Pacing Problems and Solutions!

Pollen is in the air, storms are are ripping through the skies, and humidity is weighing down each and every breath. Ah, just another day of spring! As I’ve been drying out my travel boots by a hearty fire and tending to sore hands from the heavy writing and editing I’ve been elbow-deep in lately, recent conversations came to mind and I decided that a blog post would be helpful.

If you’ve been a GM for very long, you might have noticed that the pacing of a game is not a consistent thing and can even be difficult to manage. There are many reasons that a session can drag on or seem to come to a stand-still, but I’ll just offer a few common reasons and then some solutions that will help you to get the game back to a more pleasant pace.

Problem 1: your players get stuck in a loop of indecision on what action to take to move forward in the story.

The first thing you can try is to introduce a sense of urgency. This puts a time limit on how long they can discuss and debate, with a decision being forced by the end of it.

The party is discussing their next move in a tavern and the bartender nervously looks towards the door before saying, “Are ya gonna do somethin’ or not? The guards’ll be ‘ere soon!”

Alternatively, you can have an NPC take control of the conversation and present an ultimatum.

            The sharp-eyed noblewoman sighed heavily and rolls her eyes before         demanding,   “Are you going to take my offer, or not?!”

Along with the above examples, you can introduce a consequence for delaying. There is a lot of flexibility in the consequences you can use to motivate speedy decision making in your party, but you want to remember to keep it appropriate to the context of the situation that the party is currently in.

            If the party in the tavern take too long – bring the guards and have one of the      members of the party arrested or maybe have a battle initiated.

            If the players can’t agree on helping the noblewoman – she can throw them out of          her presence and refuse to help them for the rest of the campaign.

It can be helpful to have an actual timer visible to the players that gives them a countdown in these scenarios to add a tangible sense of urgency. And it keeps everything fair on whether they incite the consequences or not.

Problem 2: the players ask for too many details for making a decision.

This problem is obviously very subjective to your preferences as a GM and to the in-game situation. Some players really love to dive into the game lore and story details, which can be fine in a lot of circumstances and even feel rewarding when you’ve put so much effort into building the campaign. It becomes a problem, though, when the player(s) get so caught up in the details that it gives them decision paralysis or any other inability to make a decision.

One way to help nudge them into a decision is to stick to providing a few key details and then offering a few concrete decisions that they can pick from.

            The group is exploring a dungeon and there are two doors head that they must   pick from; one door feels hot and has a weird smell coming from it, while the other    is lukewarm and has no particular smells emanating from it.

Setting up the decision like this limits the need for more information. There is no need to know the exact composition of the doors or the age of the blacksmith work on the hinges because it’s quite obvious that there is some kind of fire-based creature or trap behind one door. And that is either what they are looking for or trying to avoid.

Problem 3: battles are taking too many rounds and dragging on.

A drawn-out slugfest can be appropriate to your campaign if you are trying to deplete the party’s resources or having them face a high-level boss, but generally speaking a drawn out battle can easily get boring.

When you’re designing the campaign and planning out the battles it helps to keep in mind that providing a variety of battle experiences can help keep the sessions fresh and engaging. Quick skirmishes mixed with longer and more complex battles can challenge different player styles and allow different party members to shine as they progress through the story.

If you do find that the group gets caught up in a long battle that is not very productive or entertaining, it’s completely fine to do a bit of behind-the-scenes sorcery and just cut the enemy’s HP down so that the battle can wrap up more quickly. Another easy option is to guide the party to focus on defeating the leader of the enemy horde, and when that is accomplished the underlings can flee in terror (rather than making the party defeat every single one of them).

Problem 4: players are taking too long on their turns.

This happens quite a bit around combat, but it’s fairly easy to overcome.

If the player had a solid plan ready for his next move and gets foiled (i.e. the wizard was planning on casting a spell on one of the enemies but it gets killed before his turn so now he’s having to rethink his strategy), it’s not a bad idea to temporarily skip that player’s turn to allow him more time to figure out his next move. There’s no need to make it a big deal, and it can help get the player out of a stressful spot while keeping the session fun.

Another fun way to help the player hurry up during their turn is to initiate a quick-time event or situation.

            “As you are preparing for your next move, your character suddenly sees a  berserker careening towards your struggling teammate. Will you try to take the hit  for your buddy, which would end your turn but saves them from damage, or will     you let them take the hit while you continue to focus on taking down the boss?”

Bonus Problem: sessions are ending without momentum for the next one.

It seems fairly obvious to want to end your sessions on a strong note, but how exactly can you do that? Cliche as it may seem, don’t shy away from ending the session on a juicy cliffhanger.

            “You open the door and there you see the very mage who has been tormenting     you! He offers a condescending sneer and says, ‘Ah, it’s nice to see you again.’  And that’s where we’ll be ending this week!”

A session ending like that builds up the momentum for your next session, giving the players something to speculate about and look forward to.

Another thing you could do is let the players set their schemes and plots into motion and then end the session before they get to see the results of their hard work. This builds anticipation to see if their works will pay off or put them into a pinch, either of which would make for another exciting session.

Are there any tried-and-true methods that you have for keeping the pace of your gaming sessions at a good clip? Or do you have a particular cliffhanger that you’re proud of? Share it all with us! You can leave a comment on our YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAEQqWurouw) or you can join our Discord channel (https://discord.com/invite/g2NBTssuMh) and swap stories of victory or despair! 

Thanks for checking out our blog, and we are excited to share even more with you all soon!

Credit: Written by Meraki Forest