D&D General Time Pressure and Adventures

[Musing Mage]

Adventures with a ticking clock are a great tool for fun games. Like any other style, it has its place and I would welcome them, but variety is the spice of life so I want to full range of games from an overall campaign perspective.

 

[ad_hoc]

Adventures with a ticking clock are a great tool for fun games. Like any other style, it has its place and I would welcome them, but variety is the spice of life so I want to full range of games from an overall campaign perspective.

What is playing without a time limit even like?

People say they do it and have fun and I just can't wrap my head around it.

 

[Musing Mage]

What is playing without a time limit even like?

People say they do it and have fun and I just can't wrap my head around it.

I am assuming an in-game ticking clock. Solve X puzzle within a time frame... or rescue Y before dawn on the 5th day etc...

Most general adventures won't have a time limit per se. The adventure just takes as long as it takes. My 1e group is exploring an underground complex, for instance, and there's no rush or imperative. They go in, explore, map, etc... retreat to their camp to rest and plan the next day's exploration. Classic expedition style.

If you're referring to an IRL time frame, well, yes, we usually schedule our games around a 4 hour session.

 

[R_J_K75]

Some of you seem to have very...tenuous...relationships with your players. Are ya'll okay?

Yep. We usually come to a compromise in the end. I'd love if my players were more inclined to put some time into learning the rules in between games, and some do, but some don't, so I've accepted it as they accepted that I'm only going to put so much into prep. All these are people I hang out with outside of gaming, some I've known for over 25-30 years and if that wasn't the case, I'd have quit playing with them long ago.

 

[R_J_K75]

Almost always, but yes. I am not generally disagreeing with you. Just pointing out that this works to different degrees.



I really don't think you are reading what I posted carefully because I never remotely made that claim.

I am afraid that if you can't get it in the next five minutes I am going blow up the internet and no one will ever be able to post again! Hurry up! Clock's ticking!

I wonder if that costume left over in wardrobe from John Lovitz?

 

[iserith]

I've even created a scenario around shopping that had time pressure. I called it "6 to 8 Hours of Shopping." It's the most nail-biting shopping scenario you'll ever experience. I ran half a dozen groups through that one and almost all of them failed due to poor time management.

I created the adventure because I couldn't for the life me understand why so many games spend a lot of time (or any appreciate time really) on shopping. So I was like, "What if shopping was the adventure?"

The really funny part is that when I'd post up the adventure and solicit pick-up players to apply to the game, people would ask "Is it really a 6 to 8 hour session?" Meaning they'd probably be fine with 4 hours of shopping but 6 hours is just a bit much! (The adventure takes 4 hours of real time.)

 

[el-remmen]

Get what Im saying?

Yes and I have from the first time you posted this. It is you who seems to not get what I'm saying and keep interpreting it as "time limits bad." But that's fine. . . I give up.

 

[fba827]

As long as there is a reasonable in-story context/justification for the time limit on an adventure then frankly I’m all for it as it keeps game with forward motion and PCs get a bit more active rather than passive in their activities

 

[CleverNickName]

What is playing without a time limit even like?

People say they do it and have fun and I just can't wrap my head around it.

I imagine it's a lot like Skyrim, or any other open-world video game.

"A dragon is attacking the western watchtower!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll get right on that. Right after I finish these 1000 daggers."

Don't get me wrong, I love playing Skyrim.

 

[el-remmen]

What is playing without a time limit even like?

People say they do it and have fun and I just can't wrap my head around it.

It is not so much "no time limits at all" as it is realizing and playing with the varying degrees and types of time limits that can overlap and/or are nebulous enough to allow for other choices.

For example, in one of my current game, the PCs are waiting for their allies' scouts to find the lair of a threat to various communities in the area. They know that threat is preparing for a big attack, but have absolutely no idea exactly when, except probably not in the next week or so. So there is a time limit and when the scouts return with more info the PCs hope to have better sense of the timing of their pre-emptive attack and the preparedness of the threat.

In the meantime, however, they have other side plots and goals they want to take care of. Some of those have their own time limits, some of them are open-ended. They know there is a risk of not being around when the scouts return, but the risk starts off as small and the longer they stay away the greater it becomes. But it is not immediate boom, boom, boom type clock-watching. Though of course, they have had adventures like that too (see my previous example).

There is room for both "We need to bring this Ring to Mount Doom as soon as possible because the longer we take the more likely Sauron is to find us or for someone else to give in to temptation" and "We need to take a month off and recuperate in Lothlorien because the Mines of Moria nearly wiped us out and in the meantime we are gonna re-supply."