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Ideas for Combat Downtime
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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What game are you playing?
Are you locked into that system?
DnD 3.5 Ravenloft, so kinda locked in yeah.
When it comes to 3.5, the biggest potential slowdown lies in trying to keep status conditions straight, especially 1) stacked buffs and 2) those with durations measured in rounds at low levels. What sort of arrangements does your table have to track status conditions?
Note also that actually paying attention to the battle instead of treating it as background noise when it's not your turn helps. There's a big table speed difference between having a plan and asking for a summary.
There goes my suggestion then!
I tend to run shorter campaigns of about 20 sessions or so. We change games all the time, but it definitely isn't for everyone.
I will say that the combat is a big reason that I don't run D&D; not that it's bad but my brain just doesn't work well with it, and I prefer a more improvisational kind of style.
I hope you find something that works for you; good on you for finding a way to value your players' time.