That's way too friggin slow for 5e.  It's not the mechanics, it's the GM or group dynamics.  5e combat, for all my other criticisms, is fairly fast.

Yeah, low-level 5e should be fast. Maybe you should offer to call the initiative? I find that prompting people to take their turn can help a game zip along, although I say that as a DM...

The group probably spends like 5 minutes per player on each turn.

I was thinking of using a modified "side initiative" to speed things up. Basically, each team declares their turns at once, then you roll initiative afterwards to see what order it was resolved in.

Having everyone decide at once should speed things up, though I wonder how I could remember all the nuances of each declaration during the turn.

Have them decide before initiative.  Then remind you in turn order.  If they want to change no problem, as long as they do something when you ask them.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;999697The group probably spends like 5 minutes per player on each turn.

I was thinking of using a modified "side initiative" to speed things up. Basically, each team declares their turns at once, then you roll initiative afterwards to see what order it was resolved in.

Having everyone decide at once should speed things up, though I wonder how I could remember all the nuances of each declaration during the turn.

For a slow group, declare up front can be even worse than cycling.  What you need is a way to keep things moving, but breaking up decisions into manageable chunks.  Different GMs have different capabilities when it comes to dealing with input from the players.  I can usually handle 3 or 4 players going at once, so I made my initiative system support that:

Side-by-side, where players roll initiative but foes do not.  Foes get a set target number based on their initiative values (usually, 10 + Dex Mod).  Players that hit that target go before the monsters.  Those that do not, go after.  With a large group, this usually means that it evens out.  When it doesn't, I'll tell a couple of players to wait until I've processed the rest.  (Usually, there are a couple trying to decide anyway.)  You can typically handle "at end of your next turn" issues with common sense rulings.  

If there are a lot of monsters and/or high variance in foe initiative targets, I'll divide them into two groups (or very rarely, three), with people hitting the lower targets but not the higher ones going in the middle.  This usually isn't worth it except when a "boss" monster has a much higher or slower initiative than the rest of the monsters.  For regular fights, even that's not necessary.  Just use the average initiative target.

I do not allow "delays" to see what other people are doing in your "initiative group," though if a lot of people are going at once, I don't heavily police it either.  That is, if I call on you, you have to go.  If you want to wait and see what someone else does, you lose initiative.  For savvy players, this encourages the ones that know what they want to do to enthusiastically jump in and go, to give their allies a bit more time to decide.  I really don't care, as long as we are moving things along.

This system was specifically and heavily play tested for a large group of players where about half of them are prone to indecision and bogging things down in play.  It has worked very well.  The version I'm describing above is more or less the final product, thought I've accumulated a few "rulings" on top of it since.  On spell durations, for example, I tend to use the end of the "round" for resolution, but don't always count the round where it was launched.  If you cast a spell with a "1-round" duration, it doesn't start the counter until the end of the current round.

First you should have a little chat with your group, and tell them that it is time to take the game to the next level by taking the training wheels off. Explain how the game is supposed to run, and point out how much faster and furiouser it is. Explain how to give effective statements and where to find into on the char sheet. Make sure everyone knows their characters abilities and has a general idea of how to run that build. Also, write a Post-It note for every player summarizing the 3 most likely things for his character to do during combat. Put relevant stats on where needed.

Then, take charge of initiative. Determine initiative as usual. Manage it with a set of index cards; one card for every PC and monster or group of monsters. Stack them hi-top, call the top unit, and cycle it to the bottom when it is done. Repeat as needed.

The important part that you call the cards clearly, if necessary by talking over any table chatter, and make sure to prompt the player, i.e. "Torek is up, Mark. He's badly hurt, the mage is down, and you're surrounded by ravenous toebiters. What will Torek's action be?"

You don't have to be rude or confrontational, but you do need to set the pace and run the game. Master those Dungeons!

There are a variety of ways you can try to speed this up, but you will always struggle against human nature if a combat system presents everyone with some sort of decision tree and there is no rigid time constraint on how they make that decision. The proof is in the pudding: most people with significant experience with 5E think a fight takes an hour, except for a few who think it might take 2. If the point of your game is resolving melees then this is fine (assuming you have an hour to kill!). If you are engaged in an adventure that might have a half dozen fights in a night of play, you are in for a long night and will not get to spend any time doing anything else. This really isn't acceptable to me; I am not interested in playing any table top rpg where the average combat takes more than 10-15 minutes to settle, start to end. And a good system for classic dungeon crawl style adventures should let you finish a fight in 5-10 minutes. Otherwise you aren't going anywhere or doing anything other than combat. D&D just isn't good enough as a combat engine to make that a good game. If you want to spend your night resolving a couple of fights, you should be playing a designed-to-purpose dueling game (e.g., melee) or a table-top miniatures skirmish game (e.g., Mordheim).

How could a combat even last 5-10 minutes? Like, a combat beyond fighting two goblins or something. Even if everyone took their turns quickly, the amount of turns + the descriptions would make it take a while. Was it really that fast in older systems?

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;999706How could a combat even last 5-10 minutes? Like, a combat beyond fighting two goblins or something. Even if everyone took their turns quickly, the amount of turns + the descriptions would make it take a while. Was it really that fast in older systems?

There's a minimum time you can hit that is largely based on a few factors:

- The complexity of the system in play.
- The understanding of the players of that system.
- The willingness/ability of the GM and players to take the steps necessary to not waste time.
- The number of players and the degree to which the game scales for number of players.
- The degree to which fights are designed to be balanced, difficult affairs.  (That is, if some fights are unbalanced, then people running or getting wiped out will tend to lower the average fight time.)

There are other, more minor issues, which may affect particular groups, but most gains you are going to get in reducing combat time will be in addressing one or more of the above.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;999706How could a combat even last 5-10 minutes? Like, a combat beyond fighting two goblins or something. Even if everyone took their turns quickly, the amount of turns + the descriptions would make it take a while. Was it really that fast in older systems?

People who know how to play BD&D or OD&D can resolve a fight with a few people on a side in 10 minutes. Easily.

Quote from: fearsomepirate;998930I've seen it happen. Players want to have every single turn be a group decision on what power to use and where to move. You just have to put your foot down and say there can't be any cross-talk on a player's turn.

This is a solution that may or may not help depending on the cause of the problem. If everyone is collectively discussing each action, it might help.

On the other hand, sometimes the problem is everyone drifting off into a daydream during everyone else's actions. When it is their action, they are lost. They need to get their bearings, and their slow action pushes others to zone out.

If zoning out is the problem then banning crosstalk makes it worse. You want to encourage people to be engaged even when it isn't their action.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;999706How could a combat even last 5-10 minutes? Like, a combat beyond fighting two goblins or something. Even if everyone took their turns quickly, the amount of turns + the descriptions would make it take a while. Was it really that fast in older systems?

In 5e you roll initiative once. So thats one thing less you are doing every round. As a DM I usually tell the players what the AC is of the opponents so they know their base to-hit and I dont need to call it out every round.

For me as a DM and player  round goes a bit like this
1: Possible maneuvering. Oft mostly skipped once we are in melee.
2: Roll to hit, or some action like casting a spell and let the DM know.
3: Roll damage if its a hit. Oft with a descriptor of what you were doing like "I swing my sword at the ork in front of me and put alot of effort into it. (6 damage)" Or at some tables I just call "I hit the ork for 6 damage" or "I hit the ork pretty good(6 damage)."
4: DM narrates what happened. like "Your attack really rattled the ork that time. He looks like he wont be able to withstand another." and variations thereof.
5: Move on to next player or monster in the initiative line.

So a round usually resolves in on average 2 minutes each.

That sounds just like 5e though. And are you saying you didn't use Initiative in older editions?

Some good suggestions here, the main thing is not to allow committee meetings in the middle of combat. Declare actions, roll init and go.

Quote from: saskganesh;999761Some good suggestions here, the main thing is not to allow committee meetings in the middle of combat. Declare actions, roll init and go.

Like the "Bend and Snap," works every time!