Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 7392389" data-attributes="member: 53980">You can establish small-scale time constraints without imposing larger scale ones.An example small-scale constraint is that cultists have kidnapped some townsfolk and will sacrifice them three days from now during an eclipse. Whereas a large-scale constraint is the cult that has a world ending long scheme in which the PCs are catapulted from one adventure foiling those plans to the next in rapid succession.You can establish short-term constraints while also imposing long-term delays. In the case of the world ending cult, the characters might be the sword arm of an organization opposing the cult. When they get a mission, they need to hustle or the cult succeeds in their current objective. But once that's done, they have downtime where they wait for the agents of the organization to dig up intelligence about the cultists next moves.I've recently been experimenting with using carrots instead of (as well as alongside) the stick of time-constraints. Players earn a small but cumulative bonus (1 to 3% of a level) for each encounter they complete. Short rests reduce the bonus and long rests reset it completely. They've really been enjoying it, and it's strongly encouraged resource management so that they can get through as many encounters per rest as possible.</blockquote>