Stormborn
Explorer
In a discussion with the current DM of our group the idea of running a site based adventure and keeping track of time round by round for the entire site came up. Essentially that means the PCs enter the site and from that point on things are tracked as if they were in combat, regardless of the actual types of actions being performed. Initiative is rolled at the begining and NPCs and enemies act either before the PCs (coming in at the end of the 'previous' round) if they have detected them in some way or are able to prepare for them or, if taken unaware, at the end of the 'current' round. The site in question happens to be a Drow fortress in the Demonweb so it is assumed that most, but possibly not all, of the inhabitants are 'on alert' and thus will never be completly suprised.
I observed some possible problems:
- When a barbarian rages how do you determine what constitutes the "end of the encounter" (this would be a problem for some other classes, such as those in Bo9S, but the Barbarian is the only character in our group with mechanics based on 'encounters')
- determining how many rounds certain skill checks take - I know that the skill descriptions list it for some but as we rarely make skill checks other than the ovious ones like Knowledge, Tumble, and UMD in 'combat' the counting of rounds may be problematic.
- How do you determine how long 'in character' PC interactions take?
- making the players aware that everything is being counted in 'rounds' basically says to them 'there is no hope of diplomacy here so don't try it.'
-what happens if the PCs are suprised?
Her goal is to try and make the PCs, and the players, feel a sense of urgency and danger. I found the idea interesting but am unsure of how it would work out in play.
Has anyone ever done anything similar? If so how did it work out? If not, what would you suggest for adding that desired feeling of urgency to a site based adventure?
I observed some possible problems:
- When a barbarian rages how do you determine what constitutes the "end of the encounter" (this would be a problem for some other classes, such as those in Bo9S, but the Barbarian is the only character in our group with mechanics based on 'encounters')
- determining how many rounds certain skill checks take - I know that the skill descriptions list it for some but as we rarely make skill checks other than the ovious ones like Knowledge, Tumble, and UMD in 'combat' the counting of rounds may be problematic.
- How do you determine how long 'in character' PC interactions take?
- making the players aware that everything is being counted in 'rounds' basically says to them 'there is no hope of diplomacy here so don't try it.'
-what happens if the PCs are suprised?
Her goal is to try and make the PCs, and the players, feel a sense of urgency and danger. I found the idea interesting but am unsure of how it would work out in play.
Has anyone ever done anything similar? If so how did it work out? If not, what would you suggest for adding that desired feeling of urgency to a site based adventure?