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<blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 5135621" data-attributes="member: 710">When resources exist (are consumed and generated) on a &quot;dungeon&quot; level instead of an encounter or day level, these resources might become more abstract. It can't be about stuff like potions (you could leave the dungeon and buy a new one) or about encounter powers (they recover even if you don't finish the dungeon or leave it for good). A possible &quot;realistic&quot; resource might be time. So you can still leave the dungeon to buy you a potion in the nearest city, but if it takes too long, you might have lost in some way.The standard scenario for time being relevant is typically &quot;The ritual to end the world/unleash hell on [campaign world] finishes at midnight&quot; or something like that. But there could be other ways to track this - for example the &quot;alert state&quot; of the dungeon. If you keep killing monsters and heading back to town to recover hit points and consumables (or to haul off loot), someone in the dungeon is bound to notice the threat by the PCs and start preparing counter-measures. On an abstract level (and still in a D&amp;D 4 context), this could be reflected by increasing the encounter budget, for example. Ultimately, you create a death spiral - the encounters get tougher, and as they get tougher, the party has to retreat earlier. The trick is to also have a mechanic to &quot;reset&quot; the clock or create a safe pacing that the players can figure out. For example, a &quot;stealthy&quot; approach - you avoid traps, you don't kill monsters, maybe you even bribe some of the more mercenary types - could give you extra time - the alert level drops, the encounter budgets are smaller again, things get easier again. Of course, stealth on the other hand might mean you take longer time in-game. If there is an actual ticking clock, you have to find an equilibrium. If there is not, you might want to put up other incentives to keep it challenging - maybe you have a &quot;patience&quot; resource - the longer the dungeon takes, the more difficult stuff requiring patience get. This &quot;simulates&quot; the player characters getting sloppy after too many successes, or getting bored and frustrated by the pace. We could kinda narrow things down to two approaches: Aggressive vs Conservative and the &quot;timers&quot;: &quot;Alert Level&quot; vs &quot;Patience&quot;Dungeons might be classsifed with these too.Undeads are very dangerous - so aggressive is difficult. But - there is no alert level to speak of when most undeads are mindless. They don't care what happens to their neighbors. Stealth, Bribery or Diplomacy can be difficult with ghosts and mindless skeletons.A trap-infested dungeon is dangerous to wade through aggressively. Traps might also trigger enemy reactions. Conservative seems easier, but - it makes the dungeon a very slow, frustrating experience, causing people to get more twitchy, so that the Patience-Meter might drop more quickly.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mustrum_Ridcully, post: 5135621, member: 710"] When resources exist (are consumed and generated) on a "dungeon" level instead of an encounter or day level, these resources might become more abstract. It can't be about stuff like potions (you could leave the dungeon and buy a new one) or about encounter powers (they recover even if you don't finish the dungeon or leave it for good). A possible "realistic" resource might be time. So you can still leave the dungeon to buy you a potion in the nearest city, but if it takes too long, you might have lost in some way. The standard scenario for time being relevant is typically "The ritual to end the world/unleash hell on [campaign world] finishes at midnight" or something like that. But there could be other ways to track this - for example the "alert state" of the dungeon. If you keep killing monsters and heading back to town to recover hit points and consumables (or to haul off loot), someone in the dungeon is bound to notice the threat by the PCs and start preparing counter-measures. On an abstract level (and still in a D&D 4 context), this could be reflected by increasing the encounter budget, for example. Ultimately, you create a death spiral - the encounters get tougher, and as they get tougher, the party has to retreat earlier. The trick is to also have a mechanic to "reset" the clock or create a safe pacing that the players can figure out. For example, a "stealthy" approach - you avoid traps, you don't kill monsters, maybe you even bribe some of the more mercenary types - could give you extra time - the alert level drops, the encounter budgets are smaller again, things get easier again. Of course, stealth on the other hand might mean you take longer time in-game. If there is an actual ticking clock, you have to find an equilibrium. If there is not, you might want to put up other incentives to keep it challenging - maybe you have a "patience" resource - the longer the dungeon takes, the more difficult stuff requiring patience get. This "simulates" the player characters getting sloppy after too many successes, or getting bored and frustrated by the pace. We could kinda narrow things down to two approaches: Aggressive vs Conservative and the "timers": "Alert Level" vs "Patience" Dungeons might be classsifed with these too. Undeads are very dangerous - so aggressive is difficult. But - there is no alert level to speak of when most undeads are mindless. They don't care what happens to their neighbors. Stealth, Bribery or Diplomacy can be difficult with ghosts and mindless skeletons. A trap-infested dungeon is dangerous to wade through aggressively. Traps might also trigger enemy reactions. Conservative seems easier, but - it makes the dungeon a very slow, frustrating experience, causing people to get more twitchy, so that the Patience-Meter might drop more quickly. [/QUOTE]

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