D&D General Time Pressure and Adventures

[CleverNickName]

(Required listening: Queen, "Under Pressure") I'm working late tonight, listening to some tunes, and this song came up in my rotation. And it got me thinking.

Suppose it's game night, and your DM announces that tonight's adventure has a time limit. The clock is ticking! Maybe the princess is going to be sacrificed at dawn. Maybe the caves will flood as soon as the tide comes in. Maybe the curse will take you all at midnight! Or something like that...your DM has made it clear to you that you won't have limitless time to explore, rest, and chase rabbits. You have only a limited amount of time to Do The Thing or you will fail the mission.

Not everyone likes this kind of adventure. Maybe it imposes a new set of constraints that they aren't accustomed to. Maybe their character build(s) depend on being able to rest after each encounter. Maybe they like to explore each and every room and tunnel before leaving the level.

Others might actually prefer it, especially if their group is the sort that easily gets distracted. Maybe they appreciate having that extra bit of structure, or maybe they just like having straightforward plots. Maybe it just feels more realistic.

I imagine a good number of folks fall somewhere in the middle.

How about you? What's your first reaction?

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

My first reaction is to ask the GM if they mean in game, in reality, or both?
A game time limit means more real time planning so that the task may be competed in the game time. A real time limit but no game time limit may mean the opposite.

 

[CleverNickName]

My first reaction is to ask the GM if they mean in game, in reality, or both?
A game time limit means more real time planning so that the task may be competed in the game time. A real time limit but no game time limit may mean the opposite.

Mm. Fair point.

For the purpose of this discussion let's say that it's in-game. The DM is tracking the in-game hours, meaning that you will have to pay very close attention to travel times, spell durations, number of rests, and that sort of thing. There's no real-life stopwatch or hourglass sitting on the table.

 

[delericho]

It's fine. I certainly don't think every adventure should have a time limit, but some can. Indeed, some should.

 

[James Gasik]

I've found it takes more work to make a pressure sensitive adventure than not. With "ye olde exploration of ancient ruins", the party can try to avoid encounters, or even potentially regroup and regain resources, consider their strategy, and maybe even resupply.

In a time sensitive mission, you have to hope that their resources can endure, and that a stroke of bad luck doesn't end the adventure prematurely. Like, you know, having the Cleric go down and get dragged away by enemies in an encounter, dramatically reducing the likelihood of success (and that's assuming they don't get sidetracked by rescuing the Cleric!).

 

[Lanefan]

Other: just like any other mission we'll give it a shot: if we fail, we fail; if we succeed, we succeed. The time limit is just one more obstacle in our path, albeit one that we know about and can plan around.

(there'd be some variance based on the character I'm playing at the time; some might see an in-game time limit as being wa-ay more serious than would others )

 

[EzekielRaiden]

As long as it's a sometimes food rather than an all the time thing--and as long as it's not consistently a "surprise! Time limit!" thing, e.g. sometimes we know we'll be on a time limit, other times we might not--then I have no problem with it. It can spice things up every now and then.

 

[R_J_K75]

I don't remember ever playing or running an entire time sensitive adventure, seems like I should have. I'm sure there were encounters that were time sensitive but I'm old and my memory really sucks these days. This reminds me of the FR novel "Escape from Undermountain" where the protagonist has 24-hours to find his way out of the dungeon or die iirc. Although this does give me an idea to incorporate into my next adventure.

This made me recall an adventure a friend of mine ran where at the very beginning he announced the one of the PCs was going to die. For whatever reason he had written it into the plot/predetermined that a PC would croak. I do remember that it added an exciting tension amongst the players and kept everyone on their toes. Ironically, I don't remember whose character died so I'm inclined to believe the DM was just bluffing and used for dramatic effect to change up the pace of the game for a session or two. So, I think it's good to add a thematic twist to the game from time to time to challenge the players, but like others have said though it should only be used sparingly.

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

If some evil wizard is going to set off his magic nuke to destroy the city, he's not going to wait for 3 extra weeks just because the PCs decided to do a bunch of side-quests and got hammered in a pub and woke up without pants. That story has a time limit. These PCs will wake up without pants and without city if they decided to ignore that time limit.

 

[James Gasik]

The closest I've done to this in 5e was when I ran the conversion of Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. The lower levels of the Shrine are filled with foul air that slowly damages the party (like once an hour). Not a big deal, but it did mean the party could not take long rests. This added tension as they tried to make their way to the higher levels, knowing that they couldn't get long rest resources back.

At least, it started to, until between sessions 1 and 2, the players found a way to trade for a Ring of Spell Storing loaded with a Leomund's Tiny Hut. Darned Adventure League rules...