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I just did the first round of the latest combat in my campaign, and it took me about an hour to work it all out; roll the dice, assemble the post, etc. How long does it take you guys? I get faster on subsequent rounds within the same combat, but I'm surprised at how long it takes me.

Any tips that anyone can give on making it go faster?

ToniXX wrote:Any tips that anyone can give on making it work faster?

I may eventually try my hand at DM'ing again at some point so I'd be interested in answers to this as well.

I quote my last action post (removing the quote and /quote tags) and use that as my ongoing template. I usually try to keep a system going from that point: add a minute (in combat) or ten (in normal time) or whatever when I'm fast forwarding. Then I go from that last action post and assemble the party actions and the bad guy actions. Then I resolve. Oh yeah, as Ethan is quick to remind folks, I do that in WORD. I have my DM notes in WORD so I usually cut and paste the Action Post to the bottom of that so I can refer to my notes when resolving everything. It has gotten quicker the more I do it. I see folks doing more spartan notes, and some with more detail. I bet it would take Dave the same amount of time to do an action post as I and he is a big fan of linking. He'd probably link to the post that has the action he is resolving in his post. But again I'm sure once you get into a routined groove it gets quicker.
That's my very disorganized two coppers. I'll be back tomorrow morning with more I bet. Just finishing up the second job and typing this on my phone.

rredmond wrote:I bet it would take Dave the same amount of time to do an action post as I and he is a big fan of linking. He'd probably link to the post that has the action he is resolving in his post.

I do love linking! I hadn't thought about linking to each individual posts in my descriptions, but now that you mention it....

I also quote my last action (make sure to remove the quote tags). That helps keep the format of each post consistent. Then I use Word as well to put the post together: resolving actions, adding links to the dice roller (if necessary), etc. Then I copy/paste it into the new post and format it so that it looks nice in the forums.

The first round always takes the longest, ToniXX!


I also use the quote and update method to and from a Word document, AND a new doc for every round, as they get too long quick! Once you have the post outline and template all set up, it's a jiff to modify. It gets quicker as the rounds progress and makes for a consistent post for players and DMs as well.


Another thing that I have also done that really helps is what I do in my FtF games: bust out the pencil/pen and binder paper!

I list the PCs and all the baddies, with their respective AC, HPs, To Hit/Dam and Saving Throw bonuses/penalties (such as for when a Bless or Prayer spell is going), etc. You can also easily track initiatives, damage taken, arrows fired, etc. It boils down to one hard-copy reference for everything! No more having to opening multiple windows and it will save you immense time trying to go back in the past posts to add things up or reference how much damage a PC or NPC did rounds ago. Works for me, anyways!




(You know, I've got my Action posts down from what used to be well over 3 hours to just over an hour to an hour and a half now. Of course, there were like 25 good guys and 50 bad guys to start the current encounter and almost half the PCs and many of the bad guys were out of sight and posting/resolving the action via PM! Good stuff! )

Argennian wrote:You know, I've got my Action posts down from what used to be well over 3 hours to just over an hour to an hour and a half now.

I'm glad you chimed in. I was wondering how long it took with your novelesque approach.

Hell Mitch, if it didn't take least an hour and a half, I'd be upset.

I've been advised that, in PBP, you dispense with initiative and just assume that the PCs have initiative unless they're surprised. This eliminates some of the wait for player response.

Spiderdown wrote:I've been advised that, in PBP, you dispense with initiative and just assume that the PCs have initiative unless they're surprised. This eliminates some of the wait for player response.

I'd be hard-pressed to use that advice in a game. There are so many ways to run initiative; automatically giving the players first initiative every time hardly seems right.

The best way to eliminate the need to wait for player response is to have responsive players.

Maybe handle it this way:
At the start of combat, indicate all players have 24 hours (or whatever your indicated posting rate is) to make their initiative rolls and state their actions. Anyone who doesn't post during that time frame will perform a simple melee attack, regardless of class, and go last in the round.

At the very least, have the DM start off each round by rolling initiative for the monsters and the players and then call for player actions.

Hmmm... I just ran a pretty large combat scenario in my BRP setting, 3 PCs, 6 baddies, 4 NPCs. which involves the same amount of rolls as standard DnD with the addition of Dodge/parry checks, and even with mapping, I don't think it took an hour... the most teduius part is copy/pasting all of the dice rolls for NPCs and critters to the action thread.
Can't tell you what I'm doing different.

Spiderdown wrote:I've been advised that, in PBP, you dispense with initiative and just assume that the PCs have initiative unless they're surprised.

That is one way to do it, sure. It wouldn't by my personal choice, though. In my experience DMing on this board, initiative really hasn't been an issue.

Spiderdown wrote:This eliminates some of the wait for player response.

I don't see how. When a player checks in to post an action for their character, there's no reason they couldn't also add an initiative roll. The wait for a response from the player doesn't change.

When my game started, I had the players roll initiative. Eventually, I started to make the initiative rolls for both (or all) sides. Timing really isn't the issue; complication (for the DM) is.

For instance, I run 2E with uses a 1d10 for initiative, but the logic can easily be applied to any initiative system. For the player characters, I modify the base roll with their weapon speed/casting time to determine the slot in which that character will act. For the monsters, they'll use their base modifier by size if using natural weapons, or weapon speed if using weapons.

Here is how I handle it:

I had a separate 'Signature' thread in my game forum, in which I would list every weapon a character carried and its speed factor.

Knowing which weapon a character was using (or likely to use), I would simply list the characters in the order in which they would act, with the fastest on top (e.g. dagger before two-handed sword). I would list the monsters in the same list wherever they would fall (e.g. unmodified, a monster using a dagger would act as quickly as a character using a dagger).

Sample Situation

-4-
magic user (quarterstaff)

-5-
fighter 1 (longsword)

-6-
monster 1 (spear)
monster 2 (spear)
monster 3 (spear)

-7-
cleric (mace)

-10-
fighter 2 (two-handed sword)


If using group initiative (e.g. a single roll for the PCs and a single roll for the monsters), simply add the result of that roll to the above list.


Initiative Results
Player's: 7
Monsters: 3



Order of Action (after initiative)
-9-
monster 1 (spear)
monster 2 (spear)
monster 3 (spear)

-11-
magic user (quarterstaff)

-12-
fighter 1 (longsword)

-14-
cleric (mace)

-17-
fighter 2 (two-handed sword)

---

The monsters, acting more quickly, would act before the magic user and fighter 1 even though they have faster weapons.

---

Honestly, it's a pretty simple system. For the players (unless using individual initiative), only one player needs to make a roll (typically the first player to respond). The action is held up until all players have chimed in. Again, I found it easier, as the DM, to make all the initiative rolls myself. For one, I could wait to determine the initiative results until after all the actions have already been declared. A late-responding player controlling a magic user who would normally cast a spell in a particular situation might reconsider if they see that a fellow player, responding before them, already made a poor initiative roll.


Really, it takes a bit of time to settle into whatever system you're going to use, but you'll pretty quickly learns what works best for you (as a DM) and your overall group.

My very strong view, supported by experience, is that a PbP game that drags is one that dies. As such, players need to sacrifice a bit of control for purposes of keeping the game moving.

1. I insist on 24 hours, hopefully less, and am absolutely merciless when it comes to NPCing unresponsive players. Players can of course have "default" actions and I try to play the character intelligently. I also kick out players who are not responsive, per Al's point above.

2. I also do all the rolling except for those rolls generated by the players' stated actions (e.g., hit/damage, spell effects). As part of this, I roll saves for players if they are hit by an attack that requires a save (e.g., spell or ghast paralysis). I also make any rolls that a player forgot to make based on their stated actions. The idea is that everything that happens in a round gets resolved by me once all players have posted.

3. I absolutely roll initiative and surprise.

4. I don't show the players the dice rolls that I make, as I cannot be bothered to cut and paste. I never fudge for monsters and very rarely fudge for players.

5. I keep running monster rosters on a Word file and update them as the game goes by.