D&D General How often are your stories on a clock?

[Brotton Goodfellow]

I told my players once that they had 2 in game weeks before a ritual was complete just so they’d get on with the adventure instead of pissing around town.

I’m currently using the dungeon turn with every hour indicating a roll for random encounters. The players also know that if they stay too long in the dungeon something is gonna snatch up their cheeks.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I told my players once that they had 2 in game weeks before a ritual was complete just so they’d get on with the adventure instead of pissing around town.

See, this is why I don't really like time pressure: clearly they wanted to piss around town and now they can't.

 

[Mort]

See, this is why I don't really like time pressure: clearly they wanted to piss around town and now they can't.

Sure they can.

If they take too long, they just won't interact with stopping this ritual, which is likely an opportunity for loot/experience. Either someone else gets to it, or the group see the consequences of the ritual being completed - and have to deal with it.

Nothing says the PCs have to jump at every plot hook/opportunity for adventure. They should pick and choose, depending on what they actually wish to do.

Frankly, A DM that has all/most of his plot hooks be "do this or the world ends..." needs to dial it back in favor of smaller more organic consequences!

 

[OB1]

Like much of what I do with encounter, adventure and tier design, I mix it up. Players may have a time limit they know about, have a time limit they don't know about, know that they don't have a time limit, or don't know they don't have a time limit (whether they think they do or not). I also heavily mix up the number of encounters an adventuring day, from 1 to as many as 15 (with some being avoidable and others in front of side objectives not necessary to complete the main objective). All of that uncertainty leads to the players making decisions about the moment in the fiction, not based on expectations of the game.

 

[LordEntrails]

If ticking clock means there's a deadline - not very often. If ticking clock means things are happening in the background and reacting even if the PCs turtle up in their Leomund's tiny hut for a long rest - most of the time.

This. Stuff happens, the world is dynamic, other people's plan move forward on their own timelines, not on the players/character's time.

Players can stop and rest, or try to, anytime they want. I do (or will, as never come up yet) limit 3 short rests per day (long rest).

 

[Xetheral]

There are rarely explicit ticking clocks in my game, but there is always time pressure from the fact that the party always has multiple simultaneous priorities. The faster they accomplish any given priority, the sooner they can tackle the next one.

For example, let's say the party is exploring an uninhabited ruin. There's no inherent time pressure here, but the party also wants to help their allies deal with a goblin problem, investigate rumors of a foreign theives' guild muscling in on the locals, follow up on a lead from one of their agents about a magic item that may be available for sale, and track down a wanted criminal that they suspect is in their neck of the woods. The faster they finish exploring the ruin, the faster they can attend to these other priorities, none of which are just going to wait for them.

 

[Lanefan]

I mix it up. A few adventures have hard-line clocks on them, others more soft-deadline clocks or clocks where the deadline isn't and-or can't be known by the PCs other than they know there's a deadline out there somewhere, but most have no real deadline at all other than "just get it done".

 

[jgsugden]

There is almost always some form of ticking clock, although it is often ambiguous.

For example, the PCs in one current campaign are attempting to liberate a monastery devoted to a Knowledge God that was assaulted by sinister forces in search of hidden knowledge. They know the enemy forces are searching, but they do not know when they will find it. But i do. And there is a specific time they'll find it is the PCs do not delay them. The PCs and players know there is a clock - but they can't see it.

Overall in that campaign, the nation that the PCs began within was assaulted by an overwhelmingly powerful force, and a small number of the people of the nation fled across the seas. They've discovered that the overwhelming force intended to wipe out the entire nation. They know that that force is going to follow them across the seas. They just don't know when.

I make it clear early on that I have a calendar of events that are in motion, and things on that calendar take place unless the PCs change the situation - and they do not have time to solve all the world's problems. They feel the time pressure, and do not waste time lightly - and that has been a consistentl good way to keep them from trying the 'rest after every battle' technique (as is having united forces of enemies that gang up on the PCs if the PCs only take out a scouting troop before retreating to rest).

 

[Brotton Goodfellow]

See, this is why I don't really like time pressure: clearly they wanted to piss around town and now they can't.

Yeah I get it, but I was tired of it and wanted things to progress for my own sanity. It came down to pacing really. The game was getting stale and so I injected just the slightest amount of pressure to kinda light a fire under the players and shift the focus of the adventure.

 

[overgeeked]

I’m starting to use ticking clocks more because that’s the style I want to run. More fast-paced action-adventure rather than meandering, in-your-own time, rests galore style game. I’ve also had players absolutely demand long rests after taking one hit point of damage, so I fully sympathize with your friend. I also just had a group decide that the door to the dungeon looked too scary…so they went home. A lot of modern players are absurdly risk adverse when it comes to their characters. So without a clock, they won’t ever push their luck.

As others have said, it doesn’t have to be obvious. You have one hour to rescue the dragon before the princess eats him is only one version. Background consequences when the PCs take too long are also a great way to reinforce this is an action-adventure game.