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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scott Christian" data-source="post: 8167467" data-attributes="member: 6901101">As a DM I have written a few, including one that specifically had them sailing across a lake (east) to track down a group of thieves that were holding an NPC family hostage or sailing across the lake (west) to stop an oncoming assassin attack on the elected mayor. Both NPCs had several RP sessions with the players. Both were liked by the players. And they found out the information while in the center of said lake via a thief with a guilty conscience. Both were time sensitive, so it was an act now. One boat. One decision. One person (or family) to save. I loved the idea as a 25 year old DM.It was the worst thing I have ever done. Rotten to the core. Players hated it. I hated it afterwards.Then I tried it again, this time with much more subtle nuances because I thought it would be cool to have some magic coins infected with a lycanthropy curse. I also wrote three or four other adventures they could do outside the city rather than track the coins. I figured the coins would infect 1d4 people a day. Well, they did two of the adventures outside, which took a week. I thought, okay, 1 werefolk (each coin had the curse of the actual creature on it). I had someone run into them in the wilds (where they were) and tell them about the strange things going on in town. They chose the third adventure. It took 2 weeks! Then they stayed outside of town to rest. Another day. Now there were 44-66 werefolk in town. I had the guards kill some off, but they were neither the level nor able to prevent the carnage. So I had a choice. Should I just say 2 or 3 people got infected, and have them deal with it, or stick to what I originally had planned. Because when I planned it I meant for there to be a change in environment or consequence/reward due to time. I chose the latter.It became the new worst thing I have ever done. Rotten to the core. Players hated it. I hated it afterwards.So I know you said you don't want the consequence to seem like punishment, but outside of simple storytelling, like, that barkeep you have been pining after got married because you were gone for two months, always seems like a consequence. Once you put a countdown on it and don't allow them to do it all, it is a punishment for some players.I have also been on the player side (after I did it twice as a DM) and can say I thoroughly disliked the experience. Felt happy for the DM because I had had those thoughts. But, as a player, yuck.</blockquote>

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