Shadowdark Shadowdark General Thread [+]

[NN]

Hmm, I see what you're going for, but I wonder how yoinking another player's Luck token will work out in play.

id say to the Rake player

“if you take a luck token from me without permission, i will consider that an act of pvp aggression and i will have revenge”

 

[Scribe]

id say to the Rake player

“if you take a luck token from me without permission, i will consider that an act of pvp aggression and i will have revenge”

I mean John did lose a lot of friends as well.

 

[overgeeked]

My group typically tries to have two going at a time, on staggered timetables (again, they've been caught in the dark in combat before). RAW, you're supposed to just have all the torches on a single timer, but that rubs me the wrong way and I just run multiple timers myself.

It messes with my sense of the world as a real place, but it’s explicitly a game element and the purpose is to push those “oh hell” moments of panic when the torch goes out. If you run multiple timers you effectively remove that, so might as well not both. It just becomes busywork with no teeth.

 

[Mannahnin]

It messes with my sense of the world as a real place, but it’s explicitly a game element and the purpose is to push those “oh hell” moments of panic when the torch goes out. If you run multiple timers you effectively remove that, so might as well not both. It just becomes busywork with no teeth.

Probably less so if Whizbang is consistently attacking the light with monsters and environmental hazards.

 

[overgeeked]

Probably less so if Whizbang is consistently attacking the light with monsters and environmental hazards.

Sure. And it’s 1/X as vulnerable with X torches burning. But I’m talking specifically about the timer running out and having multiple overlapping timers. It goes from tension inducing to busywork.

 

[Mannahnin]

Sure. And it’s 1/X as vulnerable with X torches burning. But I’m talking specifically about the timer running out and having multiple overlapping timers. It goes from tension inducing to busywork.

I imagine Whizbang would probably have noticed if all the tension had been removed by their modification, so I suggested a possible explanation for why they're apparently not seeing the effect you speculated on.

 

[overgeeked]

I imagine Whizbang would probably have noticed if all the tension had been removed by their modification, so I suggested a possible explanation for why they're apparently not seeing the effect you speculated on.

It’s not speculation. I played in a game run with multiple timers and it lacked tension because of that. The players just had timers on their phones. Every X minutes someone would mark a torch and restart the timer. The light got attacked, that player would mark a torch and restart the timer. No tension. It might work in a small group if only 2-3 PCs have torches going. Even slightly larger groups with 4-5 torches…it’s just busywork at that point.

 

[kermit4karate]

It’s not speculation.

Hmm.... It is though, because as @Mannahnin said, @Whizbang Dustyboots didn't indicate that the use of multiple timers eliminated tension (note: you did say 'lacked tension,' not reduced tension).

I'd be curious to hear more from @Whizbang Dustyboots about how the use of multiple timers affected the tension in his games, because I struggle with that element too -- the use of the timers. I LOVE SD and the impact the timer has on the game. I just don't like the suspension of disbelief required on my part and that of the players to accept...how they don't make any logical sense at all.

 

[NN]

Every torch being held is a shield or a weapon not being held. The overlit party will be weaker elsewhere.

 

[NN]

And PCs are quite capable of dying horribly in sumptuously illuminated dumgeons.

Probably making any resource critically vital will lead to countermeasures and bookkeepingification.