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c/board-game-geekswyatt771wyatt7719d agoProlific Poster

Can we talk about using a kitchen timer to speed up slow players?

My game group in Austin had a guy who took forever on his turn, so last month I brought a 3-minute sand timer from a Pictionary box. It cut our Terraforming Mars game from 4 hours to under 3, but now he's mad and says it ruins the fun. Where do you stand on using timers to keep things moving?
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2 Comments
phoenixh74
You mentioned using a 3-minute sand timer for Terraforming Mars. That's a pretty short time for a complex turn in that game. Maybe the problem is the timer length, not the timer itself. Our group uses a 5-minute hourglass for heavy games. It gives enough time to think but stops the really long pauses. The guy might be less mad if he felt he had a fair shot to plan.
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keithwalker
Yeah, that's a fair point about the time.
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