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<blockquote data-quote="Big J Money" data-source="post: 9592437" data-attributes="member: 70533">This is down to taste, but you could have a timer for declaring actions in tense situations. &quot;X happens. What do you do? You have 5 seconds to do something or Y happens.&quot; Count down out loud.I introduced this to players unfamiliar with the concept in a new 5E campaign to make combat more chaotic and the players loved it. I introduced it slowly though, making sure they got a feel for how combat works on a timer and how to quickly choose actions, etc.If you don't like the countdown, an alternative version for Alien RPG might be called &quot;Pressure Points&quot;. You as a DM decide when a decision is a pressure point (essentially any time action is required when things are tense, especially when time is critical). Instead of counting down, you would count up. The number of seconds it takes for them to describe their action is the number of their stress dice that will apply to that roll:P: I walk down the corrider and peek down the passage on the right to see if anything's down there.GM: Two guards patrol the hallway. You spot each other at the same moment. Alarmed, the guards shout &quot;Hey you, stop and come with us!&quot; as they reach for their rifles. This is a pressure point, what do you do? 0, 1, 2, 3...Obviously you don't have them add more stress dice than they have accumulated, so you can stop counting when you hit their max. If they haven't accumulated any yet, then there's no point to doing the count up at all. If they describe an action that you feel doesn't require a dice roll, it still does not require a dice roll; being a pressure point moment wouldn't change that.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Big J Money, post: 9592437, member: 70533"] This is down to taste, but you could have a timer for declaring actions in tense situations. "X happens. What do you do? You have 5 seconds to do something or Y happens." Count down out loud. I introduced this to players unfamiliar with the concept in a new 5E campaign to make combat more chaotic and the players loved it. I introduced it slowly though, making sure they got a feel for how combat works on a timer and how to quickly choose actions, etc. If you don't like the countdown, an alternative version for Alien RPG might be called "Pressure Points". You as a DM decide when a decision is a pressure point (essentially any time action is required when things are tense, especially when time is critical). Instead of counting down, you would count up. The number of seconds it takes for them to describe their action is the number of their stress dice that will apply to that roll: [I]P: I walk down the corrider and peek down the passage on the right to see if anything's down there. GM: Two guards patrol the hallway. You spot each other at the same moment. Alarmed, the guards shout "Hey you, stop and come with us!" as they reach for their rifles. This is a pressure point, what do you do? 0, 1, 2, 3...[/I] Obviously you don't have them add more stress dice than they have accumulated, so you can stop counting when you hit their max. If they haven't accumulated any yet, then there's no point to doing the count up at all. If they describe an action that you feel doesn't require a dice roll, it still does not require a dice roll; being a pressure point moment wouldn't change that. [/QUOTE]

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