Debate: using tournament timers vs playing by feel at tabletop events

At a local convention in Austin last October, I was in a 4-player game of Terraforming Mars where one guy kept taking 15 minute turns. The organizer finally came over and stuck a 3 minute timer on the table, and half the room cheered while the other half got annoyed. It split my usual game group too, some people say timers kill the social fun, others say they keep things fair. Where do you stand on this, do you bring your own timer to events or just let people play at their own pace?

3 comments

3 Comments

iris9271mo ago

Wait, did you really sit through a 5 hour game of Eclipse? That sounds like actual torture, I would have walked. @luna_wright is right that timers keep things moving, but man, a 5 hour game makes me think those people were just messing around on their phones half the time. I've seen timers both speed people up and make them more anxious, honestly depends on the group. Some folks just freeze up when they see a clock ticking, which kind of defeats the purpose.

william_garcia1mo ago

Man, I used to be totally against timers because they felt so stiff and formal, but after watching a 4-player game of Eclipse drag on for almost 5 hours, I've done a full 180. Do you think the timer actually helped people play faster or just stressed them out?

luna_wright1mo ago

Honestly yeah, timers kept everyone focused and cut that drag by at least an hour.