Speeding Up The Game

[MagicPegasus]

The best idea I've seen is to have dice roll results predeturmined. This could be particularily useful when the GM is running many NPCs. What I would suggest is that for all NPCs, the GM could mark down on there character sheets the average damage from each of his or her attacks. And also a high-low variation which would have the average x1.20 and the average x0.80. When it's +/- 20% the 0.5 roundoffs are rare and generate easier numbers to work with.

 

Examples:

Fire Blast: 12d6 EB (Ave: 42/12, Hi: 50/14, Low: 34/10)

Fire Flash: 6d6 Flash (6" radius) (Ave: 6, Hi: 7, Low: 5)

Heat Burst: 4d6 EB (NND, 4" radius) (Ave: 14, Hi: 17, Low: 11)

15 STR Thug w/ Baseball Bat: +3HA (OAF) (Ave: 21/6, Hi: 25/7, Low: 17/5)

Agent w/ Laser: 2 1/2d6 RKA (AP, OAF) (Ave: 23/9 Hi: 28/11, Lo: 19/7)

 

For a STUN Multiplier use x2.67 if you are using the standard 1d6-1 (minimum of 1) rule. This is the average rolled on this STUN Multiplier.

 

To deturmine if the amount of damage just roll 1d6 and use this chart:

Roll Effect

1 or 2 Low

3 or 4 Ave

5 or 6 Hi

 

This way you just roll to hit and roll 1d6 to deturmine damage. It's very quick. And if you got a supervillain team of 5 and 8 agents and your up against 6 heroes this will speed things up alot. Heroes could use this system too at there discretion. Now if you has just 1 very powerfull supervillain fighting the 6 heroes then the GM doesn't need the hi/low damage system so much and could use it at there discretion.

 

This is one idea for speeding up the game. Please post here if you have other ones.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

In my experience, the element that slows down the game the most is players waiting until it's their turn to act before starting the think about what they want to do, and then taking a long time to decide. I realized this because of the Challenge of the Super Friends games I've run at Bay Area conventions several times.

 

In CotSF, one of the "house rules" for enforcing the feel of the cartoon is that during combat, every character must immediately make a soliloquy as soon as their Phase comes up. If they don't have a soliloquy ready to go when it's their turn, then they lose their action. (You get no screen time if you have nothing to say!)

 

Although I did this to make it feel cartoony, not to speed up combat, it did speed up combat immensely. Because it had the side effect of making the players prepared to act when their action came around.

 

Forcing the characters to make soliloquies wouldn't be appropriate for every game, but you could implement some variation of the "you must be ready to go when it's your turn, or you risk losing your action" element. Perhaps a 20-second time limit or something like that, with each player allowed a couple of "time-outs" per session for using when the tactical situation is particularly tricky.

 

Or, if the majority of the players buy into the idea of using quick action to speed up the game, simple peer pressure to keep things rolling can do the trick just as well.

[Dr. Rune]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

Something we came up with in our group was to roll just four dice, three of one color and one of another. The three were the 'to hit' dice, the fourth was the 'damage dice'. The damage dice is then multiplied by however many D6 the character has in the power to determine both stun and body. This saves time in that you don't have to count out, roll, then count up a bunch of dice. Ex: The Emissary is going to blast Archon with his eye beams, which are 15d6. The rolls a two, three and four on his 'to hit dice', which hits and his damage dice comes up a 5. Multiplying 15 by 5 give you 75. 75 stun and 15 (as a 5 is one body, multiplied by the damage dice) body. If he would have rolled a 6 on the damage dice it would have been 90 stun and 30 body (since 6s are 2 body). If he would have rolled a 1 it would have been 15 stun, 0 body. Now, while this does tend to do either very high, or very low damage, it has cut down on all the dice rolling and can also end a combat pretty quickly.

 

Doc

[THartman]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

Or get a PDA or programmable calculator and get/write a program that has all the xD6 rolls you need. I have an HP28s and when I was in college, I wrote a pair of champs die-roller programs for it. Just put in a number and then hit the '*KA' or the 'Blast' button and it would roll and total up stun and body. No counting. And then there was a quick button for the omnipresent 3D6 to-hits and action tests.

 

There's a couple of die-rollers out there for PalmOS which, if memory servs, actually support Champions rolls. Rolling goes a lot faster when you can let an electronic device count for you.

 

Dr. Rune's method is fairly close, in a way, to the way Dream Pod 9's Silhouette rules work.

 

-T

[MagicPegasus]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

I like the idea of a player being ready at the start of his turn. A 20 sec time limit with 2 time outs in a game session for complex questions and answers. If you don't go quick you loose your turn. Or maybe if you go too slow your character gets a -2 OCV, -2 DCV penalty for that phase. Players won't want the penalty so they'll go quicker.

[Vondy]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

I have a player who used a dice rolling utility to pre-generate 100 3d6 rolls and 100 damage rolls before every session. He'd just hand it to me when he showed up and let me apply them as his character took actions in the game. If he wanted to push or haymaker he'd just roll the extra damage dice in session. It caught on with all of my players (in terms of damage rolls, at least). A few of them still wanted to do their 3d6 rolls themselves, which was fine with me.

[MitchellS]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

Something we came up with in our group was to roll just four dice, three of one color and one of another. The three were the 'to hit' dice, the fourth was the 'damage dice'. The damage dice is then multiplied by however many D6 the character has in the power to determine both stun and body. This saves time in that you don't have to count out, roll, then count up a bunch of dice. Ex: The Emissary is going to blast Archon with his eye beams, which are 15d6. The rolls a two, three and four on his 'to hit dice', which hits and his damage dice comes up a 5. Multiplying 15 by 5 give you 75. 75 stun and 15 (as a 5 is one body, multiplied by the damage dice) body. If he would have rolled a 6 on the damage dice it would have been 90 stun and 30 body (since 6s are 2 body). If he would have rolled a 1 it would have been 15 stun, 0 body. Now, while this does tend to do either very high, or very low damage, it has cut down on all the dice rolling and can also end a combat pretty quickly.

 

Doc

We used a method very similar to this for a long time and it did speed up combat immensely. Our GM gave each player a chart with the damage. 1 was 1x Stun .5 Body, 2 was 2x Stun .75 Body, 3 was 3x Stun 1x Body, 4 was 4x Stun 1x Body, 5 was 5x Stun 1.25 Body, 6 was 6x Stun 1.5 Body. The chart looked something like this:

 

Roll 12d6

1 12/6

2 24/9

3 36/12

4 48/12

5 60/15

6 72/18

[JMHammer]

Palm OS Die Roller

 

I've been using Dice Pro for Palm OS for a while. It has all the Hero System die rolls preset for you and is also completely customizable.

 

http://www.rivalgamelabs.com/

 

Best wishes,

John H

 

edit: And it's free.

[BNakagawa]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

Something we came up with in our group was to roll just four dice, three of one color and one of another. The three were the 'to hit' dice, the fourth was the 'damage dice'. The damage dice is then multiplied by however many D6 the character has in the power to determine both stun and body. This saves time in that you don't have to count out, roll, then count up a bunch of dice. Ex: The Emissary is going to blast Archon with his eye beams, which are 15d6. The rolls a two, three and four on his 'to hit dice', which hits and his damage dice comes up a 5. Multiplying 15 by 5 give you 75. 75 stun and 15 (as a 5 is one body, multiplied by the damage dice) body. If he would have rolled a 6 on the damage dice it would have been 90 stun and 30 body (since 6s are 2 body). If he would have rolled a 1 it would have been 15 stun, 0 body. Now, while this does tend to do either very high, or very low damage, it has cut down on all the dice rolling and can also end a combat pretty quickly.

 

Doc

 

I see, you've sped up combat by implementing a stun lottery for Normal attacks.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

I see' date=' you've sped up combat by implementing a stun lottery for Normal attacks.[/quote']

 

Funny that, for all the threads on how KA's have a big advantage due to the stun multiple, we never see the suggestion of a similar lottery approach for normal attacks. This would definitely change the flow of combat making it a lot more random, though.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

The idea is not without some merit. The major objection I have with the Stun Lottery as implemented is that it allows Killing Attacks to do more Stun than attacks designed to do Stun. I feel Killing attacks should do more BODY but no more Stun than a normal attack. And certainly a Stun Lottery for normal attacks would well reflect the broad variation for damage seen in the comic/adventure source material. It might not work for more realistic games, but it might work in Champions or pulp-style games.

 

Another thing we've been doing in our last few game runs is to use maps. Having a good diagram with the PCs and villain's locations clearly marked each Phase helps everyone keep much better track of what they're doing, and prevents those annoying and time-delaying "Oh, I thought Bad Guy™ was still behind that dump truck." I've whipped up blank offset square sheets in 1", 1/2", 1/4", and 1/8" sizes, and can draw on them with ink or using Paint or Photoshop on the computer. Tonight we had a battle that took place in a 68 hex long chamber, and it all fit on one 8½ X 11 sheet of letter paper. And using a ruler let us quickly move characters; each 10" of movement was 1¼" on the paper. And putting the sheets in Document protectors and marking locations with dry erase board really worked well.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

"Mook rules" help for large combats involving lots of nameless grunts. If they're not important to the story, don't give them Recoveries, and/or let them go down and stay down after taking a solid hit, regardless of what their Stun or Body total may be.

 

Make up a chart listing the Speeds and Action Phases for all the principle PCs and NPCs you'll be using in a run. Instead of calling out DEX ranks you can just name who goes when by reading it off the chart.

 

If two characters have equal DEX and SPD, instead of rolling to see who acts first give the first action to the character with the higher INT score. Since INT in HERO is a measure of processing speed it makes sense, and also gives value to each point of INT.

[cutsleeve]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

On the stun lottery thing with the KA's i dont see why you dont just reverse the stun and body counting.

 

Example:

 

Normal attacks

Stun The amount rolled equals the amount of stun

Body Count all rolls that are 1 as 0 and 2-5 as 1 and 6's as 2 total this up for the body result

 

Killing attacks

Body The amount rolled on the dice equals the amount of body

Stun Count all rolls that are 1 as 0 and 2-5 as 1 and 6's as 2 total this up Roll 1d6-1 multiply this result by the amount you gained from the roll and you have your Stun total.

 

This method means you will never get a stun result higher then the amount for an equal DC normal attack unless you buy an increased Stun multiple. It also makes the Stun much lower which means normal attacks are now king of Stun again. Another effect is that it will make the killing attack a little more balanced in comparison to the normal attack. This is mainly because normal pd and ed doesnt protect against killing damage except in stun and thats only if you have at least a little resistant defences.

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I do like the idea of telling players to decide their actions before their turn is up. I would be a bit more lenient then just saying you lose your turn though but thats just me. I would let them know i dont expect to sit more then 2 or 3 minutes while they decide.

 

You might think about rewards for people who do actually give you their characters actions promptly. Say a reduction on any penalties incurred by the attack by say 1 point.

 

hope this post made a bit of sense.

[HuntMaster]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

1) At least have an idea of what you are going to do when your turn come around.

 

2) Know how many dice you roll (and have them out). Instead of counting body, just look for the 1s and 6s. (If I know my attack is 13d and I see 3 sixs and 2 1s I am +1 for body, IE 14).

[ghost-angel]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

One thing I did for a Cyberpunk style game was enforce a 20second Decision Rule for combat, I used a stopwatch.

 

I wanted a rushed feeling to combat that comes with adrenaline and such.. It worked remarkably well. Players made plenty of tactical errors, that they would probably make in real life without the "top down" view we get on the table. No real time to take in Everything..

 

I did the following research in 1996, don't know what's changed since then.

 

The average "Street Fight" lasts between 15-30 seconds, has from 1 to 10 shots fired, under poor coniditions with bad lighting, at a 30 yard distance. Fatalities are low (fatality = any injury, not death). Averaging just under 20%.

 

For fights where distance is reduced to 15 yards, fatalities jump to 50%.

 

For fights where trained indivduals are involved (police, etc..) there are less rounds fired and more fatalities, 1-8 rounds with about 30% fatalities.

 

These figures were taken from published police records for the cities of Las Angeles, Albuquerque, New York, Dertoit and Boston. They were for recorded firefights from 1985-1995.

 

I have no recollection where I got the info from though, it wasn't the 'net, it was some report i ran across looking for shipping lanes and records... by pure accident. I don't remember if the distance was how the report broke down, of if that was the average distance between combatants..

 

But, with all that in mind, the 20 Second Rule seemed to fit for RolePlaying Purposes and added a suitable amount of tension to combat, and greatly sped up acting out combat.

[TheEmerged]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

We tried pre-determined dice, but the players decided it didn't "feel fun enough".

 

I do use a variant of the "mook rules", and recommend it. Mooks fall on a good "low dice" (8d6 in my campaign) hit or an average "nominal dice" (12d6 for us) hit. Higher level mooks take two hits.

 

I have found that switching from hexes and just using a whitepad & a tape ruler with miniatures sped things up *dramatically*. The only thing that isn't working to my satisfaction is turn mode for flight, and I can live with that right now.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

We tried pre-determined dice, but the players decided it didn't "feel fun enough".

 

I do use a variant of the "mook rules", and recommend it. Mooks fall on a good "low dice" (8d6 in my campaign) hit or an average "nominal dice" (12d6 for us) hit. Higher level mooks take two hits.

 

I have found that switching from hexes and just using a whitepad & a tape ruler with miniatures sped things up *dramatically*. The only thing that isn't working to my satisfaction is turn mode for flight, and I can live with that right now.

 

Here's what I'd do... get a protactor and make a "Turn Angle" since each turn on a hex map would be 60 degrees, make a bent peice of something - probably cardboard with the angle cut out - and when a character is turning you line that up with the direction their going and adjust the ruler/tape measure along to the new line for continued movement.

 

Not perfect, but doable.

[JmOz]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

This might seem odd: Make all defences divisible by 5 (10 is faster but you loose alot of scale)

[DoctorItron]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

I experimented with an alternate to the SPD charts in today's session. My plan was to speed up combat and add a little uncertainity to "playing the SPD chart".

 

[/understatement mode on]It was not good. Segments flowed much quicker, but we also needed 36 segments for a combat that would ordinarily finish in around 15 segments.

 

Next week we're back to the SPD chart.

[BNakagawa]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

Funny that' date=' for all the threads on how KA's have a big advantage due to the stun multiple, we never see the suggestion of a similar lottery approach for normal attacks. This would definitely change the flow of combat making it a lot more random, though.[/quote']

 

I suggest it all the time. I just don't mean it. I mean, if such a thing were to be implemented, I'd never play a brick ever again.

[JohnTaber]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

I do a few things...all of these are very simple...some have already been mentioned...

 

Idea #1 - Buy a big rubber d12. Put it in front of the GM screen and turn it as the phases elapse. It keeps the players from always asking for the phase.

 

Idea #2 - Never roll 1d6 EVERY phase when characters are tied with the same Dex. Roll 1d6 for the ENTIRE combat or even the entire game before combat starts. After the roll is determined sort the sheets in the right order (i.e. see below).

 

Idea #3 - Have the players sit in Dex order around the table. Helps the GM know where to look.

 

Idea #4 - Make copies of the villains AND the heroes. Put them in Dex/Spd order with the highest on top. Just flip through them as the phases roll by. The character on top has the action. If the sheets are in plastic or on notecards you can simply use a overhead marker to update the End and Stun.

 

Idea #5 - Give the player a rough time limit of 20 to 30 sec to decide what to do. If they don't respond in a reasonable amount of time start verbally counting down from 5. For example, "5"..."4"..."3"..."2"..."1". If they don't respond you skip their turn or if you are nice you have them automatically hold their action.

 

I use these ideas and they work great! After doing it for 20 years the players expect it...

[JohnTaber]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

Idea #1 - Buy a big rubber d12. Put it in front of the GM screen and turn it as the phases elapse. It keeps the players from always asking for the phase.

 

Looks what I just found on the web...I'm gonna order one...I'll let everyone know what it is like...

Big Foam D12

[DoctorItron]

Re: Speeding Up The Game

 

Looks what I just found on the web...I'm gonna order one...I'll let everyone know what it is like...

Big Foam D12

 

Did I read the dice size correcttly? 8"?

 

You can use it sort of like a GM screen, hiding your d6 rolls behinds the big foam d12