Thursday Knights, Live Broadcast of Actual Play

darjr · Apr 20, 2010

Would you let someone else edit them?

And what time in the cast is the skill challenge?

Steel_Wind · Apr 20, 2010

OverloadUT said:
We use egg timers fairly often, and this was the first time I was so strict about it. I really wanted the whole fight to feel extremely hectic and hurried. The second reason for using the timer is the fact that despite my best efforts, at the end of the day the encounter still only had a small amount of tactics. The timer helped make those few tactics more interesting because they were rushed to choose them.

How long is the timer you use? Three minutes (std egg timer) or is it some lesser amount? (non-standard are far more difficult to find).

I have seen some two minute and even one minute egg timers on some websites for party/game use, but the shipping cost is VERY high.

I definitely want to add the use of such a timer to a complicated skill challenge in SW:SE I have coming up in about 10 days - so a prompt reply would be appreciated

If you use a three minute timer, do you find that's too much time to allow to the player?

While we are on the topic - where did you get the egg timer you use? Pilfered from some old game of Boggle, a cooking store, etc?

D'karr · Apr 20, 2010

Steel_Wind said:
While we are on the topic - where did you get the egg timer you use? Pilfered from some old game of Boggle, a cooking store, etc?

Amazon has a large selection through third party vendors. Do a search for sand timers.

Here's a combo set of 1, 2 and 3 minute timers

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/SANDTIMER-COMBO-SET-OF-3/dp/B000F8T8H8/ref=pd_sxp_grid_pt_2_0]Amazon.com: SANDTIMER COMBO SET OF 3: Office Products[/ame]

OverloadUT · Apr 20, 2010

Steel_Wind said:
How long is the timer you use? Three minutes (std egg timer) or is it some lesser amount? (non-standard are far more difficult to find).

We actually have 1 minute, 1.5 minute, and 3 minute timers. (They actually can vary by about 15% on each use because they are cheap and plastic.) We use all three of them for different things.

For this skill challenge, I used the 1 minute timer, and it was the first time I ever used one that short. 1 minute is really not much time at all. As you may have seen in the broadcast, it came down to the last grain of sand a couple times.

For regular combat, we typically use the 90 second timer for each turn. We've never been strict about enforcing it, but I can say with confidence that just having that timer there as an encouragement to decide what you want to do really does speed up combat significantly. I've never once actually enforced the timer during combat, but when it gets low I'll point it out to the player and they'll usually just bite the bullet and do whatever they were thinking.

The 3 minute timer we haven't used in quite a while, but it was once used fairly often for encouraging role-playing. When we would get to a particularly interesting point in the session, like about to open the door to the Big Bad Guy's throne room, I'd put down the yellow 3-minute timer, point to one of the players, and say "what are you thinking?" The timer would be there to encourage people to take at least that long, rather than to speed them up. The idea was we wanted a few minutes from each player explaining what is going through their character's mind and such. It was a really useful little exercise but I am happy to say that the reason we no longer do that anymore is that all of the players now fairly frequently offer up that sort of information on their own, when relevant.

As for where I got them? My Friendly Local Game Store happens to carry them. I think they also have 30 second and 5 minute timers.

OverloadUT · Apr 20, 2010

darjr said:
Would you let someone else edit them?

And what time in the cast is the skill challenge?

Having someone else edit them wouldn't be out of the question. I'd have to agree with their philosophy of what should be edited out though.

I am not sure right now how far in to the recording the skill challenge is, but I plan on editing last week's episode tonight and when I do that I'll have the timeline available like I do for the other episodes.

Steel_Wind · Apr 20, 2010

D'karr said:
Amazon has a large selection through third party vendors. Do a search for sand timers.

Here's a combo set of 1, 2 and 3 minute timers

Amazon.com: SANDTIMER COMBO SET OF 3: Office Products

You must spread some Experience Points around before giving it to D'karr again

Thanks man!

Steel_Wind · Apr 20, 2010

Yanno, sometimes the Inernet's just not the best way...

I called my FLGS - which in this case is 401Games in Toronto.

They ordered in the set of 5 timers from their distributor which carries products from Koplow Games for me (a set of five timers in the amount of 30 seconds, 1 min, 90 secs, 2 mins and three minutes).

Timers should be in the store in 2 days! So I will be sure to have them in time for the next game sesison.

If your local FLGS does not carry the Koplow timers, Chessex seems to carry 1 and 3 minute timers. I can't imagine when a 30 second timer would be used much - but I can well imagine where the flexibility of having a 90 second and 2 minute timer would be helpful during a game.

In any event - mad props for all the timer stuff. Very helpful advice.

Just another day on ENWorld

OverloadUT · Apr 22, 2010

Episode 12 Audio Recording Posted

The PCs continue their journey at sea. The captain teaches them a few new tricks, they meet some new friends, and then they find a mysterious shipwreck…