(This may be on the forums already (I did search ) But I wanted to approach it with what an OL can do to speed things up, share what I do, and get feedback. Thanks!)

Just curious what you others do to speed up the time it takes to play the game. I am the OL and I am the one with limited time at nights to play with my group - so I have tried to think of EVERY way I can be most efficient when we play and to speed up the game play. Besides - it's a lot more fun when you get to actually play and not just sit and watch the OL fumble around for pieces.

Here is what I do to help make it possible for us to play a RtL dungeon on a weeknight. (think 4 hours or so.)

1. I pre-draw the dungeon levels and have all the pieces necessary in ziploc bags (not monsters - don't want to damage them all mixed in with tile pieces) labeled #1, #2, and #3. I will note which pieces I will need from the first level for the second or third. (I know it's dorky but it saves so much in setup time when all the necessary pieces have been separated already.)

2. I have an outdoor encounters bag - because I have all the expansions, I really don't need any of the outside pieces to make indoor dungeon levels. (There are FEW exceptions of course - but I would have them pre-separated ahead of time in the dungeon bags.) This makes encounters run faster as I already have the outside pieces separate from the inside.

3. All of my tokens are in nice little containers that help keep them separate and easy to pull out. Ex. I stun a hero.

4. Arguments - we have an agreement that we limit arguments over rules to 2 minutes - then we agree to take the most reasonable of the solutions. (Even if the result is maybe a kill of a monster that shouldn't have been - in the long run (especially on a campaign) it isn't going to break the experience and we try to keep that in mind.) The goal is to roll more die - not sit and argue. We then research between plays for the right answer.

5. All of my "little" monsters - think commonly used smaller ones - are in a divided thread box. (I think it's like a thread craft box.) Anyway - makes grabbing the smaller common monsters easier. Nothing ticks me off more than to have to play the card that spawns a ton of Kobolds only to have to look and look and look and look for the **** tiny guys.

6. All the cards are in a card box with labeled tabs. That way - when we need a specific type of card - we can find it really fast.

We are also thinking of getting a chess timer to limit the time the heroes have to move to either 3 or 5 minutes. (we really only need it for one of the players who just sits and thinks and thinks and thinks - he is also one of the weakest attackers which is frustrating as hell cause he really just OVER THINKS EVERY MOVE!!)

So there is what I do as the OL to make our play nights run faster. Anyone else have any good ideas I can use to speed things up?

We keep everything sorted as well... Most of the time. If we finish at 2am it's unlikely that the pieces will all make it back in the right bags.

The biggest thing I've found for me to keep things moving is to pay attention. There's something happening constantly in Descent, and it's much easier to evaluate the board position and your options when you've seen it evolve since your last turn, as oppsed to when you've been playing games on your phone waiting for someone to call your name.

This isn't really something you can always control, but I think the single biggest way to speed up the game is to have enough players. It's often hard to coordinate getting a full group of 5 together, so probably at least half of my Descent sessions are just with my brother. Keeping track of tokens / abilities / etc for 3-4 heroes really slows down the game, especially when I'm also trying to keep track of my 1-year-old girl! (That's probably the biggest single reason I'm usually OL - my brother can give more undivided attention to the game, so it's a bit easier for him to manage multiple heroes.)

I forgot to mention that for our clean-up, for the dungeons at least, all the unneeded pieces get slid right into a ziplock - then at the end of the night ALL the pieces (again, except monsters and of course the items heroes stick in their boxes) get thrown into the ziplock and I sort them out at home in between play sessions.

To speed up the game we need to find out what takes the most of time.

IMHO they are:

• Dungeons, islands and encounters map setup, especially islands.
• Finding proper tokens and/or cards.
• Taking decisions by heroes and Overlord
• Checking the rules, especially playing with all expansions.

Now, how I see the "improvements"

• Prepare map earlier. The optimal variant - 2 tables: one for island/sea encounter, second for dungeon. For dungeons - because they're small in campaign, one can think about placing them in flat, pizza-like boxes
• Sort the cards and tokens before game
• Use hourglass
• Well-prepared OL and heroes as far as possible and all rules-discussions moderated by... hourglass

lighting said:

Pizza Boxes is a GREAT IDEA!!! I'm gonna have to think about that one. One could setup the 3 dungeon levels in their own pizza boxes - when ready to play - simply open and flatten the box leaving the level right in place on the box. (Or sliding the level right off.) My only fear would be them not being sealed enough and if you were to drop/tip the boxes over having pieces slide out... still something to think about!

EDIT:
But - if you could find boxes like this: www.starpizzabox.com/ no worries about pieces slipping out!

SoylentGreen said:

Yeah, it's great idea but we can get stucked during pre-setup as the same elements will be required for e.g. two dungeon levels. Second, this idea will work as far as heroes won't try to explore 2 locations during one gameplay session Preparation of 6 dungeons could pose a problem.

lighting said:

Well - it would be a sweet idea for my group - as we typically only will do 1 full dungeon per play session (we are weeknights...) and when I do my ziplock method I note the pieces I am missing for the next level in the 2nd and 3rd ziplock bags. I could just do this now in the pizza boxes - but I would have the added benefit of being able to have almost all of the pieces pre-assembled. Granted this would really only save us like 2-3 minutes per level... but hey - this is 2-3 more minutes of time we can enjoy each others company and not have to wait for me to setup. I'm totally going to check a pizza place to see what boxes they have and see if I can buy 3 of them from them!

SoylentGreen said:

MY only fear would be the grease from the pizzas ruining my bits! =O

But I'm sure you could overcome that. Either ask about buying some boxes from the pizza shop unused or maybe clean/cover the boxes with some kind of coating or sheeting to protect the game bits. I'm sure it could be done and it is a good idea.

Steve-O said:

Oh goodness - no way will I get used boxes!!! (I have a hard time with one of my friends drinking anything near my game with his spill history!) I have a local pizza place that has boxes that have no printing on them... I think those will be the best as I can label/design them how I want. I'll just see if I can buy 3 or 4 for a couple bucks. That be my plan!

It would cost more, but you could look around for some of those clear plastic portfolio sleeves. (You're probably familiar with the 8.5" x 11" ones that hold letter-size paper in a normal 3-ring binder - they make those plastic sleeves in larger sizes for art portfolios.) I don't know prices offhand, but I'm sure it would cost more than pizza boxes. But it would be easier to transport as it'd be more compact and you wouldn't have to worry about things falling out or rattling around in a box.

I've came up with better , simplier and cheaper idea.

What you (we) need is cardboard box. Tear the box apart to receive flat, rectangular cardboard (try with rather big box). You will got flat space, where you have place for the dungeon. With 3 such boards you have the whole dungeon. After that, to save the place, you can juz pus one onto another. During the play, jus place the dungeon with the cardboard tray beneath, on the table. You avoid moving the dungeon out from the pizza box on the table.

regards

Actually to me, the Overlord is one of the BIGGEST factors of saving time. A veteran OL will be able to quickly make good decisions EVEN during the players' turns, and when it is time to act, he just moves like lightning, putting all his plans into action. The players will feel a very smooth transition if the OL is good, and they will enjoy a faster game. Organization as mentioned above, is mostly meant for the OL to have easier access for faster placement of things during new areas being revealed and when playing trap or spawn cards.

My opinion? Get the regular OL to train his speed. He's the main guy who can help shorten the game time.

Wanderer999 said:

Playing as OL for about 20 games and having everything optimized I can say that the heroes' actions affect game length. Last time, I've tried my best to speed OL actions with success but the heroes took long time for arguing and the whole session lasted 6h

I really advice to use hourglasses (1 min/hero and 2 min/OL)

Wanderer999 said:

I find as the OL my turns are remarkably fast compared to the heroes. I play with 4 other players - one of them is especially slow - and I find as the OL I have plenty of time, during their turn, to plan my own. My attacks are quick, my spawns are quick, I don't know what I could really do to speed myself up - with the exception of the outlined organizational steps we talked about above.

On the other subject - I am getting pizza boxes (with the lid style that will prevent any pieces from sliding out) from my local pizza place. They do not get them printed - so I will have plain boxes I can mark how I want.

Let us know how the pizza box thing goes. I would be curious to see if there are enough pieces / counters to deploy three (or more, if you wanted to get creative and let the players "pick a box" per level) to make all those maps complete. Corridor ends and other counters can sometimes be in short supply.

We find that we spend 15-30 minutes per dungeon level just doing setup. Sure, we use that time to get snacks, beverage and bio breaks, but it sure would be nice to try to do more than one dungeon per game session.

Fizz said:

Yeah hey - I just got 4 pizza boxes from a local place. I ended up having to tape 2 slots on each box - but that's no biggie.

That being said - I own all the expansions and I had all the pieces I needed to setup 3 dungeon levels in their separate boxes. I couldn't have the WHOLE dungeon assembled - but I have them in 2 pieces and it'll be one snap and slide off the lid onto our table.

I have all the encounter pieces in their own bag - so with none of the outside tiles needed to get used - I had enough pieces to make the full three levels. All three dungeon levels have rubble in them - so I used EVERY piece... got lucky there.

I'm excited about it - I have all the tiles and all the tokens needed for the 3 levels.

I kept the city piece, the direction token, and the greenish portal piece out - and I will just let one of the heroes grab one of the three boxes - we'll slide it off and get playing quick.