I have a campaign with two players, one of which takes agonizingly long to make decisions, counts and recounts squares, debates with his fellow Rebel player and generally takes about 2-3 times as long as everyone else.

We played Imperial Hospitality and it took OVER 4 hours!!! That scenario should really take 2.5 tops.

Hes a nice guy but this slow pace is going to kill our campaign.

How do you guys deal with this?

Set a timer.

Seriously, he gets one minute to make his decision.

Alternately, announce before the game begins that if they take too long to decide (and quantify what "too long" is) you will allow an imperial unit interrupt to perform an attack or for each extra minute they take to decide how long to do things you'll add a threat to the dial.

Lots of discussion about this topic can be found in this thread:

How many Rebel heroes are there?

I love 4 hero 2 Rebel player games, because the Rebels have a lot to do. It can take forever, though, because they have to run twice as many heroes as in a 4 hero 4 player game.

We often had missions run 3-4 hours in my last campaign because of this. I'd say overanalyzing didn't help, either. Basically, I've just suggested using a timer. I hope I didn't hurt my analysis-paralysis player's feelings, but it seems to have helped without me even having to make good on my timer suggestion.

25 minutes ago, BlodVargarna said:

I have a campaign with two players, one of which takes agonizingly long to make decisions, counts and recounts squares, debates with his fellow Rebel player and generally takes about 2-3 times as long as everyone else.

We played Imperial Hospitality and it took OVER 4 hours!!! That scenario should really take 2.5 tops.

Hes a nice guy but this slow pace is going to kill our campaign.

How do you guys deal with this?

Several options, feel free to combine them too:

1. like zrob said above, impose a timer. I've had success imposing 1min to make a decision, bonus +1 if mission event triggers, bonus +1 if new round, 3min if start of mission

2. explain to him that going all AP (analysis paralysis) is killing the campaign

3. I allow takebacks as long as no new information (dice roll, mission triggers, unit activation) has been revealed, tell them "just get the game going already!"

4. explain to him that IA isn't a chess game where every move matters because of the hidden information. Their plans WILL get messed up/disrupted so again, "just get the game going already!"

5. (only if you're experienced): tell them that campaign is supposed to be a story-based fun experience. If they want to go all cutthroat then I'll also go cutthroat, but otherwise I'll just play for some lighthearted fun. This works wonders for newbie players

Lastly you didn't say but are you playing with 4 Rebel heroes?

1 minute ago, subtrendy2 said:

I'd say overanalyzing didn't help, either. Basically, I've just suggested using a timer.

In some of my campaigns in the past we have used a timer to help speed things along. I usually play as the Imperial player but even when I've played as one of the Rebel players, I can appreciate the timer helping to speed things along. We've used the timer both ways for both the Rebels and the Imperial to help keep the game moving.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Yes we’re playing 2 Rebel players 4 Heroes.

I think a gentle word and timer is going to have to be the first step.

I'd use a timer for all players - Rebs and Imp - to keep things as "gentle" as possible.

In playing Star Wars Miniatures my friend thought I took way to long and I knew he wasn't as fast as he thought he was. So we got some 30 second timers and had a penalty of losing an activation (opposing players choice) if the timer ran out before you declared your move/attack. It's amazing how much time 30 seconds can be under these circumstances.

I seem to recall a line in the rules that states if the Rebels are taking too long to decide the Imperial player can choose one rebel to make the decision. Technically you could make your AP player defer to the other.

That’s another suggestion that could go south though... taking the decision making away from a player.

On 10/27/2017 at 5:10 PM, Uninvited Guest said:

That’s another suggestion that could go south though... taking the decision making away from a player.

Yeah, I think alpha gaming is already a serious concern for some campaigns- that could be totally demotivating.

45 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

Yeah, I think alpha gaming is already a serious concern for some campaigns- that could be totally demotivating.

In our group, having a time limit actually helps alleviate this. If time runs out, the player controlling the hero must decide what to do - can't look to the alpha gamer to make the decision for them.

4 minutes ago, machfalcon said:

In our group, having a time limit actually helps alleviate this. If time runs out, the player controlling the hero must decide what to do - can't look to the alpha gamer to make the decision for them.

That's a smart move!

I don't see what's the problem. You, the imperial, should actually be the guy that requires more time than rebels. They have 2-4 parallel brains, you have only 1 brain. If you think less then them either you can easily over-smart them (and this would also explain why they are always forced to take important decisions) or you don't think enough your moves. This is a chess type of game, people used to play chess matches by post in the time period of several years. If you play just for the sake of moving pieces on a board, that's what kills the game. Thinking is a good 80% of this game, 20% is setting up the board and putting pieces back in the box at the end.

46 minutes ago, Golan Trevize said:

I don't see what's the problem. You, the imperial, should actually be the guy that requires more time than rebels. They have 2-4 parallel brains, you have only 1 brain.

See, I think that's exactly the issue, though.

Maybe not all groups are like this, but it's not hard for the Rebels to start overanalyzing each others' moves, therefore making every single Rebel turn an event that up to four individual people offer their input on. As the Empire (and owner of the game), it's easier for me to plan my turns ahead and complete them without interference. The Empire is (accidentally thematically) totalitarian. The Rebels get all the red tape that comes with teamwork and a bit of democracy.

5 hours ago, Golan Trevize said:

I don't see what's the problem. You, the imperial, should actually be the guy that requires more time than rebels. They have 2-4 parallel brains, you have only 1 brain. If you think less then them either you can easily over-smart them (and this would also explain why they are always forced to take important decisions) or you don't think enough your moves.

From my experience it actually goes the opposite way, because:

I am the more experienced player

I know exactly what I can do with my troops

Rebel side? If you control Diala then knowing what Diala can do is not enough: maybe Gideon over there can give you an extra surge? Maybe Fenn over there can give you extra movements so you don't have to strain-move?

So as Rebel unless you know what everyone else have at all times, you need to discuss what is possible as a team. Even if you do memorize everyone's ability there's still the risk of being an alpha gamer

Another option would be to give all your Rebels +1 Speed, that would make them faster right?

We played Indebted tonight. I wrote up a brief narrative before the game to introduce some urgency: the Rebels were sending bombers to destroy the compound. A particularly callous Rebel Intelligence Officer ordered the strike, General Weiss’s weapons program needed to be stopped at all cost.

The Rebel team went in anyway to rescue Garkaan’s buddy. I set a 2 hour timer and each turn I would tell them the bombers were getting closer. It had the required effect. The Rebels won on turn 5 in an hour and a half.

Speeding up play made the sense of urgency of the game more compelling and we finished in decent time.

Wow, wow, wow. I'm going to borrow this for the next session. (pretty sure I'll give it back in less than 2 hours )

1 hour ago, juice man said:

Wow, wow, wow. I'm going to borrow this for the next session. (pretty sure I'll give it back in less than 2 hours )

there's always the rising water gambit( hurry or you'll drown)

1 hour ago, DarthJak said:

there's always the rising water gambit( hurry or you'll drown)

I just had flashbacks of Sonic, complete with that very panicky “YOU’RE ABOUT TO DROWN!!!” music.

I recently finished the core campaign, with a situation similar to the OP. Alpha is a power player...with the other players characters. Bravo is a solid player, but can get distracted with details. Charlie is a first timer, and is cripplingly indecisive. Delta...missed several games, but has a good grasp of the game.
Alpha can be very take-charge when the other players are activating their characters. Go here, attack that, interact with this, recover strain, do this...the guy plans other players moves like a military campaign. But when his own turn comes about, he hems and haws and 'What should I do?', or 'Do you guys think this is a good idea?', and generally slows the game right down. Bravo will occasionally do the same, slipping into over analysis of each move, but can be counted on to hustle when things are lagging. Charlie...needs hand-holding. He is a new player, and is concerned about making the wrong move at the wrong time. While the group is very helpful in assisting him, he does tend to take quite a while to settle on a plan of action.

Towards the end of the campaign, I made mention that for the next campaign, I may invest in a one minute hourglass. And that if players were taking too long, the hourglass would start. If the player hadn't settled on an action or actions by the time the hourglass expired, then their character would take no actions, but still count as activated.

3 hours ago, LugWrench said:

I recently finished the core campaign, with a situation similar to the OP. Alpha is a power player...with the other players characters. Bravo is a solid player, but can get distracted with details. Charlie is a first timer, and is cripplingly indecisive. Delta...missed several games, but has a good grasp of the game.
Alpha can be very take-charge when the other players are activating their characters. Go here, attack that, interact with this, recover strain, do this...the guy plans other players moves like a military campaign. But when his own turn comes about, he hems and haws and 'What should I do?', or 'Do you guys think this is a good idea?', and generally slows the game right down. Bravo will occasionally do the same, slipping into over analysis of each move, but can be counted on to hustle when things are lagging. Charlie...needs hand-holding. He is a new player, and is concerned about making the wrong move at the wrong time. While the group is very helpful in assisting him, he does tend to take quite a while to settle on a plan of action.

Towards the end of the campaign, I made mention that for the next campaign, I may invest in a one minute hourglass. And that if players were taking too long, the hourglass would start. If the player hadn't settled on an action or actions by the time the hourglass expired, then their character would take no actions, but still count as activated.

This can be tricky especially for the inexperienced guy. When you're playing against a superior Imperial player where eve a couple bad decisions will cause you to lose the campaign, then trying to rush them will make it feel like you're purposefully setting them up for failure and probably reduce the chance of them wanting to play. I've had this both way as Imperial Player with groups much less strategic than me and as Rebel player playing against an Imperial player that was running circles around us.

I'd try and prevent analysis paralysis, and maybe control the amount of OOT conversations going on that slow the game, but I wouldn't want to rush people from making decisions, especially if they're less experienced.

8 hours ago, LugWrench said:

I recently finished the core campaign, with a situation similar to the OP. Alpha is a power player...with the other players characters. Bravo is a solid player, but can get distracted with details. Charlie is a first timer, and is cripplingly indecisive. Delta...missed several games, but has a good grasp of the game.
Alpha can be very take-charge when the other players are activating their characters. Go here, attack that, interact with this, recover strain, do this...the guy plans other players moves like a military campaign. But when his own turn comes about, he hems and haws and 'What should I do?', or 'Do you guys think this is a good idea?', and generally slows the game right down. Bravo will occasionally do the same, slipping into over analysis of each move, but can be counted on to hustle when things are lagging. Charlie...needs hand-holding. He is a new player, and is concerned about making the wrong move at the wrong time. While the group is very helpful in assisting him, he does tend to take quite a while to settle on a plan of action.

Towards the end of the campaign, I made mention that for the next campaign, I may invest in a one minute hourglass. And that if players were taking too long, the hourglass would start. If the player hadn't settled on an action or actions by the time the hourglass expired, then their character would take no actions, but still count as activated.

Ha, your group sounds a lot like one of mine!

We do have a couple of hourglasses (1 min, 2 min) and when things start to drag, I usually grab the 1 min and flip it which gives the signal for them to move things along. We don't necessarily use it for every activation, it just helps get the Rebels thinking, "ok, we need to make a decision" when they are stuck in analysis paralysis mode. Fortunately, Alpha in our group desires the others to become more engaged and Delta wants to help make more high level strategy decisions so there's hope.

Well, Charlie is getting more comfortable with play and making choices on what to do and when. Heck, at the end of the core campaign, he made the attack that clinched it for the Heroes. So hes starting to come out of his shell, as it were. Alpha, as I said, will tell other players go here, do this, attack that, so on and so on. But on his turn, he can take forever to finally commit to a course of action. I don't even want to think about how long he takes to settle on pizza toppings...
I would use the hourglass only to get things moving along. I don't mind a little kibitzing at the table, a joke or wisecrack at the right moment, a player cursing his dice to eternal damnation for a bad roll, planning how to attack a group or an elite...thats all part of the game. But when the players move one square, then take five minutes to move another square, then five minutes to move ANOTHER square, all because they're over-thinking... Yeah, time for a timer.

Oops... Webpage glitch double post. Sorry.