DM advice?

[Benice]

Me and a few of my friends are part of a club where we play D&D. I am currently DMing and everyone says I'm doing a decent job, but does anyone have any suggestions to improve my ability to entertain the members of the group? (FYI, there is 4 of us including me, + 1 major NPC who is more of a DM-controlled PC than anything else.)

The two biggest problems our group has is that 

1. Our turns of combat look like this: Warlock: I'm gonna eldritch blast X enemy. Paladin: I'm gonna stab Z enemy with my spear! Cleric: I'm gonna cast inflict wounds on Y enemy. Druid: How high is the ceiling? Suggestions on streamlining our combat would be nice, because we take like 30 minutes per round of combat.
2. Almost everyone in the group gets distarcted VERY easily. Suggestions as to how to keep everyone's focus would be GREATLY appreciated.

General advice is also appreciated.

Thanks for any and all advice you give!

Edited February 7, 2020 by Benice

[Sid Starkiller]

How many are in your group? Are you all playing one game, or split into multiple tables? My preferred group size is 4-5 PCs, never more than 6.

I'm also willing to bet that distractions are a big part of what's making combat take so long, but beyond that, my DM has instituted a group initiative of sorts. All the people who roll higher than the monster's initiative go at once, same for all those who roll lower. Then everyone's paying attention and participating at the same time, rather than "Your turn: What are you doing? Your turn: What are you doing? Your turn: What are you doing?" etc.

If there's uncertainty about specific rules, make a judgment call and look it up later. Having to take the books out during the game drags things out as well.

If phones are a problem, institute a phone box.

[Ertrick36]

For your two points:

• I'm sure a lot of people will give all manner of advice on how to streamline the combat - it's probably one of the biggest issues people face when playing DnD, especially for those who want to focus more on roleplaying or the more story-oriented aspects of the game.  My advice is to ensure everyone knows full well what their most-used stuff will use (as in, what rolls will you make for X attack or for Y spell).  This includes yourself.  In fact, it especially includes yourself because the DM is a central driving force in DnD.
• Take breaks.  Seriously, that's my advice.  Whether it's simply short attention spans or interruptions, people are gonna find themselves getting distracted without breaks.  Or they get stir crazy sitting in one place for 3 hours straight.  If you aren't doing breaks already, do them.  If you are doing them, maybe think to extend them by an extra five minutes or so.

Other points of advice:

• Be the moderator.  Put your foot down whenever someone steps out of line, set the rules from the start, make up any other rules you don't think about on the spot and only consider whether they're "right" or not after the session, and don't be biased beyond maybe your desire to keep the party alive.  You are where the rules start and end, don't let others push you into accepting their judgments/explanations.  Of course, listen to what they have to say if they must argue against a judgment of yours, but only legitimize it if it's genuinely good reasoning.
• Another point on being moderator; be the emotional anchor.  If discontent starts to arise or people start yelling at one another, stop the game and take steps to resolve the issue.  And resolve the issue in a cool, calm, and collected manner.  Don't yell or put down someone, even if you might think they're in the wrong.  Being angry in a critical moment like this might sow deeper discontent within the campaign/group, so you want to be the voice of calm and reason.  If there's some outside shit going on (e.g. you have a significant other who's cheating on you with one of the players), make sure that doesn't get in the way.
• Schedule shit.  This is just general advice for any group.  Make schedules and stick to them as best you can.  If someone's not making sessions, see if you can't reschedule or if maybe the person not making the sessions is the issue.
• Remember that the purpose is to have fun.  As DM, you have a responsibility to the players to facilitate a fun environment.  Far too many DMs prefer to just torture the living hell out of their players.  In fact, I'd almost say the only reason DnD didn't die out entirely is because Matthew Mercer and other notable personalities showed you can actually have a DM who's not a dick, because otherwise a lot of people report that their DMs are blackhearted assholes who are supremely unforgiving and love stacking players against all manner of horrors.  As a player, it's not fun to play with a DM who I know is deliberately trying to screw me over.  Of course, there's a need to challenge your players, but there's a difference between planning to push the players' limits and planning to outright kill them.  If nothing else, you should remember that the game ends with a party wipe.  Obviously players can just make new characters, but when a party wipe happens you might as well just do a new campaign, and it's not fun to just constantly abandon campaigns because of party wipes.
• Also keep in mind that you are the eyes of the party.  Without a description, players won't know what they're looking at.  Are they in a meadow with deer frolicking about?  A dank, dimly lit, narrow cave with trails of bone and dried blood?  What obstacles and hazards are in the area?  Chairs and tables?  Endless pits and quicksand?  Whenever you enter a brand new area, it's always a good idea to describe it, particularly if the players are gonna spend a decent amount of time in there.
• Don't underestimate the power of NPCs.  They can give players motivations for doing what they're doing, or they can be used to explain things the player characters are too dumb to figure out.  They can also be used to nudge players towards certain objectives/paths without you deliberately railroading them (or at least without it feeling like you're railroading them).  The NPCs are friends, enemies, and guides for the players.
• Never be afraid of DM fudge.  DM fudge is a special brand of bullshit - you can say something happens just because you're the DM.  Let's say an execution is going on, and you want it to happen.  The players, however, don't, and the spellcaster of the party will use hold person on the executioner to stop it.  The railroader will say that you tell them to just let it happen.  Others might say you just let them do that.  DM fudge would enable you to say that, actually, there's a magical barrier between the audience and the stand where the execution is happening, so you physically can't cast spells on it.  The catch here is that you didn't previously think to put the barrier there until a player threw a wrench in your plans - you just came up with it on the spot.  DM fudge is, basically, improv bullshit - ass pulls that you can get away with because a player's never gonna question you.  It takes many forms - perhaps you "change" a hidden roll because you didn't like your initial result for whatever reason, perhaps you add a new layer of BS explanations on top of something, it can be anything.  But you should practice in moderation - remember that it is still a game, so you must surrender to chance or player decisions sometimes.
• Make sure the players feel like what they do actually matters.  This ties into the DM fudge thing.  Let's say the player characters are all imprisoned.  Of course you can just have them freed through some deus ex machina, but chances are the players will want to find their own means of escape.  Give them that opportunity, and don't rid them of that until the players have run out of options or things get dire.  It can be frustrating as a player to come up with a grand plan only to realize that it didn't even matter.  Alternatively, let's say X NPC is dying - they're low on health and they're poisoned or bleeding.  But then a player comes up with a great idea for saving the NPC despite being ill-equipped - perhaps they make a makeshift tourniquet or find other brilliant uses for normally mundane items.  It'd be a huge blow to that player if you let them have that opportunity but then make X NPC's death unavoidable moments later.  Also make sure the players see the results of their actions as well after the exploration and fighting are done.  Perhaps in the campaign the players came across a drow who was an enemy, but they convinced them to turn a new leaf; it'd be real nice if after their mission was complete they met that drow and saw that they, say, started up a legitimate business or became an honorable knight.

This is all I have for now.  I kept the more practical stuff near the top.

[eclipse]

Of to OOC with you.

[whase]

I agree with all the above, and like to add a few things.

- Be careful with your DMPC, make sure your campaign is for your players and don't steal their spotlights. Leave the big decisions to them and use the character only as backup and combat support.

- To decrease combat turns you can set a timer as a limit, it's simple yet effective. I once had a DM set this rule when another player decided to train 6 dogs that all needed their own rolls.

- If you don't want to do that, set a rule that during a player's turn only that player can talk, other players can them respond during their own turns. This makes discussing the optimal strategy a lot harder though, so you might want to adjust combat difficulty to this.

- Throw some monsters at them that force them to change strategies. Some monsters might be immune to certain things. Not very familiar with the monsters within DnD as I run my own system, but there must be things like that right?

- If your players get distracted outside of combat, or discuss things too long, make stuff happen they need to respond to.

- phonestack

- Make sure your players are having fun, if there are rules that prevent them from having fun don't use them. Ignore everything I said if it won't make them happy.