Re: [HoE] Lethargic combat

[Prince Nightchilde <nghtchld@gte.net>]

Justin Bush wrote:

> I employ a similar technique.  I begin counting to five, at around a second
> a number, each time a player has an action.  If I get to five before the
> character has committed to his/her action, the action is wasted.  If a
> player asks a question that would require his character to pay special
> attention, I tell them the answer without breaking the count, but if the
> player needs clarification on a rule or something of that nature, I
> temporarily freeze the count until the issue is settled.
>

This is a good idea, I think I'll this.  :)

> One issue that has come up repeatedly in my game, however, is that I've a
> player who is always unprepared to game.  He needs to borrow paper, pencils,
> dice, cards, etc., every time we play.  Therefore people have to split up
> the dice they've brought so that he can have some.  Then nobody has enough
> dice to make some of their rolls in one fell swoop, which slows game play
> down a bit.  Any solutions on how to deal with this monster?  I've tried the
> exasperated approach, and he doesn't seem to particularly care.
>

I did, more or less.  I gave each of my players a folder containing one
character sheet for each game we play and 20 sheets of notebook paper (though
this doesn't necessarily mean they'll remember to bring it with them).  As for
the dice, I have a box of extra dice (collected over the 10 or so years I've
been gaming) and I have about a half-dozen extra mechanical pencils in the box,
too.

Now, if only people would remember their characters...

Marshal Nightchilde