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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8649734" data-attributes="member: 6877472">Something that's always struck me as odd when DM's are like &quot;you need to get to X in Y time so you can't stop to rest&quot; is that a lot of times, some of these same DM's (at least from my experience) are also the types that will happily let you miss secret doors or fall into traps unless you move slowly and declare you are poking every square inch of whatever ruin you happen to find yourself in with 11' poles (because as Greg Costikyan once joked, &quot;there are some things you wouldn't touch with a 10' pole&quot;), leading to this weird disconnect of &quot;hurry up but go slowly&quot;.&nbsp; Even more interestingly, you'd think this style of play would lend itself to trying to skip past encounters (which 1e AD&amp;D certainly did- fighting monsters was far less preferable than robbing them blind).&nbsp; I've seen DM's infuriated by players who figure out ways to bypass their encounters (and then just punish them later when &quot;the sounds of battle&quot; attract these enemies anyways).It's all well and good to apply time pressure to your players, but you need to be careful with how much, or they will feel forced into making rash decisions.Curiously, a lot of old school modules I played early in my D&amp;D career didn't have a lot of time pressure at all, and encouraged you to take your time, or even retreat when things got too tough- the long-abandoned tombs weren't going anywhere, and with death around every corner, it was to your advantage not to press on.It's funny how the game has changed over the years- now players have tons of resources they can draw upon, so we expect them to get in, have their 6 encounters, and burn them all, where there was a time when your &quot;resources&quot; were nothing but your hit points, and the main way to heal was the meager handful of cure spells your Cleric had and maybe some potions, and pressing onward was a certain death sentence...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8649734, member: 6877472"] Something that's always struck me as odd when DM's are like "you need to get to X in Y time so you can't stop to rest" is that a lot of times, some of these same DM's (at least from my experience) are also the types that will happily let you miss secret doors or fall into traps unless you move slowly and declare you are poking every square inch of whatever ruin you happen to find yourself in with 11' poles (because as Greg Costikyan once joked, "there are some things you wouldn't touch with a 10' pole"), leading to this weird disconnect of "hurry up but go slowly". Even more interestingly, you'd think this style of play would lend itself to trying to skip past encounters (which 1e AD&D certainly did- fighting monsters was far less preferable than robbing them blind). I've seen DM's infuriated by players who figure out ways to bypass their encounters (and then just punish them later when "the sounds of battle" attract these enemies anyways). It's all well and good to apply time pressure to your players, but you need to be careful with how much, or they will feel forced into making rash decisions. Curiously, a lot of old school modules I played early in my D&D career didn't have a lot of time pressure at all, and encouraged you to take your time, or even retreat when things got too tough- the long-abandoned tombs weren't going anywhere, and with death around every corner, it was to your advantage not to press on. It's funny how the game has changed over the years- now players have tons of resources they can draw upon, so we expect them to get in, have their 6 encounters, and burn them all, where there was a time when your "resources" were nothing but your hit points, and the main way to heal was the meager handful of cure spells your Cleric had and maybe some potions, and pressing onward was a certain death sentence... [/QUOTE]

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