Hello.

I've been game mastering for about 18 years now, and I've played in more settings and systems than I can remember, but I think I could use some tips for speeding up the game with the new WFRP 3e rules. To my group (and I have to agree), this system seems to be to most time consuming of all (even a bit more than Shadowrun), and that's a flaw that might prove fatal to my group, even if they like the setting and a lot of the nice game add ons of this edition.

Last night, we started the Dramatic Finale chapter of the Eye for an Eye Intro Adventure. At around 9 pm, the group found where the ritual was taking place and started to confront the cultist. A whole lot of cool things happened and they managed to barely make it through, killing all cultists but just failing to prevent the sacrifice, killing piersson before he fled with the painting, killing all beastmen who were coming over the walls (one PC was outside with the kennelmaster during the fight with the ritual), and finally confronting the weaker version of the daemon inside the shrine to sigmar where they had put the painting. The problem is, the first act (the ritual fight) took about 4 hours to complete, and by the time the daemon was slain, it was passed 3 am!

So basically, it took around 6 hours to complete something like 15-20 combat turns! My players were a bit disheartened by that fact, and so was I. In the earlier editions of Warhammer (or for that matter, with the current editions of the 40k rpgs), those same fights might have taken maybe half that time, if not less, and they would probably have had even more combat rounds too (which means each players gets a turn more often).

I'm not sure we'll keep on playing with these mechanics if we can't find ways to make things go smoother and faster, so I'd really appreciate some tips.

Here's what we are already doing:

1- I currently have 5 players. We started out at 3, then 4, and now 5, so yes, this bogs down the game a bit, but in other settings and systems we often and easily played with around players and it ran much more smoothly than this.

2- I have the basic dice set, plus an extra pack (the one with a dozen or so dice) that my players share, while one of the players and I have the WFRP Ipod Application, meaning we don't need to use the dice at all.

3- All my players have their action cards and talents and everything right in front of them, for easy reference, and I photocopied a set of basic action cards on one sheet for my 5th player.

3- I encourage my players to think of which action they want to do before their turn comes up and start counting their dice.

4- Often, while a player is picking his dice, I'll ask what the next one is doing before the first player has finished his own turn, especially when I know the next player will probably not need to make a roll that turn.

5- In the part of the adventure I just described, I used a progress tracker to describe how well the beastmen were doing getting inside the compound while the player outside simply made ballistic skill rolls with his bow and leadership rolls (only twice) to affect how the defenders were doing. No initiative, defense or wounds were considered until the entire party came together to confront what was left of the beastmen (4 ungors, 2 gors and the wargor)

6- I used boons, banes, comets and chaos stars to determine how well or poorly NPCs were faring during fights (ex. a Chaos star rolled during the battle with the cultists meant one of the hounds of Olver Gand got killed and set back the defenders token 1 space)

So, that's pretty much it I guess. Any advice?

I can share my experiences - I also run a group of five.

I'm not sure WHAT it is about that particular fight - but it also took my group ages - I play shorter sessions and it took the WHOLE session.

Most of the speed up process you seem to do - although I would suggest more dice for the other players - it makes it much easier. Having them choose their action ahead of time helps a bit, but you mentioned that. Also - for the mobs I don't use tokens, trackers, etc - I just have a sheet with my tally marks behind the screen and have photocopies of the beastiary sheets for anyone I'm using.

I can tell you that it gets smoother - even with five - we now zip along at a 'comparible' pace to other RPG's - not sure if it is THAT fight or just getting the system down - but it does start getting faster as more time is put in.

I know - not really advice really - sorry - but hopefully it at least gives some hope.

some practical tips i do are... rolling initiative for NPCs ahead of time, that way i only need to add PCs to the initiative track

plan round by round tactics for the NPCs this is general and obviously may change as the fight progresses, but working out which actions the NPC use first and then subsequent round etc, cuts down on the players waiting around for you to decide what to do.

what you really need to do though is think back and decide where you think the time went?

was there too much waiting around for players to decide what to do?

did it take a long time for each player to collate their dice pool, roll and intepret results?

did wound application take a long time, either to pcs or npcs?

one thing to note though on the overall number of combat rounds is that i think generally you will get in less combat rounds for the same amount of real time than for a 2nd edition game, for example BUT normally something constructive (or destructive) will happen in that combat round. Certainly many of our 2nd edition games went by with the i attack, he parries type of combat with a net result of the round being a "wash out" as far as progressing the story was concerned, i think that happens far less with 3rd ed, so it could just be a case of taking time to learn all the mechanics etc and familiarity with those will mean you group plays through the combats quicker than they are now.