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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 6002060" data-attributes="member: 54877">How about instead of different resources for each mode, you have some particular resources that work differently in each mode? This might even work better if the time scale also deliberately changes, so that "bullet time" really is playing out a given time frame in more detail. This is easy with weapons, if going back to the roots of D&D. We don't need to go all the way back to one minute rounds, but somthing like 15 or 20 second rounds for "little fights" and then reserving the 3 to 6 second rounds for "big fights" might work. In a little fight, you get a bunch of swings of your sword, but only one or two every (15-20) round has a chance of doing real damage, because all the parrying and dodging is mostly abstracted. In a big fight, you get a swing every round, but you are also responsible for handling the defensive consequences of picking from your various options. So the trick is making this work with spells (and items). This is where I come back to making the casting time longer, for powerful spells in the more compressed time frame. Make casting a major spell take most of a "little fight" round. Meanwhile, a lesser spell takes less time, but you can still only get in "one spell per round" for the same reason that you only get in one swing of your sword. In a big fight, meanwhile, you still get one spell per round, but you can mix some big spells with some smaller ones in that same timeframe--assuming that increased weapon usage isn't messing up your day. That is, as a simple abstraction, it is easy for the caster to get off one spell in 15-20 seconds. When he goes into "bullet time," he can get off several spells, but it is not necessarily easy to contrive it so that it works. The abstraction of the longer round assumes that there is enough "distraction" messing everyone up that they can only do one effective thing in the longer round, on average. It's a concession to playability--not a claim about the characters' real performance limits. When you switch to "bullet time," the real limits are enforced--or at least closer to being enforced. That framework handles some of the issues that will arise in such a twin time system. The next piece flows logically from that: If you have some very powerful abilities that you want to strongly push towards happening only in big fights, then put an increased action cost on them. When the adrenaline/mojo is really pumping, this then happens in a shorter period of combat time, as the rounds are shorter. Meanwhile, the abilities that you consider more mainstream, give them an increased effectiveness boost in "little fights" to show that those "little fights" happen in a more abstract system. Don't try to make these proportional--you want to encourage/discourage particular abilities, not dictate. Let's assume 20 second little fight rounds and then 6 second big fight rounds for a moment: Swing Longsword: 1d8+Str mod base damage. Abstract long rounds--2d8+double Str mod to compensate for a shorter time (not 3.33 times damage).  Longsword Haymaker: One action to set up (i.e. conditional in big fights). Increases damage of next attack by 2d6+Str mod. Occasionally worth it in little fights; often worth it big fights if conditions are right. It's possible to do a similar thing with spells--if you adjust damage/effects for the routine stuff to have a mild bonus in little fights, and then impose an action cost on the most powerful spells. Naturally, something similar has to be done with items, class abilities, etc.--though not every ability needs it. Some things will be borderline enough that no-one will care if they work equally well in both cases.  Finally, this is very easy to scale for those that don't want it, assuming it is given a clean notation. If you stick to one scale all the time, then just ignore the bits that don't apply. If you swap scales but don't want to favor certain powers, ignore the bonus effects and increased action costs. Furthermore, time is the most plausible way to build this, but not the only one. It doesn't hurt to put a big component/gold cost on certain abilities to discourage frivilous use, for example.</blockquote>

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