Getting a group of people together to play D&D can be difficult. This is especially true in when everyone has full-time jobs, significant others, and other competing pressures. I’ve noticed that my gaming habits haven’t changed all that much since when I had massive amounts of free time. When I sit down for a game it always seems to take longer than I thought. When the group is having fun, we’ll push on and play a few more encounters or explore that next level of the dungeon.
On one hand, if everyone wants to keep playing – then what’s the harm? But I wonder whether the game would be just as fun if encounters didn’t last as long. When we sit down to play a game of 4e, my group will play for five to seven hours. That’s a lot of time to devote. I can tell by the end of the session that people are fading, but nobody wants to stop before they finally get that last door open. A couple of sessions ago, I finally put my foot down and stopped the game in the middle of the climactic fight. During the five to six hours of play time we generally complete about 5 encounters (fights/skill challenges). Of course there is some time spent doing other things besides getting through encounters including gathering information from NPCs, discussing where to go and what to do next, and general non-game distractions.
Less Encounters
Good editing is hard to come by, and it’s especially difficult to edit your own work. I have found myself grabbing on to a juicy hook unknowingly provided by one of my players and building a quest into the campaign based on it. I don’t mean for it to last more than a session, but I have a page in front of me that has seven encounters on it! At first glance, it really doesn’t seem like too much right? In my enthusiasm I end up charging ahead with it.
Most good creative endeavors start with a period of brainstorming where lots of ideas are accepted, and then a period of editing where the best ones are retained. Can I cut those seven encounters down to four or five? Of course I can. But once it’s outlined on my page, it’s very difficult to do! The key here is to find two encounters that are serving the same purpose and combine them. Get rid of that red herring. Have the enemy talk to the players in the middle of the fight! There’s no reason to require a skill challenge or role-play encounter before or after. Tighten up your game!
Use a Timer
I’ve pulled the timer from our old Pictionary game and tried it out as a motivation tool with my group. It had some mixed results. Some of the players really enjoyed the extra pressure, but others really just weren’t quite practiced enough. I’ve kicked this idea around in my head and there are a lot of options. You can give each player a specific amount of time. You can give the whole group a specific amount of time. You can let everyone go together in initiative and time them all.
The question is – what happens when time runs out? Do you simply cut them off and move on with initiative? Do you play their nine enemies in the same amount of time? Do you require all dice to be rolled and resolved when time is out – or is the timer simply for decision making? Keeping encounters down to about 45 minutes each instead of an hour or 75 minutes can both save time and keep the excitement level high.
Cut back on the HP
A frequent solution to long combat encounters in 4e is to cut down monster hit points by 25% to even 50%. I’ve been very hesitant to do this myself, as I still feel like I am getting the hang of what types of combat encounters will challenge players without practically guaranteeing that one or more of them will die. To keep the encounters challenging when the monsters have less hit points, you’ll need to dial up the damage output a bit as well.
I don’t have any perfect formulas for balancing out the entertaining tactical elements of the encounter and ensuring that the fight is still an appropriate challenge, but I don’t see any reason why you can’t start small. My suggestion: cut monster hit points by 25% and increase the damage die they use to deal damage. As with anything, it will depend on the strength and combination of players in the group, and trial and error should help you drop the time each encounter takes.
Stop fighting to the death
Without strong rules for morale, whether enemies fight to the last hit point is a function of GM preference and the motivations of those enemies. I’ve heard some GMs will practically always end a fight the moment they feel it’s played itself out and the outcome is inevitable. I know other GMs will keep throwing monsters at the players until each and every one of them is slain. This can be tricky because sometimes the players are going to feel cheated if the enemies keep running away. Also, if you allow the players to capture enemies every right, you can also be assured they’re going to use every trick in the book (including torture) to get every last drop of information out of them. While this can be interesting every once in awhile, it can certainly grow old and make designing interesting adventurers more difficult.
Still, there’s no harm in ending a combat encounter here and there a little earlier by having those last remaining enemies, who are no doubt over-matched and hopeless by the end of the encounter, surrender or run away.
Do any of you have suggestions for cutting down on time without sacrificing on fun?
At the age of eight JackOfHearts was invited to play Dungeons & Dragons during summer camp by kids that were much cooler than him. When he wasn't working on the family farm or practicing tennis, he spent much of his teen years reading fantasy novels and playing games of the role playing, collectible card, tabletop, and video varieties. He's now a nine-to-fiver who never forgot the joy of descending into a tomb for forgotten treasures. 
All great ideas! I know I am certainly guilty of your example under “Less encounters” and need to edit myself much more.
Another thought on “Stop fighting to the death” is that if you are worried about the enemies always running away or always being captured and tortured for information, then don’t. Only the GM knows the hit points (typically). And if a fight should just be called, but the monster has 10 hit points left, just let him die anyway. Now, if you have players who keep rigorous track of all damage dealt and from when the monster is bloodied calculate it all out, you might need to let them know what you are doing. But if you explain, “Hey, if we can cut the last 10 minutes of boring slog form the end of 4 or 5 encounters, then we can fit an entire extra encounter in.”
But I definitely call fights early all the time (might need to consider less hp or something). It can just get so anticlimactic when all the encounter powers, and dailies people want to use are used up, and everyone if just at-willing the thing for 2 or 3 rounds. Sometimes sending in reinforcements makes it exciting, but only when used rarely. Usually, once the end is pretty inevitable and interest is waning, I go into “next big hit will finish it” mode and hope for a dramatic roll so that it can end on a high note.
Something I don’t see discussed a lot with this issue is the use of the Intimidate skill. I don’t have the book in front of me, but I believe that once an opponent is bloodied, you can attempt an Intimidate vs. Will to make that opponent submit or flee. A fighter or two can motivate a lot of those lesser enemies out of the battle in fairly short order.
I’m sure there are some morale rules that can be extrapolated from this interaction.
I agree completely. I’m one of those older gamers, with a wife, a full-time job, and other hobbies to support. Giving up 5-6 hours on a weekend to roll dice is a big deal and requires that the group coordinates a location, food, and what time everyone should arrive.
I’ve found that when I play with smaller groups, we get a lot more done. My ideal group is 3-4 players. The ideal session should be 3 encounters: a basic “warm-up” fight that serves as the hook, a skill challenge, and the final boss battle loaded with entertaining gimmicks.
My current group could probably burn through 2 encounters in an hour with time left over for roleplay.
It took me a while to fine tune the tweaks but I’ve cobbled together a system that maximizes fun, while streamlining the drag.
First, everyone always does max damage, unless specified otherwise in their power (as in a Miss effect that does half damage). That includes monsters.
When a crit is rolled, weapon dice are rolled and added to the max. Weapons with high crit (or is it brutal) as a keyword roll their weapon dice twice. Also, dice are rolled for the extra d6s that players get from magic items on crits.
That cuts down on the dice rolling, which speeds things up. It prevents someone rolling a 19 with their daily and snake-eyes on the damage, which also speeds things up. And it has the same effect as reducing hit points on the monsters, while not making encounters a cakewalk for the PCs. If anything, combat is more intense.
A monster crit can really turn the tide.
Another thing I do is having monsters run away. Not all of them do. Skeletons and such just don’t have that built into their OS. But Kobolds, Goblins and most other monsters can recognize when their number’s up and have no problem high-tailing it. It’s up to the players to find a way to prevent an enemy from escaping. That’s just as tactical as taking the high ground.
I also adjust the solos somewhat. I lower their defenses by -1, their HP by 30% and up their damage by 1/2 their level. I usually give them some sort of attack or damage increase when bloodied as well. It makes them more Boss-like, as in an RPG, which I’ve found to be fun.
I also use LOTS of minions. I don’t keep monsters around if they’re dropped to 1 HP and the fight’s decided. Some just die. Others pretend to be dead or lose consciousness.
Mike Mearls suggests making artillery monsters into minions once their frontline has gone. I haven’t had a chance to test this yet because my artillery monsters tend to flee once the frontline is defeated.
And another technique I’ve used is setting up events at various turn counts. Some beneficial to the party, some not. So, say I’ve written that the Kobolds get reinforcements on Round 3. I’ll take a ten-sider and announce that when the die counts down to zero something will happen.
Each turn I drop the die by one, until it reaches zero. At that point, I place reinforcements entering the battle.
I also set up some things with terrain once in a while. Nominally for the players to exploit. But if the players don’t then I have the monsters do it.
@Scott: Thanks for the suggestions! I may give these a try and see how they work out.