The Ping Pong Heart Beat Part 2: The Combat Slog

The Combat Slog

Combat is likely the easiest way for you to maintain heartbeats. D&D combat doesn't carry itself well if it's at a snail's pace. What I've often seen is:

"Ok, roll for initiative... ok, the monsters go first. This one hits Becky, that one hits Joe, this one misses Dick. Becky you take 3 points of damage from a goblin arrow. Joe you get slashed across the shoulder for 5 damage from the Orc. Ok, you guys go now..."

Then there's often silence. Some of the players are wondering, 'Oh, should I go? Nobody else is going.' After a pause, someone goes, then another pause, then someone else goes, then another somehow longer pause. The DM isn't tracking who has gone for whatever reason. Then either one of two things happen:

"So that's the end of the round I think? Right?" A pause until one player decides to use their vocal chords, "Okay, roll initiative." Then a player chimes in who has been quiet for the past 10 minutes, "Wait, I didn't get my attack!"

or

The DM is silent. Nobody is saying anything for like 10 seconds until a player says, "So that's the end of the round, right?" The DM looks around a bit, discovers that he agrees, and we carry on.
 

People want to use loose rules systems but don't take care to give them a framework. Or even it's that there is a desire for individual initiative, but it's not tracked diligently. Execute it in order and know who is next, you might even warn them they are next. Go around the table, clockwise, and ask what the players are doing. If you know your players, you know which ones will struggle with decisions, so suggest obvious lines of play. Your players are up? Prompt them. Execute your monsters as quickly as possible, rolling to hit and damage together in larger fights can shave off a little time which gets back to an individual player a little faster.

Uhh, which one already took damage?

"Okay, Becky is casting Magic Missile, Joe is using his crossbow, and Dick? Are you going to rush to engage the ogre or are you going to try to hold the hallway so the goblins don't rush in?" A person who might have been paralyzed with options or confused about the situation now has a crutch to lean on, they can just accept the play and snap back into attention or look at his character sheet to see if he still has the potion of heroism for the next round.

Ping, Pong, Ping, Pong, Ping, Pong around the table. You're interacting with them, they're interacting with you, they're on the spot. They know the game will halt without them giving their action and then they are locked in. The turn simply executes and we're on to the next one in a timely manner.

To be continued in Part 3 - The Chokepoint