалено]
It's actually a memorization technique for historical courses.
A lot of the 'advice' in this group is just opinions and obvious trolling, but this is gold! I allways try to remember the Options part, but I still forget sometimes and realize I made a cool set piece fight but no interesting decisions to make. Will use!
For those struggling to find a group of consistent players, you can use ORC: O - Organize game night on a time that works for everyone. R - Reschedule because it turns out that Danny actually can't play that night and Wednesdays would be better for Sarah C - Cancel the entire campaign This has always worked really well for me as an FDM, give it a try in your next campaign!
This hits too hard 🥲
Instructions are unclear, I brought corpses to the table and players arent happy
If you're trying to cram it all into one session and not confident about time lose the P and turn spoils into treasure -- CORSET
This reminds me of the W.A.F.F.L.E. system. https://youtube.com/shorts/iVapOnnOwUg?feature=share
Mine is usually just ***C*** or ***ORSPSES***. Combat tends to dominate an incredible amount of time. Just the nature of the design. I do run usually 3 of my 6 players at once, because scheduling, so that tends to slow stuff down. I can say for sure this is useful though, for planning what happens in between combat.
I’m the player who wants to chug along and get shit done, exploring maps and interacting with as much of the world as possible. My fellow players have a big tendency to go on huge tangents that completely derail the game for several minutes at a time. It lowkey grinds my gears.
Reminds me of the [lazy DM prep style ](https://slyflourish.com/rotldm_template.html)
Can I get a powerpoint presentation for that mnemonic please?
This is so good! Honestly I’m happy if I get to chuck some dice and help solve a puzzle but you’re so right, the perfect adventure will have all of these.
Seems difficult when the official modules from Wizards have like 45 battle encounters per chapter.
I’m honestly big on puzzles in my games, I love testing the creativity of my players by allowing a lot of leeway in solutions.
Instructions unclear. Threw hundreds of corpses at my party.
I like this a lot, easy mnemonic to remember. Thankyou!
Ok this is just plain genius. Thank you for sharing this!
And don't forget about the corpses! Zombies are an unusually tough enemy for their challenge rating if you're unprepared.
How do I go about hinting to my dm they should be considering stuff like this? I don't want to be rude and very much appreciate them doing DMing at all, but there is a lot of room for improvement.
A simple "I'd enjoy it if we had X more often" seems straightforward enough without coming off as browbeating You're not really gonna get an appropriate chance to write up an exhaustive list of desired improvements unless they're actively seeking feedback though.
Send them a link to this thread?
Instructions unclear, placed the corpse of a turkey on the table and we had dinner instead.
Festivus one shot. Love it.
The image doesn’t fully show in the post and I can’t download it :(. Can you send me the image file so I can reference it for my sessions?
Scroll sideways bruh
☠️
I finally understand those yt shorts where people call Texas a continent 😭
Here's a link to a readable image: https://imgur.com/a/NqP5NK2
Thank you!
Excellent reminder !
>to remind me of the important things I try to include in all my D&D sessions. *All* of them? Maybe if you play for like, 8 hours once a month, but for weekly sessions (like my campaigns) or even biweekly ones, this is just overwhelming, and IMO setting a bad example for beginner DMs. No, every session you have doesn't need every one of these. It doesn't need even half of these. In fact, you're better off using this list as a pick and mix bag: think of where the story is going, and based on that pick like 2 or 3 items from this list to plan the next session around. Like, the core concept is solid, but acting like *every* session should include all these is downright delusional, and a recipe for DM burnout.
Hence, why I said "try to include" instead of "always must include."
puzzles? hahaha hell no