Episode 59. Let the players track the total damage to monsters! Maybe you already do this, but for us it was a little breakthrough. #RunningTheGame #MattColville
I think you need a bit more sound proofing. One thing that helped me when I built my recording studio was to add a futon. I specifically got the one at IKEA called LYCKSELE LÖVÅS because it has a cover you can put over it so there is no exposed metal bits that would reflect sound. Oh, if you haven't already grab some bass traps for the corners along the ceiling. You can grab a four pack on amazon pretty cheap. Speaking of ceiling, don't neglect the ceiling! An untreated ceiling can be a big source of echo. Love the videos! Good luck with the new space!
Speeding up combat: Initiative: I track initiative by clipping clothespins to the top of the DMs screen so everyone knows where they act and can be ready. The monster is only inserted in this order once it acts. Clear understanding = faster. Monsters don’t roll initiative. Their “initiative” is their Dexterity score. Less rolling = faster. Players either have spell cards or I make them for them. Less looking up stuff = faster. Exploration and RP are theatre of the mind, but combat is grid and minis. Visual aids = faster. Familiars, followers, animal companions are RPed by me, but are run in combat by the player. Agency = less work for DM = faster.
These are good. I'm not super thrilled with the "Dex is initiative" thing. I always preroll initiative if I'm able to prepare for the combat, and that works quite well.
I follow along on a lot of what you do, and I think I'm gonna have to steal that Dex=Monster Initiative thing. Clever and consistent. Thanks for the idea.
This is why I'm so grateful my current players are also big mmo fans. I get that the D&D community doesn't think much of people who enjoy video games but a player who's used to tracking stats, used to thinking about positioning, *really* speeds up the game.
My now best friend tried to have the players track damage back before we were good friends and the other players hated the idea. I looked at her and said "not all of Matt's ideas are winners" and once she realized we both watched your content we talked endlessly about it. So better than helping me run a decent game, you helped me gain an amazing friend. Thanks Matt
It also helps to always roll attack and damage dice simultaneously: "My attack roll is a 23 for 16 points of damage. Does that hit?" - "Yeah, that hits." (DM goes ahead and narrates the effect of that hit).
I play online using Roll20, I make it so that the monsters have a “health bar” that the players can see so that they can strategize better, and it makes sense. You’d be able to see whether or not something is bleeding (usually).
Personally I don't feel like that would have a great impact on my speed of combat. I find that the easiest way to track HP of monsters, is rather than count down, count up. Much easier to add than subtract, in my mind. Even more so if a fight is going just a biiiiit too easy, add some HP. Once the damage => HP, dead.
One thing I really liked that I tried was just straight doubling all the damage done, but leaving healing unaffected. Stakes are much higher, and all my players were very nervous every time they got hit by the bad guys. Also, they get to feel like badasses because they did so much damage. It was like every other time they hit a monster, they would say "So that's 14 damage, doubled to TWENTY EIGHT!" It was fun. The thing that I thought made this work was that most of the bad guys were using normal weapons, which became deadly but not immediately lethal. They avoided the dragon at the end, but had they gotten there, I would have left the damage from the breath weapon alone. I think those are inflated so as to make dragons scarier already.
I feel that it would change everyone’s tactics towards glass cannon builds, as well as limiting the variety of moves a bad guy would do during the lowered number of turns they’re alive.
Samuel Cole I don't know about the glass cannon bit, but I think of the other one in a different tone: It keeps combat short enough that the bad guys' limited repertoire stays interesting. The main thing for me is keeping combat punchy, like a movie. Also, I did this when the players were around level seven I think. So they could take a couple hits.
I've been thinking about homebrewing some stuff for a slightly grittier campaign (I know D&D isn't necessarily the best system for gritty campaigns, but it's what I and my players know and have the materials for), and I might try that.
If it works for y'all, great! I think instead, my approach (w/ 5e) would be to significantly adjust the death mechanics of the game. To me, that's the part of the game that is most broken (from the perspective of folks like me who want threat of death to be a part of driving the drama).
So I tried this in my session this weekend. I had heard this idea before & was skeptical it would speed up combat. I don't think it reduced time in & of itself, per se. My player who volunteered to keep track is great with math too. We did a summary at the end of every round or 2, hat helped the players as well as me. What did make a very big difference was the cognitive load. It was one less things my brain had to work on during the combat. We know that multi-tasking is a basically not true (our brains perform single tasks & just switch between them rapidly), and that our productivity drops the more switches our brain has to perform. So the benefit here wasn't that things got faster. It's that as a DM, I was able to devote more of my mental resources to keeping the combat running smoothly, & allowed me to spend more time improvising conversation & how to make things more exciting, cinematic, etc. I'm going to stick with this for a while. Thanks Matt for encouraging me to give it a try.
This is similar to something I do. I always encourage my players to create a bestiary of any enemies they run into through the campaign. Track HP, AC, and anything else that might be relevant to know for future encounters with the same/similar enemies.
I've implemented this at my table and it is amazing. Rather than having to figure out which creature was attacked and do the math and tracking, I can spend the time thinking tactically on how the creatures with attack or working with the next player's turn. It is great.
Seems like you might frequently run into a problem with more complicated combats, where you check in and realize...oh that guy should’ve been dead 2 turns ago...oops. Also the instance you mentioned about damage reduction, you still end up tracking the “resisted total”. Can’t wait for the Adam teamup!!!
my group of friends and i are all begginers in D&D, we all started un 5th edition, i almost dropped playing whem i tried to GM 'cause i thought i was a bad GM, i don't know why, but listening to your videos (i normaly open another window and do other stuff) helped me to convince myself to write a story and try GM'ing again. Thanks for all and i wish to you all the best, sorry if wrote something wrong, still getting used with english
If you and your players are having fun, there is no wrong way to play, brother. Reading this comment a year later, I'm hoping you're still playing, man!
Just want to say thank you Matt for making these videos. I have been playing and DMing for years and cant believe I never thought of some of these tips. Keep up the great work!
I tried this for a session, and it was measurably 15-20% slower. I honestly think spending 30 seconds to set up a small grid with your monsters' HP before the combat will save vastly more time than this. Sorry Matt!
I think the same way. I don't think it's so hard to track monster's HP, and I DM Pathfinder, which has billions of monsters with Damage Reduction and energy resistance.
I feel like this is an excellent way to keep everyont engaged during long combat rounds. I have 7 players, and some get easily distracted when they don't have to play. Having them do a bit of maths is a great idea! Thanks for the awesome video and tips, as always!
I don't think I'm going to use this. the way I track monster HP is; I write a number next to them on the turn order sheet (which is in front of me at all times) to represent the damage they have taken when they take damage the first and then just increase it when they take more damage. 5e math is incredibly simple, so this isn't hard. using this system, I foresee some problems. I would need to ask the players for updates on monster damage constantly (which can get annoying) or I run the risk of asking for a damage update just to realize that the enemy should have died a few rounds ago. I also need to track how much of the overall damage is resisted, so my work isn't entirely gone. less work for the players also means they have more time to look up things like spells in the player handbook and decide what they will do before it's their turn.
im surprised to see so much agreement in the comments. I dont see this being a useful idea at my table as a DM, nor would I want to have to do this as a player.
We have been trying this in our campaign, it's easier than it is made out to be. Just make a running total, as soon as you roll damage, write it down. We use little notepads to track the damage so we aren't clogging up our notes with math.
I agree. Despite of complicating factors like damage reduction, NPCs healing and buffing themselves, etc. I do believe it would work, but I don't see how it necessarily speeds up combat, since it is often my players who need time for their decisions. Also I'm not a fan of PCs worrying too much about exact numbers. Multiple monsters often come with the same stats, so if they know the approximate hit points of a monster type they are facing, and have numbers in front of them, they will start calculating. It's not a problem, but it may take away from the combat experience. We're already pretty tactical oriented.
I just dont think it would save any time. I build combat tables so that tracking hp is effortless for me. I like the idea of player participation, though I feel the first time around it would probably take longer as player get used to it. It also raises the chances of the "oops" cheat.
Yeah, I happen to not be on board for this one as well. If it helps someone, great, but I don't see it being too useful at my table. I don't really _want_ my players thinking about numbers too much while we play. Especially the ones who might be familliar with the monster we're facing. I could just see it too easily falling into meta-gaming territory.
I'm having trouble wrapping my head around HOW this speeds up combat. It sounds like it would slow it down. My players barely know what they're going to do on their turn. Asking them to keep track of damage sounds like creating chaos. But who knows? Maybe this will turn out to be a counter-intuitive trick. Only one way to find out...
I’m also struggling to see the point. I already track the ammunition for my players because they want it to be a finite resource but they don’t want to track it. I think having the damage visible on the map might lead to overthinking and thus slow the game down. I rather track it myself and tell them if they ask which orc looks worst. In my experience players are happy when they don’t have to deal with numbers other then their their gold and health. Nonetheless I will try this tonight, maybe it really works, let’s see
Yeah, same here. I keep track of all of my encounter hit points. As my players damage them, I'm updating the creature hit points from behind my screen and simultaneously telling them how the attack lands. I don't feel like this slows things down at all, and Matt's system sounds kind of flawed to me.
These comments surprise me and make me realise just how varied people's tables are. I'm just struggling to imagine the kind of human that says they want finite ammunition but don't want to track it (I couldn't stand not knowing how many arrows I have left). Heck, I consider myself pretty lazy (keep forgetting to track spells) but I've got all sorts of lists tracking my carrying capacity and bonuses and such.
Basically instead of "24 damage, alright that's 73 minus 24, borrow a one, that's 9, 6-2=4, it has 49 HP" the DM can say "24 damage? Cool. Jeff it's your turn."
The GM can track a damage total instead of subtracting damage from HP just as easily on their side of things if it makes the math easier. I'm not sure how having the players track it makes it quicker? Also, as a GM I usually adjust a monster's tactics based on how close to death they are. Some monsters who are near death will run, try to heal, offer to surrender in exchange for their life, fight defensively, fight more recklessly, or whatever. I feel like the players tracking damage only works if the monsters just mindlessly attack each round regardless of their HP total.
Super excited for the Adam Koebel collab! Y'all are my two favorite GM influences on the internet, and I love that the two of you see RPGs in a pretty different light. Should be a great video.
I'm Going to try this tomorrow Matt, but I think I'll just tell them when the monster resists the damage they just dealt. It's information I'd give them anyway.
Nah, I like tracking damage and hit points as a DM. It lets me know when certain things should happen in my encounters. Things are going to wimp out and try to run if they're too weak, or change up their approach/tactics after certain points, etc. Probably one of the few things I haven't agreed with in the Running the Game videos, but that's just me and I'm sure that this will give some people good ideas and help them with the speed of their fights. Keep up the awesome work, Matt.
First Pathfinder Society game I played, which was also my first RPG game as a player ever, the DM would write the damage numbers on the battle mat. Though we didn't know the total HP of the monsters we fought, it gave that video-gamey feeling of seeing the health bar go down as you chipped away at an enemy without dragging us out of the RPG headspace. I've used that in every game I've GM'ed thereafter and it's always gotten a good response from my players. Totally agree with Matt's point here that it just gives players a sense of progress during a fight.
I've been running a game for six as a first-time DM for more than a year now. They've all gotten to a higher level and played longer than I ever did in one campaign. This is largely because of your videos, especially early on. This video will help me again. I love you.
A useful practice for speeding up combat when you're playing a text only game online is one player describes what they're going to do mechanically you give information and they make their rolls; then while they're narrating what they're doing the next player is doing the same thing and asking what they can do and describing it mechanically. Shaves minutes off of a players turn and helps to speed up combat.
I started doing this the first time you mentioned it a long while ago- I never stopped. It's a great thing to try, worked out for me. I don't mind just telling the players that a monster has taken less damage from resistance etc, they cut the damage themselves when they're marking it down.
This is a great idea! In my previous games players were already asking how much damage they'd done to some of the targets and others would generally respond with "Both of us have hit that one, that one is unharmed." etc. This would cut out all of that since they'd be able to see exactly how much damage has been done which would inform them and help them decide who to go for faster. If I end up DMing again, I will have to try and remember to do this.
I think this is a great idea and worth trying. Even though someone else is doing the math instead of the DM, it seems like it frees the DM up to move onto the next thing he's doing. However, it could lead to metagaming. If the creature has taken 50 of damage, the players ask "how does he look?", and you say, "just a little beat up", it would give the players and idea of how many hit points the creature has. So there would be a trade-off: speed for some potential metagaming. (But the trade-off might be worth it.)
They would do it anyway, i know cause i do it when i am a player. I dont think this is metagaming, at least i dont mind my players doing it. It's info they have access.
The other option as a DM, that I use that makes it FAST is just add up damage until the total HP is reached. DO NOT SUBTRACT from the highest point. Start at 0.
Interesting idea! I use the 5e companion app to track initiative, HP, and monster stats. It's great, and gets rid of any math. I literally just tap on the heart next to the monster, input the damage done, and it does the math for me.
Opened youtube and every single suggestion was for your channel. Made me realize i hadn't subscribed and I probably should. Congratulations on a new follower
I would like to know how exactly this was used to speed up your combat. What does the DM do on the other players turns if not keep track of the monster hit points? How was basic addition by one person making your combat take longer than a group of people (and all THEIR mathematical failings in tow) doing it while that same one person has to recalculate the hit points to account for resistances? I've done a lot of things over the years to try to keep combat moving at a regular pace. I've used clearly visible markers to show everyone the order so they know who is next (if you haven't seen Acquisitions Incorporated The "C" Team, look it up and you'll see this in action), I've pushed for attacks and damage to be rolled together as one roll so that we don't have to waste time waiting till after you do the math to figure out if you hit before we can get your damage, I've picked up the habit of alerting the person who is next after the current round that they are "on deck" so they know to get ready with their turn, but I've never considered the idea of having the hit points of monsters tracked via assembly. Maybe it's just me and my players, but I can barely trust these kids to remember the bonus they get to an attack from a spell that's been going on for ten rounds and they've had to be reminded of it every one of those 10 rounds...these are not the people to trust to remember to keep track of monster hit points.
In your case it doesn’t make sense to do it. But I suck at math and am DMing for 3 other DMs and two very experienced players. This just changed my world.
Tim, I gotta agree there. I'm not sure it will gain any speed. I also don't like the idea of players knowing the exact number of hp of damage something has and then being able to know it's total hp, once it dies.
We have been doing this ever since I started playing, and it has stuck with me through most of ny gaming career. I don't do it as much online, as most players seem unused to the request. But it absolutely helps me out immensely as a GM. And as a player, it gives me something concrete to focus on between my turns!
You can also tell the players, that the monster has damage resistance against the attack they just used and they can halve their damage accordingly (after all, the characters are going to notice anyway, that their attack isn't affecting the monster as much as they thought it would). Adding hit points works too, but that removes the fun of puzzling out which resistances the monster has and trying to use attacks that get around them (even if they are not the players most efficient ways of attacks). I use another way of speeding up combat, taking a page from 4e/13th Age: the number of weapon damage dice you roll is equal to your profiency bonus minus 1, so it increases at higher levels (up to 5 dice at level 17). The monsters damage output is scaled up also, making combat shorter and more decisive, instead of a long-winded battle of attrition.
Since it was mentioned at the end of the video, I figured I'd put this out there for anyone still asking about skill challenges or even timed challenges. I did a bit of a timed skill challenge recently that went pretty well. My players entered a tournament, as a group of adventurers in a series are want to do, and one of the games was basically an escape room. There were no monsters. It was strictly environmental. I altered how I did time where real time didn't represent in-game time. I told them that they had an hour in-game to solve the puzzle but they had roughly 2 real hours to. I deducted time whenever they would use a spell that took 10 mins to cast and things like that. I didn't deduct 20 real life minutes when they did a spell that took 10 mins. I only deducted the 10 mins. There were puzzles they had to solve and obstacles that they had to overcome with a few traps sprinkled in here and there and I even gave them a map of the area which lead to about 15mins of them discussing how to read the map since they were in an upside down sinking ship so they had to know which way was right and which way was left so that they knew where they were. They had to actually communicate and work together to solve the map and the various obstacles. They ended up going over their time which lead to water cascading into the ship as the pressure of the water crushed and opened parts of it. One character almost drowned and there were a ton of close calls when it came to characters almost dying but they made it through and all got out alive. I present this idea for anyone who wants it. Maybe tweak it where it's a moving dungeon on the back of a turtle or something. It was very experimental on my part and I'm hoping to take what I learned and apply it to the next time I do it in the future. My players seemed to like it and I hope yours do too.
This is rad, I already have a initiative tracker viewable to my players, and now I'm going to try having 1 player write damage taken next to monsters names. Perhaps a 'monster wrangler' now too. I like the feel of a the whole party acknowledging the 'real-ness' of the situation outside of my personal imagination
I read about this in The Lazy DM, and I have been using this system for about a year and a half now. It works. Another great thing to delegate to the players is initiative/turn order. As a DM in combat, I am already juggling monster fight tactics, unseen dangers, and rules for the combat. This frees me up to better engage with the players. One last thing from my experiences--just tell the players that the monster takes half damage. It is easier to do the math up front than track an ever growing monster HP pool.
And I see an upload from Matt Colville. And I hope in a 50sh minute long video. And I get a 6 minute one. And I have my mind blown by the brilliant idea expressed in the video. And I still am a bit upset. Because I was really looking forward to a 50 minute video. Guess i'll just watch this one for ten times on a loop.
Ok. I’m 3 minutes into the video and I’ve had two thoughts on this subject. 1. There is almost always somebody who likes being the “secretary” at the table. Often this is the person who would keep track of initiative or names of NPCs or names of towns and various places in the towns. (Also, our group rewards people for “helping” the GM in or out of game.) 2. I have a bard in my current game who is all about documenting the exploits of their parties adventures. Either of these people would be great for tracking a monsters damage.
This may seem a tad reductive, but since my group has played Lancer. We removed Initiative, and just alternate between players and dm. IE Player goes, Enemy goes, Player goes. At the end of the round you switch for the next round. Enemy goes then player goes then Enemy goes. Who goes when doesn’t matter the Players choose who wants go at their turn and the dm then chooses who they want to go on the Dms turn, like a game of Chess.
I've basically always done this. I place percentile dice down next to a creature once it takes a hit, to track the total damage it has taken. Oftentimes I'll dial up the total myself, but my friends jump in and do it for me if I ask them to (sometimes I don't even have to ask), say when I turn away to reference a book or something. If a creature has an immunity or damage resistance, I straight up announce it the first time it is triggered. I also let my friends keep track of initiative for me using one of those white erase magnetic sheets paizo makes, and I have condition tokens and other gewgaws to help with situational effects.
I just watched the video of the conversation between you and Adam yesterday, rewatched a few of your videos today while prepping my Session Zero talking points (and tweeted you a thank you). Then I stumbled across this one where you mention that chat. haha The D&Dieties are showing me the way!
One thing I've started using is a constant initiative. Instead of rolling initiative for every single little encounter I have the party roll initiative each morning, then they only have the option to reroll for a boss monster. So for dungeons that have can have like ten enemy clusters I don't have to faff about figuring out turn order, I just roll for the monsters and add them in wherever.
You mentioned doing this a while ago and I thought it was a great idea, so when I started to run my D&D game with new players, we implemented this system from the start. We use a battlemap you can draw on with dry erase markers so when they deal damage they just write it next to the enemy mini and move it around when needed. It's simple, easy and I agree the players seem to enjoy it.
A DM/Player friend of mine uses 1 inch poker chips where he writes a damage numbers using an erasable marker. I LOVED this way of damage tracking. I might buy some damage chips myself because of it.
At one point I actually made counters with different values to put next to the minis. I even color coded them. Green for 1's, yellow for 5's, and red for 10's (or maybe 20's or 25's ... whatever). I liked the counters because you could see pretty easily and visualize the damage. I think I still placed the markers, but having the players do it makes a lot of sense. Good suggestion. It makes me wonder what other things we could offload on to players to improve the flow of combat.
I love this. I'm going to take this a step further, whenever I tell a player they have hit I am going to ask them to track the AC they hit at so anyone who roles well enough to hit will know and they won't have to ask me for every single attack lol
Very interesting idea! Involving players in the encounter off of their turn, especially those that like doing math, sounds like it has many benefits. One thing that I do if I'm running lots of monsters is to just spit-ball monsters hp. Treat the simulation like a narrative. It can be a bit dishonest (but they won't catch you!) and I don't think it's too difficult to vaguely remember how hurt a dozen or so goons/creatures are.
I typically used to appoint one player as the "DM assistant" who was tasked with tracking stuff like that or flipping through the books if we needed to lookup rules so that I could focus on keeping the game running. It had the same effect and it worked very well. I say USED TO because my current group is online and so it doesn't work quite as easily.
I just started a campaign with my friends (we're all totally new to this) and think I will give this a go. I think they would like to be more in control of the numbers as I get the feeling they constantly assume I am up to some trickery behind the screen.
ps also using skill challenges on occasion since learning the idea through your vids. I used it for PCs searching for a long lost stronghold in the mountains and a couple of other times, all worked great. Thanks!
Generally, I find it's not the numbers that slow down my fights, as roll20 has an HP tracker for character and monster tokens. Instead, it's the tactical minutiae of moving ever so to avoid Attacks of opportunity, or getting your AoE effects just right to hit every enemy but not your allies... It's a big reason why I'm tempted to drop using minis altogether and go back to Theatre of the Mind games (and also why I don't follow the advice of ripping abilities from 4e).
Roll initiative at the top of every round between players and monsters, so that combat is dynamic. Turns pass clockwise between players so you always know whose turn is next.
In the campaign I am currently playing in, one of my fellow players made a program that tracks initiative and damage done to monsters. We all sent him images of characters that resemble our character for our icon in the app and pictures of any enemies we will be facing. It made combat go plenty faster because we were no longer backtracking to remember our damage rolls. However it does make combat that much worse when he is absent because now we dont know how we did combat without the program. 😂
Another option to speed up combat, that is not edition dependent, is using Fantasy Grounds. Our in person group uses it religiously, and it not only makes the entire process much quicker, but also tremendously easier as both a player and DM, allowing players and DM all to focus more on the story, and less on the mechanics!
crowdsourcing math and is amazing when you can manage it, for real. there's a couple instances where I've been able to do it in a homebrew system I've been working on with some friends, and it's streamlined a ton of tedious bs and I think it's made the mechanics feel more personal. like it's easier for the players to get invested in the more abstract parts of an rpg when they have a hand in that higher-level decision making or bookkeeping.
Honestly this wouldn't be a big help to me. I don't find it too difficult to keep those numbers running in my head to begin with, but with more than a few monsters I just have their hp written on my notes sheet and have plenty of dead time between a player landing their attack and the next one taking a few seconds to decide what to do. It takes half a second to write down that new total.
My group has started publicly tracking how many hit points the monsters have left. It helps give them a better idea of how powerful something is, as well as how badly hurt it is. Also, instead of doing the math yourself and increasing its hit points against attacks it resists, you can just tell them that the attack only did half-damage (which they basically know already as long as you describe it), and outsource that too.
I did some soundproofing to kill the echo, I *think* it's working.
It definitely sounds different. Im not sure if its better but it is noticeable.
Interesting! Sounds good. A bit of an echo still. Is this in the new office or still just the room?
I think the echo that is audible now lends a certain gravitas to the video. It is now the "wise voice from on the mountain".
wow, congrats on the 200k subs.. also, sound is better. :)
I think you need a bit more sound proofing. One thing that helped me when I built my recording studio was to add a futon. I specifically got the one at IKEA called LYCKSELE LÖVÅS because it has a cover you can put over it so there is no exposed metal bits that would reflect sound. Oh, if you haven't already grab some bass traps for the corners along the ceiling. You can grab a four pack on amazon pretty cheap. Speaking of ceiling, don't neglect the ceiling! An untreated ceiling can be a big source of echo. Love the videos! Good luck with the new space!
I should really get at least one player who isn't a theatre student so that we have SOMEONE competent at keeping track of numbers.
xD
But like, at least we're pretty fun to roleplay with, right?
I FEEL you so much on this... we've all long abandoned math courses for at least 2-3 years..
MonarchsFactory Because of Matt I found your channel, and I think your videos are pretty great.
You need someone from a STEM school.
In the spirit of Matts suggestion, I set the video speed to 1.5
I set the speed to 0.75 and Matt sounded like a normal person, not the micro machines guy
I use the standard 2x in almost every video, including matt's
LOL - While this is definitely needed for some TH-camrs who speak far too ponderously, I've never needed to do that for Matt. 😁
I watch most videos at X 1.25 speed. The exceptions are music, comedy, and Matt Colville.
I watch almost everything at 1.5x or 1.6x
Speeding up combat:
Initiative: I track initiative by clipping clothespins to the top of the DMs screen so everyone knows where they act and can be ready. The monster is only inserted in this order once it acts. Clear understanding = faster.
Monsters don’t roll initiative. Their “initiative” is their Dexterity score. Less rolling = faster.
Players either have spell cards or I make them for them. Less looking up stuff = faster.
Exploration and RP are theatre of the mind, but combat is grid and minis. Visual aids = faster.
Familiars, followers, animal companions are RPed by me, but are run in combat by the player. Agency = less work for DM = faster.
"Exploration and RP are theatre of the mind, but combat is grid and minis. Visual aids = faster."
I fully agree from my experience.
These are good. I'm not super thrilled with the "Dex is initiative" thing. I always preroll initiative if I'm able to prepare for the combat, and that works quite well.
I follow along on a lot of what you do, and I think I'm gonna have to steal that Dex=Monster Initiative thing. Clever and consistent. Thanks for the idea.
players have trouble keeping track of their own HP
This is why I'm so grateful my current players are also big mmo fans. I get that the D&D community doesn't think much of people who enjoy video games but a player who's used to tracking stats, used to thinking about positioning, *really* speeds up the game.
My players have trouble tracking who's sitting in what chair....irl...
Ooh, burn
too true XD
James Brooks Yeah...you're probably onto something there... 😀
My now best friend tried to have the players track damage back before we were good friends and the other players hated the idea. I looked at her and said "not all of Matt's ideas are winners" and once she realized we both watched your content we talked endlessly about it. So better than helping me run a decent game, you helped me gain an amazing friend. Thanks Matt
It also helps to always roll attack and damage dice simultaneously: "My attack roll is a 23 for 16 points of damage. Does that hit?" - "Yeah, that hits." (DM goes ahead and narrates the effect of that hit).
I play online using Roll20, I make it so that the monsters have a “health bar” that the players can see so that they can strategize better, and it makes sense. You’d be able to see whether or not something is bleeding (usually).
I prefer the health bar too to represent a monster's current health. Works very well on Roll20 games and it does the simple + - math for you!
My group uses roll20 as well and the health bar helps the healer as well to see who is about to go down.
Personally I don't feel like that would have a great impact on my speed of combat. I find that the easiest way to track HP of monsters, is rather than count down, count up. Much easier to add than subtract, in my mind. Even more so if a fight is going just a biiiiit too easy, add some HP. Once the damage => HP, dead.
I do the same and it really doesn't slow me down much at all.
My DM also goes up rather than down, but I think his reasoning is so that he doesn't have to hide the numbers from the players, haha.
That players knows the HP of enemies can diminish the DM's dramaturgical tools.
MetaKaios I go up for ease of use and so I don't have to hide my numbers.
That’s how I do it.
"Let's speed this video up" (switches playback to x1.5 speed)
That's some fast speech there.
O_O oh my.... that speed is amazing!
Exactly what I did!
“You don’t do the math” was like music to my ears
One thing I really liked that I tried was just straight doubling all the damage done, but leaving healing unaffected. Stakes are much higher, and all my players were very nervous every time they got hit by the bad guys. Also, they get to feel like badasses because they did so much damage. It was like every other time they hit a monster, they would say "So that's 14 damage, doubled to TWENTY EIGHT!" It was fun. The thing that I thought made this work was that most of the bad guys were using normal weapons, which became deadly but not immediately lethal. They avoided the dragon at the end, but had they gotten there, I would have left the damage from the breath weapon alone. I think those are inflated so as to make dragons scarier already.
sounds interesting, it really does screw the balance around, but it gives a more desperate feel
I feel that it would change everyone’s tactics towards glass cannon builds, as well as limiting the variety of moves a bad guy would do during the lowered number of turns they’re alive.
Samuel Cole I don't know about the glass cannon bit, but I think of the other one in a different tone: It keeps combat short enough that the bad guys' limited repertoire stays interesting. The main thing for me is keeping combat punchy, like a movie. Also, I did this when the players were around level seven I think. So they could take a couple hits.
I've been thinking about homebrewing some stuff for a slightly grittier campaign (I know D&D isn't necessarily the best system for gritty campaigns, but it's what I and my players know and have the materials for), and I might try that.
If it works for y'all, great! I think instead, my approach (w/ 5e) would be to significantly adjust the death mechanics of the game. To me, that's the part of the game that is most broken (from the perspective of folks like me who want threat of death to be a part of driving the drama).
So I tried this in my session this weekend. I had heard this idea before & was skeptical it would speed up combat. I don't think it reduced time in & of itself, per se. My player who volunteered to keep track is great with math too. We did a summary at the end of every round or 2, hat helped the players as well as me.
What did make a very big difference was the cognitive load. It was one less things my brain had to work on during the combat. We know that multi-tasking is a basically not true (our brains perform single tasks & just switch between them rapidly), and that our productivity drops the more switches our brain has to perform.
So the benefit here wasn't that things got faster. It's that as a DM, I was able to devote more of my mental resources to keeping the combat running smoothly, & allowed me to spend more time improvising conversation & how to make things more exciting, cinematic, etc.
I'm going to stick with this for a while.
Thanks Matt for encouraging me to give it a try.
This is similar to something I do. I always encourage my players to create a bestiary of any enemies they run into through the campaign. Track HP, AC, and anything else that might be relevant to know for future encounters with the same/similar enemies.
I've implemented this at my table and it is amazing. Rather than having to figure out which creature was attacked and do the math and tracking, I can spend the time thinking tactically on how the creatures with attack or working with the next player's turn. It is great.
Seems like you might frequently run into a problem with more complicated combats, where you check in and realize...oh that guy should’ve been dead 2 turns ago...oops. Also the instance you mentioned about damage reduction, you still end up tracking the “resisted total”. Can’t wait for the Adam teamup!!!
my group of friends and i are all begginers in D&D, we all started un 5th edition, i almost dropped playing whem i tried to GM 'cause i thought i was a bad GM, i don't know why, but listening to your videos (i normaly open another window and do other stuff) helped me to convince myself to write a story and try GM'ing again. Thanks for all and i wish to you all the best, sorry if wrote something wrong, still getting used with english
If you and your players are having fun, there is no wrong way to play, brother. Reading this comment a year later, I'm hoping you're still playing, man!
Just want to say thank you Matt for making these videos. I have been playing and DMing for years and cant believe I never thought of some of these tips. Keep up the great work!
I tried this for a session, and it was measurably 15-20% slower. I honestly think spending 30 seconds to set up a small grid with your monsters' HP before the combat will save vastly more time than this. Sorry Matt!
I think the same way. I don't think it's so hard to track monster's HP, and I DM Pathfinder, which has billions of monsters with Damage Reduction and energy resistance.
I feel like this is an excellent way to keep everyont engaged during long combat rounds. I have 7 players, and some get easily distracted when they don't have to play. Having them do a bit of maths is a great idea!
Thanks for the awesome video and tips, as always!
I love this idea so much. Matt keep giving me these brilliant ideas and you might become my favorite Matt.
I don't think I'm going to use this. the way I track monster HP is; I write a number next to them on the turn order sheet (which is in front of me at all times) to represent the damage they have taken when they take damage the first and then just increase it when they take more damage. 5e math is incredibly simple, so this isn't hard.
using this system, I foresee some problems. I would need to ask the players for updates on monster damage constantly (which can get annoying) or I run the risk of asking for a damage update just to realize that the enemy should have died a few rounds ago. I also need to track how much of the overall damage is resisted, so my work isn't entirely gone. less work for the players also means they have more time to look up things like spells in the player handbook and decide what they will do before it's their turn.
I love love love this video! Keep up the great work, Matt!
im surprised to see so much agreement in the comments. I dont see this being a useful idea at my table as a DM, nor would I want to have to do this as a player.
Nah, I ain't gonna do it either. Too much trouble for sure.
We have been trying this in our campaign, it's easier than it is made out to be. Just make a running total, as soon as you roll damage, write it down. We use little notepads to track the damage so we aren't clogging up our notes with math.
I agree. Despite of complicating factors like damage reduction, NPCs healing and buffing themselves, etc. I do believe it would work, but I don't see how it necessarily speeds up combat, since it is often my players who need time for their decisions. Also I'm not a fan of PCs worrying too much about exact numbers. Multiple monsters often come with the same stats, so if they know the approximate hit points of a monster type they are facing, and have numbers in front of them, they will start calculating. It's not a problem, but it may take away from the combat experience. We're already pretty tactical oriented.
I just dont think it would save any time. I build combat tables so that tracking hp is effortless for me. I like the idea of player participation, though I feel the first time around it would probably take longer as player get used to it. It also raises the chances of the "oops" cheat.
Yeah, I happen to not be on board for this one as well. If it helps someone, great, but I don't see it being too useful at my table. I don't really _want_ my players thinking about numbers too much while we play. Especially the ones who might be familliar with the monster we're facing. I could just see it too easily falling into meta-gaming territory.
Damn Matt! 200k thats amazing!! Thanks for being so indelibly you, love your videos. (also totally want to see another skill challenge video)
"There are more players than there are you" I love this quote.
I've never had a problem with this as a DM. I have my notebook, and I just do a running total. Simple addition until the monsters are dead.
This is AMAZING. Thank you! So excited to try this.
I'm having trouble wrapping my head around HOW this speeds up combat. It sounds like it would slow it down. My players barely know what they're going to do on their turn. Asking them to keep track of damage sounds like creating chaos. But who knows? Maybe this will turn out to be a counter-intuitive trick. Only one way to find out...
I’m also struggling to see the point. I already track the ammunition for my players because they want it to be a finite resource but they don’t want to track it. I think having the damage visible on the map might lead to overthinking and thus slow the game down. I rather track it myself and tell them if they ask which orc looks worst.
In my experience players are happy when they don’t have to deal with numbers other then their their gold and health.
Nonetheless I will try this tonight, maybe it really works, let’s see
Yeah, same here. I keep track of all of my encounter hit points. As my players damage them, I'm updating the creature hit points from behind my screen and simultaneously telling them how the attack lands. I don't feel like this slows things down at all, and Matt's system sounds kind of flawed to me.
These comments surprise me and make me realise just how varied people's tables are. I'm just struggling to imagine the kind of human that says they want finite ammunition but don't want to track it (I couldn't stand not knowing how many arrows I have left). Heck, I consider myself pretty lazy (keep forgetting to track spells) but I've got all sorts of lists tracking my carrying capacity and bonuses and such.
Basically instead of "24 damage, alright that's 73 minus 24, borrow a one, that's 9, 6-2=4, it has 49 HP" the DM can say "24 damage? Cool. Jeff it's your turn."
The GM can track a damage total instead of subtracting damage from HP just as easily on their side of things if it makes the math easier. I'm not sure how having the players track it makes it quicker?
Also, as a GM I usually adjust a monster's tactics based on how close to death they are. Some monsters who are near death will run, try to heal, offer to surrender in exchange for their life, fight defensively, fight more recklessly, or whatever. I feel like the players tracking damage only works if the monsters just mindlessly attack each round regardless of their HP total.
Super excited for the Adam Koebel collab! Y'all are my two favorite GM influences on the internet, and I love that the two of you see RPGs in a pretty different light. Should be a great video.
Such a helpful idea, thanks Matt!
I'm Going to try this tomorrow Matt, but I think I'll just tell them when the monster resists the damage they just dealt. It's information I'd give them anyway.
Nah, I like tracking damage and hit points as a DM. It lets me know when certain things should happen in my encounters. Things are going to wimp out and try to run if they're too weak, or change up their approach/tactics after certain points, etc. Probably one of the few things I haven't agreed with in the Running the Game videos, but that's just me and I'm sure that this will give some people good ideas and help them with the speed of their fights. Keep up the awesome work, Matt.
First Pathfinder Society game I played, which was also my first RPG game as a player ever, the DM would write the damage numbers on the battle mat. Though we didn't know the total HP of the monsters we fought, it gave that video-gamey feeling of seeing the health bar go down as you chipped away at an enemy without dragging us out of the RPG headspace. I've used that in every game I've GM'ed thereafter and it's always gotten a good response from my players. Totally agree with Matt's point here that it just gives players a sense of progress during a fight.
That is a great idea. Thank you!
I've been running a game for six as a first-time DM for more than a year now. They've all gotten to a higher level and played longer than I ever did in one campaign. This is largely because of your videos, especially early on. This video will help me again. I love you.
looking good matt! Keep up the great work!
A useful practice for speeding up combat when you're playing a text only game online is one player describes what they're going to do mechanically you give information and they make their rolls; then while they're narrating what they're doing the next player is doing the same thing and asking what they can do and describing it mechanically. Shaves minutes off of a players turn and helps to speed up combat.
Matt Colville you have done it again! Another great video!
I love these type of videos :D
I started doing this the first time you mentioned it a long while ago- I never stopped. It's a great thing to try, worked out for me.
I don't mind just telling the players that a monster has taken less damage from resistance etc, they cut the damage themselves when they're marking it down.
This is a great idea! In my previous games players were already asking how much damage they'd done to some of the targets and others would generally respond with "Both of us have hit that one, that one is unharmed." etc. This would cut out all of that since they'd be able to see exactly how much damage has been done which would inform them and help them decide who to go for faster. If I end up DMing again, I will have to try and remember to do this.
I like this, thank you.
I just got off from my new job and I’m glad to come home to this :)!
I think this is a great idea and worth trying. Even though someone else is doing the math instead of the DM, it seems like it frees the DM up to move onto the next thing he's doing.
However, it could lead to metagaming. If the creature has taken 50 of damage, the players ask "how does he look?", and you say, "just a little beat up", it would give the players and idea of how many hit points the creature has. So there would be a trade-off: speed for some potential metagaming. (But the trade-off might be worth it.)
They would do it anyway, i know cause i do it when i am a player. I dont think this is metagaming, at least i dont mind my players doing it. It's info they have access.
The other option as a DM, that I use that makes it FAST is just add up damage until the total HP is reached. DO NOT SUBTRACT from the highest point. Start at 0.
Interesting idea! I use the 5e companion app to track initiative, HP, and monster stats. It's great, and gets rid of any math. I literally just tap on the heart next to the monster, input the damage done, and it does the math for me.
I can't believe I haven't seen this idea anywhere before. Very simple and very interesting.
Opened youtube and every single suggestion was for your channel. Made me realize i hadn't subscribed and I probably should. Congratulations on a new follower
Woo skill challenges, I watched your earlier video for it, did it for a sea chase and worked wonderfully. Thank you :)
A QUICK video about speeding up combat? How meta, Matt. How meta.
I do this in my games and it works great, especially when there are a lot of monsters in play. Such a great tip.
I would like to know how exactly this was used to speed up your combat. What does the DM do on the other players turns if not keep track of the monster hit points? How was basic addition by one person making your combat take longer than a group of people (and all THEIR mathematical failings in tow) doing it while that same one person has to recalculate the hit points to account for resistances?
I've done a lot of things over the years to try to keep combat moving at a regular pace. I've used clearly visible markers to show everyone the order so they know who is next (if you haven't seen Acquisitions Incorporated The "C" Team, look it up and you'll see this in action), I've pushed for attacks and damage to be rolled together as one roll so that we don't have to waste time waiting till after you do the math to figure out if you hit before we can get your damage, I've picked up the habit of alerting the person who is next after the current round that they are "on deck" so they know to get ready with their turn, but I've never considered the idea of having the hit points of monsters tracked via assembly.
Maybe it's just me and my players, but I can barely trust these kids to remember the bonus they get to an attack from a spell that's been going on for ten rounds and they've had to be reminded of it every one of those 10 rounds...these are not the people to trust to remember to keep track of monster hit points.
In your case it doesn’t make sense to do it. But I suck at math and am DMing for 3 other DMs and two very experienced players. This just changed my world.
Tim, I gotta agree there. I'm not sure it will gain any speed. I also don't like the idea of players knowing the exact number of hp of damage something has and then being able to know it's total hp, once it dies.
We have been doing this ever since I started playing, and it has stuck with me through most of ny gaming career. I don't do it as much online, as most players seem unused to the request.
But it absolutely helps me out immensely as a GM. And as a player, it gives me something concrete to focus on between my turns!
You can also tell the players, that the monster has damage resistance against the attack they just used and they can halve their damage accordingly (after all, the characters are going to notice anyway, that their attack isn't affecting the monster as much as they thought it would). Adding hit points works too, but that removes the fun of puzzling out which resistances the monster has and trying to use attacks that get around them (even if they are not the players most efficient ways of attacks).
I use another way of speeding up combat, taking a page from 4e/13th Age: the number of weapon damage dice you roll is equal to your profiency bonus minus 1, so it increases at higher levels (up to 5 dice at level 17). The monsters damage output is scaled up also, making combat shorter and more decisive, instead of a long-winded battle of attrition.
A Matt Colville Running the Game video less than 10 minutes long?! What a world!
Since it was mentioned at the end of the video, I figured I'd put this out there for anyone still asking about skill challenges or even timed challenges. I did a bit of a timed skill challenge recently that went pretty well. My players entered a tournament, as a group of adventurers in a series are want to do, and one of the games was basically an escape room. There were no monsters. It was strictly environmental. I altered how I did time where real time didn't represent in-game time. I told them that they had an hour in-game to solve the puzzle but they had roughly 2 real hours to. I deducted time whenever they would use a spell that took 10 mins to cast and things like that. I didn't deduct 20 real life minutes when they did a spell that took 10 mins. I only deducted the 10 mins. There were puzzles they had to solve and obstacles that they had to overcome with a few traps sprinkled in here and there and I even gave them a map of the area which lead to about 15mins of them discussing how to read the map since they were in an upside down sinking ship so they had to know which way was right and which way was left so that they knew where they were. They had to actually communicate and work together to solve the map and the various obstacles. They ended up going over their time which lead to water cascading into the ship as the pressure of the water crushed and opened parts of it. One character almost drowned and there were a ton of close calls when it came to characters almost dying but they made it through and all got out alive. I present this idea for anyone who wants it. Maybe tweak it where it's a moving dungeon on the back of a turtle or something. It was very experimental on my part and I'm hoping to take what I learned and apply it to the next time I do it in the future. My players seemed to like it and I hope yours do too.
I can't wait to try this!
This is rad, I already have a initiative tracker viewable to my players, and now I'm going to try having 1 player write damage taken next to monsters names. Perhaps a 'monster wrangler' now too. I like the feel of a the whole party acknowledging the 'real-ness' of the situation outside of my personal imagination
I read about this in The Lazy DM, and I have been using this system for about a year and a half now. It works. Another great thing to delegate to the players is initiative/turn order. As a DM in combat, I am already juggling monster fight tactics, unseen dangers, and rules for the combat. This frees me up to better engage with the players. One last thing from my experiences--just tell the players that the monster takes half damage. It is easier to do the math up front than track an ever growing monster HP pool.
Matt and Adam are my two favorite content creators. Excited for the show.
And I see an upload from Matt Colville.
And I hope in a 50sh minute long video.
And I get a 6 minute one.
And I have my mind blown by the brilliant idea expressed in the video.
And I still am a bit upset.
Because I was really looking forward to a 50 minute video.
Guess i'll just watch this one for ten times on a loop.
Ok. I’m 3 minutes into the video and I’ve had two thoughts on this subject.
1. There is almost always somebody who likes being the “secretary” at the table. Often this is the person who would keep track of initiative or names of NPCs or names of towns and various places in the towns. (Also, our group rewards people for “helping” the GM in or out of game.)
2. I have a bard in my current game who is all about documenting the exploits of their parties adventures.
Either of these people would be great for tracking a monsters damage.
Wearing a Back to the Future shirt for a video about speeding up combat. I love it Colville. Never change.
This may seem a tad reductive, but since my group has played Lancer. We removed Initiative, and just alternate between players and dm. IE Player goes, Enemy goes, Player goes. At the end of the round you switch for the next round. Enemy goes then player goes then Enemy goes. Who goes when doesn’t matter the Players choose who wants go at their turn and the dm then chooses who they want to go on the Dms turn, like a game of Chess.
Hey, a short video less than 10 mins. Way to go Matt!
And yet now that it's over I find myself longing for more...
Pizza Goblin agreed but he's a busy guy, so I take what I can get lol
Agreed!
I've basically always done this. I place percentile dice down next to a creature once it takes a hit, to track the total damage it has taken. Oftentimes I'll dial up the total myself, but my friends jump in and do it for me if I ask them to (sometimes I don't even have to ask), say when I turn away to reference a book or something. If a creature has an immunity or damage resistance, I straight up announce it the first time it is triggered. I also let my friends keep track of initiative for me using one of those white erase magnetic sheets paizo makes, and I have condition tokens and other gewgaws to help with situational effects.
I'm going to try this... sounds like a great idea.
That's a really good idea, I'm starting that tomorrow.
I just watched the video of the conversation between you and Adam yesterday, rewatched a few of your videos today while prepping my Session Zero talking points (and tweeted you a thank you). Then I stumbled across this one where you mention that chat. haha The D&Dieties are showing me the way!
One thing I've started using is a constant initiative. Instead of rolling initiative for every single little encounter I have the party roll initiative each morning, then they only have the option to reroll for a boss monster. So for dungeons that have can have like ten enemy clusters I don't have to faff about figuring out turn order, I just roll for the monsters and add them in wherever.
Every time I link to one of these videos on reddit, I continue what i'm doing and just absentmindedly listen to it for the 100th time. ^_^
Update in 2023: THIS WORKS! I live by this now.
I like this. Also, me and a fellow GM have switched to skill check challenges after watching your video.
You mentioned doing this a while ago and I thought it was a great idea, so when I started to run my D&D game with new players, we implemented this system from the start. We use a battlemap you can draw on with dry erase markers so when they deal damage they just write it next to the enemy mini and move it around when needed. It's simple, easy and I agree the players seem to enjoy it.
I love the idea, and as you say, it is information they have. It should make keeping track of the monsters damage really easier.
Our group has done this for a while. I don't know how much it speeds things up, but it definitely makes life easier on the DM.
A DM/Player friend of mine uses 1 inch poker chips where he writes a damage numbers using an erasable marker. I LOVED this way of damage tracking. I might buy some damage chips myself because of it.
At one point I actually made counters with different values to put next to the minis. I even color coded them. Green for 1's, yellow for 5's, and red for 10's (or maybe 20's or 25's ... whatever). I liked the counters because you could see pretty easily and visualize the damage. I think I still placed the markers, but having the players do it makes a lot of sense. Good suggestion.
It makes me wonder what other things we could offload on to players to improve the flow of combat.
I'm looking forward to trying this at my table. I like it.
Great idea
I love this. I'm going to take this a step further, whenever I tell a player they have hit I am going to ask them to track the AC they hit at so anyone who roles well enough to hit will know and they won't have to ask me for every single attack lol
Very interesting idea! Involving players in the encounter off of their turn, especially those that like doing math, sounds like it has many benefits.
One thing that I do if I'm running lots of monsters is to just spit-ball monsters hp. Treat the simulation like a narrative. It can be a bit dishonest (but they won't catch you!) and I don't think it's too difficult to vaguely remember how hurt a dozen or so goons/creatures are.
I typically used to appoint one player as the "DM assistant" who was tasked with tracking stuff like that or flipping through the books if we needed to lookup rules so that I could focus on keeping the game running. It had the same effect and it worked very well. I say USED TO because my current group is online and so it doesn't work quite as easily.
I just started a campaign with my friends (we're all totally new to this) and think I will give this a go. I think they would like to be more in control of the numbers as I get the feeling they constantly assume I am up to some trickery behind the screen.
Awesome idea, I run on roll20 at the moment so the tokens keep track of it themselves at the moment but next time I play in person will try it out!
Great tip, seems all win, one of those 'why didn't I think of that'. Will be trying this out
Well think about it this way, I played D&D pretty regularly for 30 years and never thought of this. There is all still so much for everyone to learn
ps also using skill challenges on occasion since learning the idea through your vids. I used it for PCs searching for a long lost stronghold in the mountains and a couple of other times, all worked great. Thanks!
I might add that having a player keeping tab of the initiative for the group is a great way to speed up the combat
Generally, I find it's not the numbers that slow down my fights, as roll20 has an HP tracker for character and monster tokens. Instead, it's the tactical minutiae of moving ever so to avoid Attacks of opportunity, or getting your AoE effects just right to hit every enemy but not your allies... It's a big reason why I'm tempted to drop using minis altogether and go back to Theatre of the Mind games (and also why I don't follow the advice of ripping abilities from 4e).
Roll initiative at the top of every round between players and monsters, so that combat is dynamic. Turns pass clockwise between players so you always know whose turn is next.
In the campaign I am currently playing in, one of my fellow players made a program that tracks initiative and damage done to monsters. We all sent him images of characters that resemble our character for our icon in the app and pictures of any enemies we will be facing. It made combat go plenty faster because we were no longer backtracking to remember our damage rolls. However it does make combat that much worse when he is absent because now we dont know how we did combat without the program. 😂
We've been doing this at my table for a few sessions now. It's true that the players like it and it also speeds things up. Win/win.
Another option to speed up combat, that is not edition dependent, is using Fantasy Grounds. Our in person group uses it religiously, and it not only makes the entire process much quicker, but also tremendously easier as both a player and DM, allowing players and DM all to focus more on the story, and less on the mechanics!
crowdsourcing math and is amazing when you can manage it, for real. there's a couple instances where I've been able to do it in a homebrew system I've been working on with some friends, and it's streamlined a ton of tedious bs and I think it's made the mechanics feel more personal. like it's easier for the players to get invested in the more abstract parts of an rpg when they have a hand in that higher-level decision making or bookkeeping.
YEAH!!!! Finally a new running the game video !!!! :D
There was a new one just last week!!
probably missed it, sorry ;)
1. I love all videos you make
2. Advice for chase scenes is something I have a hard time explaining to new DMs
Honestly this wouldn't be a big help to me. I don't find it too difficult to keep those numbers running in my head to begin with, but with more than a few monsters I just have their hp written on my notes sheet and have plenty of dead time between a player landing their attack and the next one taking a few seconds to decide what to do. It takes half a second to write down that new total.
Dang this is good. I'll try it this week.
Matt's back with the mojo!
My group has started publicly tracking how many hit points the monsters have left. It helps give them a better idea of how powerful something is, as well as how badly hurt it is.
Also, instead of doing the math yourself and increasing its hit points against attacks it resists, you can just tell them that the attack only did half-damage (which they basically know already as long as you describe it), and outsource that too.