D&D 5E I love TFtYP, but one quibble with Tamoachan sandbox trap

[Kalshane]

A lot of board games come with little hourglasses. You could use one of those as a prop to help time it. Stick with 10 rounds but if the PC doesn't tell you what they are doing before the timer is up you move to the next one?

Just a thought.

A 10-minute hourglass sounds like a perfect tool for this encounter. Not only do have the "hurry up aspect" of a live countdown timer, but the bottom of the hourglass filling with sand would be a perfect visual for how much the room has filled up. (In this case you wouldn't run things in combat rounds, but simply quickly go around the table asking each character what they were doing. If the player can't answer in a few seconds, their PC is momentarily frozen with panic and you move on to the next.)

 

[Satyrn]

Edit: Oh yes, I see what you are saying now after I read your comment again! I agree with you. The idea was 10 actions, regardless of time. It seems TFtYP got stuck on the time element, and not the idea of how many actions were supposed to be allowed.

I think it's more that the writers simply don't expect this to be run round-by-round, that the DM will judge time passing however he normally does during an exploration segment.

 

[machineelf]

Since it's not a combat, don't bother with rounds. Use the dungeon scale of minutes. (See "Time" on page 181 of the PHB.) That ought to leave you with the desired ten actions (eg. One action per minute.)

This is what I was missing. Thank you all for your clarification and suggestions. I like the hourglass idea.

Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk

 

[ccs]

Yep.

1 round in 1st Edition = 1 minute.
1 round in 5th Edition = 6 seconds.

So 10 rounds in 1E = 100 rounds in 5E.

It's the same amount of time.

Except that it's not. At least not really. AD&D you get 10 actions in that space of time. 5e? You get 100 actions. If you can't escape in 100 actions....

 

[Prakriti]

Except that it's not. At least not really. AD&D you get 10 actions in that space of time. 5e? You get 100 actions. If you can't escape in 100 actions....

10 rounds in 1E = 10 minutes.
100 rounds in 5E = 10 minutes.

So unless you want to argue that 10 ≠ 10... it's the same amount of time.

 

[Satyrn]

So, I'm a little curious, does the book say "100 rounds" or otherwise mention anything in the context of 100 rounds?

I would never consider using rounds to run this sort of thing, rather judging how long it takes for the characters go perform whatever various things the players attempt, pacing it like the trash compactor scene.

Editted because I think might have come across a little rudely.

 

[cbwjm]

Instead of 100 rounds, give the players 10 minutes. Actual minutes. Get a stop watch and start timing them.