The Depot: Speeding Up Play
Tom Lehmann (co-designer of 2038 and designer of 1834) suggests the following:
"I've tried the following experiment twice. Play an 18xx game with a 1 minute timer around. When any player starts to take a long time (more than a 15 second or so pause), flip the timer over. If the player finishes before the timer runs out, do nothing. If the player is still thinking when the timer runs out, make a mark next to their name on a sheet of paper and continue flipping the timer, making marks as neccessary. There is no penalty for making marks -- you can take as much time as you wish -- just the "social
penalty" of knowing that you are taking lots of time.
Doing just this reduced the time one group took to play 1856 from 8 hours to 6 hours and then to 5 hours. Total "dead time" was still slightly over an hour. The faster players tended to generate one or two marks during most of the game except for once a game when they would pile up 10 minutes on a crucial bit (figuring out how the permanent trains or the CPR merger would shake out); the slowest one was still spending 1/2 hour or so dead time per game (but not 1 & 1/2 hours).
There was a small impact on direct quality of play -- I know one game where I hurried when I should have stopped and thought a bit longer at one point. You do need a discipline when playing 18xx where you are playing quickly most of the time but occasionally (once or so per game) stop and carefully work something out.
Player reaction was mixed. Most players really appreciated the faster game (it made me willing to continue playing with this group for example) but one player (not the slowest one curiously) felt the feeling of "being rushed" detracted significantly from the gaming experience. That player also did like the smaller game length so the experiment did reveal an underlying conflict in that player's desires.
The one thing I noticed was that as soon as a player had the timer started on them, the other players would stop talking and let that player act. This convinced me that a significant amount of time that slower groups spend in on discussion/analysis/interuptions of the player taking their turn. Eliminating just this can easily lop an hour off a slow group's playing time."
Other people have suggested the moderator programs by Bill Stoll for 1835, and Dirk Clemens for almost all of the 18xx titles. Some favor spreadsheets, and some use predesigned forms. The Depot has recently added the 1835 moderator program. In the near future, I hope to add some more of these tools.
In the groups I have played with, I have found several tools to be useful...
Having the tiles in Pog pages, so that they can be handed around to players has proved very useful, though some players have taken to hiding tiles they know they will be needing, and we seem to have a real problem with replacing upgraded track in the Pog sheets.
A simple sheet of scratch paper with where the runs for each company are written down can save on the recounting of a company who has not changed anything, but that no one can remember the per-share payout from the previous round(s).
Chris Lawson has taken to putting share payout information on company charters - this is very useful, though the separate information cards he used to provide are actually more helpful.
Putting a visual tile upgrade chart (like the ones provided with 1837) with the tiles makes the search for an upgrade even easier. I have made a few of these for other games using the ps18xx utility by Matthias Klose and an art program. (Game designers take note: including these with your game will save many delays in a game!)
A printout of Nick Wedd's 18xx rules comparison will solve most rules disputes without having to dig through the actual rulebook. I keep a copy in the front of my rules binder, which has probably shaved several hours off of our local group's games - especially when we can't remember all the nuances of the new title we are trying out that night.
Go back to the waiting room.
Go back to the platform.
