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Tension and Suspense?
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<blockquote data-quote="DungeonsNDads" data-source="post: 6274476" data-attributes="member: 6775164"><p>I echo DrunkonDuty with barriers.</p><p></p><p>If they have to get somewhere before a specific time, or before a certain event, or anything where there is a definite "run out of time" then barriers work a treat. I always find starting them off slow, easy to dodge if they wanted to, but the type of things they might waste time on thinking "Oh we have plenty of time". Typically you can do this in the form of sidequests, where they think "We have to get to <city> in 10 days, but helping these clerics will only take us a day out of our way so we'll still have plenty of time"... Creating events that they <strong>could </strong>ignore, put probably wont.</p><p></p><p>... throw in a couple of those and suddenly it's a case of "Can we really afford to spend time doing that when we now only have 5 days left to get to <city>?" And this is where the barriers become a little harder to ignore, the children that have been kidnapped or the other large threat that might arise if someone doesn't deal with it there and now. Here you create events that they <strong>could </strong>ignore, but will find it hard to (for RP/character reasons no doubt).</p><p></p><p>... then as they draw closer and can feel the noose tightening as they start to run out of time, then you put in barriers they <strong>can't </strong>avoid. A bridge that is out, that will now force them to either go another day out of their way to take a different bridge, or potentially try to cross the perilous rapids. The bands of orcs that have risen in the countryside that they are traveling through, getting into fights and forcing them to rest or push on injured and with fewer resources. Here we make it extremely difficult to keep pushing on.</p><p></p><p>Suspense only really works when you are so close to succeeding but could still quite easily fail. A slow build up and then pile on the pressure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DungeonsNDads, post: 6274476, member: 6775164"] I echo DrunkonDuty with barriers. If they have to get somewhere before a specific time, or before a certain event, or anything where there is a definite "run out of time" then barriers work a treat. I always find starting them off slow, easy to dodge if they wanted to, but the type of things they might waste time on thinking "Oh we have plenty of time". Typically you can do this in the form of sidequests, where they think "We have to get to <city> in 10 days, but helping these clerics will only take us a day out of our way so we'll still have plenty of time"... Creating events that they [B]could [/B]ignore, put probably wont. ... throw in a couple of those and suddenly it's a case of "Can we really afford to spend time doing that when we now only have 5 days left to get to <city>?" And this is where the barriers become a little harder to ignore, the children that have been kidnapped or the other large threat that might arise if someone doesn't deal with it there and now. Here you create events that they [B]could [/B]ignore, but will find it hard to (for RP/character reasons no doubt). ... then as they draw closer and can feel the noose tightening as they start to run out of time, then you put in barriers they [B]can't [/B]avoid. A bridge that is out, that will now force them to either go another day out of their way to take a different bridge, or potentially try to cross the perilous rapids. The bands of orcs that have risen in the countryside that they are traveling through, getting into fights and forcing them to rest or push on injured and with fewer resources. Here we make it extremely difficult to keep pushing on. Suspense only really works when you are so close to succeeding but could still quite easily fail. A slow build up and then pile on the pressure. [/QUOTE]
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