I ask because I played on the weekend and the players (two of whom were mathematicians) took forever to calculate thier moves precisely - it was the very definition of Analysis Paralysis. I was thinking of maybe getting a chess clock or an egg timer and giving them each 5 minutes maximum to make their moves. Has anyone tried this?

Have you discussed the idea with them? The way the post is worded makes it sound like you'll be laying down the law, but Descent isn't an RPG and there's no single player in control of making up house rules. If they're fine with it, go for it.

Yes, I've done and it definitely worked. I'll for taking a good look at a situation, but if the heroes can't get through the discussion part of their turn in 5 minutes than they need to hurry up.

I wish I'd thought of that. We played a game a while back and it lasted over 10hours, excluding breaks. Is that normal or was that just exceptionally long? We played they Quest featuring the soul sucking sword.

Dapper Dan said:

10 hours sounds pretty **** long for Descent. The quest you refer to is one of the longer ones, but still 10 hours seems high. Most quests take us 4-6 hours in vanilla, and we definitely have cautious heroes.

Big Remy said:

Agreed!