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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5791486" data-attributes="member: 22779">On the topic of the 15 MAD and Pacing:Ok, I've seen this go back and forth a few times and I really have to ask - just how much time do you think the 15 MAD adds to an adventure?  Do you honestly think it adds enough to matter in the long run?  If it does, you're basically running a fantasy version of 24.Break it down.  Take two groups, Fast Group and Slow Group.  Fast Group averages 8 encounters per adventuring day, Slow Group averages 1 (it's a REALLY slow group).Now, they both enter a 15 encounter dungeon.  Fast Group finishes in 2 game days, Slow Group in 15.  13 day difference right?  Extend that over 20 levels.  That's a total difference of 260 days of TWENTY levels.  Less than one year - just about 9 months total spread over 20 levels.  How long does a 20 level campaign last in game time?  3 years?  5 years?  The difference between Fast Group and Slow Group is negligible at the outside.And that's presuming a lot.  For one, Slow Group will die a lot less.  After all, it's bringing maximum firepower to every encounter.  Fast group can only afford to use about 10% of resources per encounter.  So, Fast Group dies more often, meaning that it levels up slower, reducing that 260 day spread.  Secondly, this presumes that Fast Group can actually face that many encounters on average.  There are numerous scenarios where you only have 1-4 encounters on that game day - a lair, a random encounter, set piece battle, what have you.  Every time that happens, the spread between Fast Group and Slow Group gets narrower.Realistically, the spread is probably closer to 100 days, maybe 150 at the outside.  Over twenty levels, the difference between the two groups is probably only a few months.The idea that "The world keeps on moving" doesn't work.  It demonstrably doesn't work.  Unless your game world is so frenetically fast that four or five months spread over twenty levels makes a difference, it just doesn't matter.It's not about "good DM" or "bad DM".  It really isn't.  The 15 MAD, to me, is just D&D.  It always has been D&D.  We did this since pretty much day 1 in D&D.  The cleric runs out of spells, you stop.  If you don't stop, you die.  I've never seen a very good explanation for how groups manage to do 5-8 encounters without dying.  The only way it could work is if the encounters were well below the PC's weight class since the math doesn't work otherwise.  That or you have some very seriously generous DM fudging going on.Either way, it's not something I'm interested in engaging in in my games.</blockquote>

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