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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheAuldGrump" data-source="post: 5799120" data-attributes="member: 6957">The timeline does not need to 'amp up' the number of encounters - all it needs to do is prevent the PCs from resting after a brief period of activity. Kill some goblins, hole up, kill a troll, hole up, quick as a wink three days have passed, and in that time the bad guys can be busy.The timeline does not care if the PCs have one, three, or a dozen encounters in a day, just that during that day X things happen. Better is to have two timelines, what a friend of mine called 'The Dungeon Timeline and the Town Timeline' So that if the party is in Town then things are happening in the Dungeon (or castle, monastery, orc encampment) and if they are in the Dungeon than things are happening in Town.If the party is holed up in the inn for three days then they are not keeping an eye on sweet old Vicar Williams as he goes out into the woods on the night of the full moon. And that they don't see Ranger Ronnie poisoning the deer with wolfbane in the same area into which Vicar Williams has gone, all they know is that Vicar Williams died, naked, in the woods.... (Funny thing is that no human ever ended up dead on those full moons, just deer....)Meanwhile, they also don't see the hill giant that has been hired by the orcs to aid in next week's attack on the harvest. Their first clue will be the enormous rock that brings the church steeple crashing down. (Sleep through that! why dontcha?!)If the party has been well and truly thumped then I may give them a bit of leeway, unless it is something that is hard wired, like the tides and the full moons.Not random examples, by the way. This is what happened to that one group that decided to go Nova on some goblins.The ranger was working with the orcs, and the werewolf was one of the good guys.... (Eberron.)However, I will admit that I was a trifle heated this morning. It does sometimes feel like some folks would rather hobble my game than try to fix their own. Even the few times I used Rappan Athuck there was a timeline, where either a bonus went away (500 GP extra if you bring me the Headpiece of Frinn by Thursday!) or the person that they were trying to rescue got et. (*Burp!*) The party didn't always succeed, but they didn't shilly shally much either. The Auld Grump</blockquote>

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