Our DM started to master for us about two years ago, using published materials. We played Lost Mine of Phandelver, then Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and now Dungeon of the Mad Mage. All of this is good.
Now, the problem: he needs a lot of time to resolve what is happening. There are multiple factors contributing to this, I'll focus on two of them
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Desire to play by the book. He tries to keep to rules as written and within that optimize. He is counting squares of movement that happens off-screen in combat situations, takes a lot of time to measure exact distances and movement. Using a battlemap on Roll20 has made any combat a tactical mini-game. (To be fair, the players also protest if he gives the monsters more leeway on things like movement, while watching ours like a hawk, certainly pushing him to try and adhere to the rules).
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Desire to optimize tactics. As a player he is a min-maxer, and as a DM he approaches running the monsters the same way. He tries to optimally use their abilities and the environment for tactics to make our life challenging. looking up monster abilities and "The Monsters Know What They are Doing". This is especially the case if the monsters have many abilities or spells at their disposal. (He also has a hard time keeping apart what HE knows vs what the monsters know, typically he tries to have them take the objectively most effective action, which multiplies the factors he has to keep in mind).
Between all these, it is quite common for us to sit around for minutes on end while he is leafing through stuff.
We mostly play online on Roll20, and being just a single click away from all the other seductions of entertainment to bridge the boring lulls in the action is testing at least my self-discipline every session. One of the other players, who has a physically taxing day job, has fallen asleep during play repeatedly.
I used to DM for our group for years before he agreed to DM, as I really wanted to play as a player. He puts a lot of effort into preparing, and he is a close friend, so I want any help I can extend to him to be as encouraging and positive as possible and I don't want to patronize him.
I've talked with him about how it is challenging for us to wait for things to continue, but this unfortunately has not helped him solve this. So instead of just bringing this up again, I want something to suggest that we could try out.
I think he needs concrete things he can do to help him. I find it easy to improvise as a DM to keep things going, while he aims to stick to the written adventure, so I don't have a lot of useful practical help for him on what he can do, other than reading the module beforehand and marking it up.
Can anyone help with concrete DM procedures, methods or tricks they use to be able to keep the game flowing, while sticking closely to published material? (We are playing D&D 5e, but I think answered do not need to limit themselves to 5e).
How can he run combat with monsters faster and more efficiently without spitballing when it comes to rules adherence?
Best Answer
Learn to spitball.
Your friend must focus on execution.
Before the game is the time for the DM to look things up, to strategize, to plan, to prepare. Once the game is underway, prep time is past.
During the game, the DM must execute. The DM must run the game.
Your friend must decide which is more important:
No matter the skill or tools, one of these has to be given priority.
As long as your friend prioritizes perfect decisions over game pacing, nothing will change.
If your friend prioritizes game pacing over perfect decisions, the rest will come naturally.
It is that easy, and it is that hard. Your friend is no doubt smart and perceptive, and sees that players are not engaged in the game. The players are not engaged because he the DM is not prioritizing engaging them. To engage them, he must make decisions and keep the game going. Until he decides to do that, nothing will change.
No set of DMing tips, and the Internet is full of them, will help until your friend prioritizes gameplay over perfect decisions.
Once your friend decides to focus on game execution, then he will no doubt discover many techniques and tools that will help.
Your friend may find it helpful to take simple notes during the game. Examples might include things to look up later or things to do better next time.
Your friend may also find it helpful to remember that the DM can change their mind. "Last week I said when you drop an item, it stays invisible. After further thought, I've changed my mind, when you drop the item, it becomes visible."
I use a notekeeping program, a text editor, a link saver, all kept handy during play. The exact tools don't matter. Once you decide to focus on game play over perfect decisions, tools and techniques will come and go.
You, as a friend, will need to decide how to discuss this with your good friend. I am assuming you are comfortable just straight out discussing it with him, since you've posted about it on a popular web site that you've said you guys consult during the game. (If not, you might want to rethink even posting the question....) Just say it. Something like, "Dude, I'll back your play whatever it is, but really, when you go into research mode, everyone else is bored. You gotta change your priorities."
You, as a player, may find that it is helpful for you to mention a few things that went well during the session (the roses or stars from this answer). It can be anything, the way someone handled a social interaction, or a monster you liked. It must be sincere, not just well-meaning.
Also, you asked, "what can we do?" You're going to struggle to get the players to act in concert without the DM feeling ganged up on, but you can say, at an appropriate time, "hey DM, we want to let you know how much we appreciate you being the DM, and just so you know, we're happy if you just make decisions and move on, cause it's a lot more fun if the game moves quickly."
Think Only of the Cutting Edge
Miamoto Musashi is said to have advised those wishing to excel in the Way of the Sword to think only of the cutting edge.
You must prepare, he said, you must focus on footwork, on stance, on strength, on how you carry your blade. But in battle you must focus only on the cutting edge.
So too as DMs we must focus only on the cutting edge.