Reddit reviews Sand Timer - Foxnovo Colorful Sandglass Hourglass Sand Clock Timer 30sec / 1min / 2mins / 3mins / 5mins / 10mins (6pcs)

Yeah just use a timer. Amazon has a set of 6 for like $10

I ran into kinda the same problem at my LFGS a year or two ago. I was the DM, and on some nights the tables would swell to 8 players, which makes life kiiinnnnda awful for everyone.

Out of combat, I always had the same 2-4 players take command of a situation; that's fine in a novel where some characters always get shuffled to the rear of the group, not so much IRL.

In combat, it's just a slog, because a single round can take 15 minutes even if the characters are lower level. And it's usually worse because half the players don't know what anything is, so we gotta baby-step them through attack and damage rolls and class features and *frustrated strangled sounds*

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First piece of advice: Set a hard limit on how many players you'll take at your table. I and my current DM both have a limit of 7 players, although 4-6 is preferable. That might suck for anyone who comes along all new and excited, but it's just not fair to that new player and your regulars, for the reasons I stated above. I can't count how many times at the end of the night I've had to say "hey, hope you enjoyed your first night, sorry it was so crazy, that just happens with a ton of players," and then that player never shows up again. I know it's not the best way to think about it, but when you sink 1/6 of a game night into helping someone who will never show up again, that's a bunch of a lot of wasted time!

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Second piece of advice: Employ methods to trim combat round times. Sand timers to hurry up turns are a good place to start, as well as reminders of who's on deck turn to turn; "Ciel, your turn, Rick Trollbus you're up next so start thinking about what you'd like to do." There are some other methods, though I haven't yet tried all of them.

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Third piece of advice: Try to get a feel for how much the rotating guest/casual players do or want to contribute. Some folks are only quite until a fellow players "MB1, any thoughts?" Then again, some people do it just to get their social itch scratched, and they're fine being quiet and listening, then rolling dice when it's their turn; totally legit way to play. Don't be afraid to ask the casual players and/or your regulars to find out, because it's better to be sure than to guess and be wrong.

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Fourth piece of advice: Generate a butt-load of characters for casual and new players. I've seen significant portions of a game night get eaten up by getting a player up to speed on the most basic mechanics of D&D player creation and class features. If you have a new guy show up, just say "here, pick from these 3-8 and we'll help you understand what these characters are all about!"

As someone who had this problem, use these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014XXP12G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This has definitely sped up the game for the better.

> But I want an hourglass

You can even get them shipped to your door.

https://www.amazon.com/Sand-Timer-Colorful-Sandglass-Hourglass/dp/B014XXP12G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479483425&sr=8-1&keywords=SAND+TIMERS

Some players hate it, but most players LOVE IT! Especially fighters/barbarians

Use this.

We use these in almost every game we play once we figure out whats fair timing. We even use it in DnD for fights and stuff.

It really keeps games flowing and forces players to pay attention instead of being on their phones or whatever. It keeps people from crunching the numbers and fucking everyone else, and forces people with AP to deal with their issue. All the players we ever had with AP have basically grown because of these timers. Actually all the regulars have gotten so much better at games cus of it.

It's neat.