Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 8402486" data-attributes="member: 45197">I've always (ok, only a few decades, but still) a "random variable" to most mundane predictions of time in my D&D-style games. For example, a "Short Rest" is listed as 1 hour. In my game, it's 40 minutes + (1d6x10 minutes...up to about 1d10x10 minutes). The variable dice I roll is based on how much "activity" the PC's have been involved in. If they were just riding horses along a road, +d6x10min; if they have been in 5 fights in a dungeon and are half dead, and resting inside a relatively safe and warm area, +d10x10 minutes. Same thing goes for a "Long Rest". It's 7 hours base, + some random dice x10 or 15 minutes...depending on what they were doing prior to resting and where they are currently actually resting. If they are safe, warm and didn't do much, +1d6x15min. If safe, warm and almost dead, probably +4d4x15min...and I might even start that at 8  or even 9 hours. And yes, the x10 or x15 is on purpose; it helps reinforce the "short" versus the "long" rest...at least in my brain. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />For my own fantasy RPG system (based on Darkurthe Legends), things (especially magic) are measured in "time periods" that cover a range. What's more important though, is the intention of the spell/item/ability/skill being used.For example, a spell of "Water Walking", lets say, might have a Duration listed as "Hours". If the mage casts the spell to walk across a medium sized pool in a cavern deep in the dungeon, he casts it, takes the 7 minutes to walk across the pool...and the spell would end, but the Player pipes up and says "I want to walk around the edge of this pool to check things out". Ok, spell doesn't end, he walk around the edge, taking another 45 minutes, and then the spell ends. Back on the surface world, he casts it again to walk across a huge river. He takes the hour and a half to get across...and the spell ends. Same spell, different durations...but the duration is based on the INTENTIONS of the caster at the time of casting.What this has allowed me to do in my home-brew Fantasy RPG is keep a mechanical aspect to the game...but also allow for a much more free-flowing narrative and dramatic potential. Win/win if you ask me! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Sounds similar'ish to my "durations" thing I just talked about. It also is reminiscent of how I handle time when I'm GM'ing my "SUPERS!" RPG campaign (SUPERS! is an amazing super hero RPG... worth a look if you like super hero games). In my SUPERS! campaign, time and actions are handled from the perspective of "What would it look like in an actual comic book?". By that I mean pages, panels, and spreads. If a PC can take out 6 mooks (thugs, 'red-shirts', minions, etc) in one action, that can be imagined to be in a single panel, meaning it was fast. If the PC wanted to take out those 6 mooks, but 3 are at a door and 3 of them are on the catwalk above...that would take two panels. Meaning he could only take out 3 this action, then the next 3 the following action. Same thing goes for Range/Distance. If you can picture it in a panel, page or even a spread, given the current narrative situation, then you have the 'range'. If you can only picture your target as a small dot on the page...then no, too far away. But, SUPERS! is a very narrative based game (say, 75/25 for narrative vs mechanical), and D&D is MUCH more mechanical), so the same sort of thing might be to "squishy" for a 5e game.^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

Verification