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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Unwise" data-source="post: 5542243" data-attributes="member: 98008">I'm not expert on this topic, but I generally have problems the other way. My players are good at keeping timing in perspective and I generally have them rushing towards some goal.  For instance, I did well at adding a sense of urgency in to Keep on the Shadowfell, but it came back to bite me. PCs ran past rooms that they thought were non-vital to stopping Kalarel, they headed straight towards him, figuring they would save the world then come back for those rooms. This stuffed me up in a couple of ways though.  Firstly, they did not feel free to take an extended rest, even after it was well deserved and they had found a nice hidding place to do so. It felt a little forced to heavily hint that it as OK to do so. Secondly, they got through the second last fight by the skin of their teeth. They could hear Kalarel chanting in the next room though, so they engaged him with half of the party already bloodied and little to no healing left. Although those are specific examples, this is a common occurance. I find that random encounters on the road between two places are utterly trivial, as the PCs have no reason not to blow all of their daily powers. It can be fun though, as it lets them warm up with an easier fight, or lets them take on something they otherwise could not. The way I have been working around these issues, is to make the consequences of them delaying clear to them in a mechanical way. For instance, I set up the bandit camp they are invading, laying out all the minitures in a deadly effective array. I then say "because you got here so quickly, the camp is in disarray and some of the bandits have not rejoined them. Pick 5 guys to slide 10 squares each. Pick 3 guys to take off the table". This adds a fun tacitcal choice and shows them the consequences of their actions. On the flip side, when they invaded a harpy nest, I obviously added in another 8 harpy minions as they had delayed so long in getting there that more re-enforcements arrived. On a larger scale, I like Locien's idea above, because it is a ticking bomb for them to deal with, but it won't force them to face too many encounters in a row without a rest. The last time I used this method, they were trying to save a diseased town. Every time they take an extended rest, they have to make endurance rolls against the disease.</blockquote>

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