The Trouble With Deliberation

Among starting too many new projects, getting involved with people and battling the the demiurge that is the black mold in my house, a recurring theme has cropped up in games for me the past few weeks: Deliberation time and ways to design around it.

Now before we start I want to make two things clear, one: When I say deliberation time what I'm referring to is time spent at the table where the party debates and discusses what next course of action would be best. (And to a lesser extent when a single player holds up a game formulating some kind of masterplan for their turn or a predicament OR needs to be caught up on what's happening because they weren't paying attention during a long mechanical resolution). In moderation this is great! How do we avoid the pit trap? Should we buy a second wagon? Aught we to return to town for the night? Left unchecked however this can slow games to a crawl in a way that adds little tension of intrigue. What exactly should your character do this combat round to optimally outplay the opponent? How exactly do we plan on dealing with the most powerful man in the city? Should we investigate a clear B Plot that's happening when one player thinks it's a waste of time? It sucks, sometimes eating up whole sessions with out-of-character talk or turn taking and it's been a recurring issue for me and others recently. It's also certainly nothing new for most gamers.

The second thing I want to make clear is a fabulous piece of advice that I've heard second-hand from friend-of-the-blog Nova attributed to Zedeck Siew: You can't cook a meal so good everyone who eats it will have good table manners. And by extension we can't fully design around deliberation. No matter how much consideration you put into procedures or how well you write your "Best Player Practices", Michael and Tom can still figure out a way to bring your game to a standstill by arguing about who gets the +1 Broadsword for an hour ((at which point it's up to the Ref how to keep things moving)). 

This problem can be exacerbated by games that heavily put an emphasis on Player Skill over Character Skill, are highly simulationist, have lots of smaller fiddly procedures, or otherwise have Players who are very particular in how they play or what they'll let their character do ((the solution to the last is typically pretty simple)). Here's some things you I've come up with to help make things run a bit smoother and faster in the games I've played, run and made:

• Reducing Group Resources : Resource management is a core part of a lot of my favorite games, but when that Resource is shared by an entire group things can get sticky unless everyone is on the same page. While I adore games that have people reaching to the middle of the table to pluck a bonus die from a collective pool, this feels like a moment that's rife for deliberation, when it should be one of momentum and climax. This consideration is directly what led to Synergy in Steel Hearts being an individualized resource that still relied on group successes to generate. Games with sweeping and complex group investments like getting new Cohorts or taking Veteran Perks in BitD also suffer from deliberation time bloat (especially given that these deliberations don't lend themselves well to debating what to take in-character). With a highly synergized table this usually isn't a huge problem, but it's still 15-20 minutes of reading off perks in a deliberation that's worth considering as a designer. [*2]
• Keeping Turns Mechanically Short : At some point I'm going to write about Richard Kelly's discussions of Dice Clog ((i.e. designing around the physical time it takes to roll dice), but both reducing Dice Clog and reducing how much Players can do on a given turn, reduces deliberation time (especially when it's just one player who can't figure out what to do). We love a good wombo combo in this house, but when a reasonably expedient player is taking 10 minute turns to set-up and execute all 12 of their shadow bullshit bonus actions I don't blame the next player for needing to be caught up on what just happened (and possibly replan their whole turn because the whole battlefield has shifted radically). Keep turn actions short, punchy and meaningful!
• Adding Skip Actions : What do I mean by Skip Actions? You ever play a JRPG and just hit a button to Defend or Charge Mana? That's a Skip Action. It's a way for someone who feels like they can't do anything helpful this turn to either turtle-up or generate resources for themself or others. This stuffs especially good for spell-casters who may get halfway through a session before throwing up their hands and saying "I'm out of spell slots so I can't do much!" whenever it's their turn.
• Simultaneous Action : This only applies to games with maps or grids, but implementing ways that players can simply do part of their actions either within their character sheet or on the map without having discuss it with the GM and the Party can help keep the flow going and keep people engaged enough that Deliberation on what just happened is a non-issue.
• Lay Out the Risks : Yeah, yeah we've all heard about telegraphed danger and such, this goes a step further into something that some Refs may disagree with. If players are deliberating on two choices I'll tell them some of the impacts of each decision, and likely results. Less "Anything is possible" and more "You'll most likely not get what you want from this unless you get really lucky." This is especially helpful in groups where a player gets an idea for a solution in their head that simply won't work the way they think it will and slows down the rest of the group who's against it. In my experience? You as a GM can absolutely clue that player into if an idea is way riskier than they realize, and deliberations move a lot faster as a result. You don't need to spoil the results either, something as simple as "You'd know this meltdown would kill a lot of civilians" can help Players who are deliberating on whether or not to trigger an explosion of an ambiguous size.
• Quarantine Consequences : Similarly, sometimes a player will have an idea that's just crazy enough to work, but the rest of the party is (reasonably) concerned will get them all killed. In this instance I usually will tell the party as a GM "Let them cook, I promise this won't kill your chances at talking to the king, or get you all jailed." By giving cautious players some breathing room you allow aberrant ideas to get some time in the spotlight and spice up the session a bit. Is this perfectly simulationist? No, but in a perfect simulation there wouldn't be time to deliberate either, which speaking of:
• Implement Timers for Combat : So I've never had to do this as a ref, but I positively adore every Ref I've played with who does. Everyone gets a 1-2 minutes at the start of their turn (or even during a group moment of deliberation) to decide what they want to do, otherwise the turn is lost. If I were to run this I'd definitely make exceptions for when the battlefield dramatically changes, but ultimately I don't think it's a huge expectation for Players to have a good idea of what they want to do when it gets to their turn. [[*1]]
• Role Play the Deliberation : Sometimes a good long deliberation between competing parties can be a really juicy moment at the table. Keep that shit in character! In my Blades in the Dark campaign we've spent hours deliberating in character in a way that makes the deliberation feel truly playful. How do we handle the loss of an ally? Should we help a rebel cell looking to attack a local battleship? This stuff can be a blast when it's between actual characters having an actual moment of tension and disagreement (as opposed to Players picking what's the most advantageous Perk to pick).

None of this is particularly new or revolutionary, but hopefully this has gotten you thinking about designing and running games that are less about deliberation and more about action and play! (And made you more conscious of when you design in a mechanic that's rife for deliberation) 

[[*1 : Of course deliberation is an issues in pretty much every turn-based game. It's why multiplayer games of Civ work best with timers, or why speed Chess exists.]]

[[*2 : So of note, I actually like the Gang sheet in Blades quite a bit... mostly. It's usually only presented problems when it comes to things like Cohorts ((which take a lot of explanation and several stages of group decision making)) or taking Veteran Perks. Are these cool mechanics worth the deliberation time? That really varies table to table. I don't think it's bad per say, but it is certainly time consuming.]]