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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nagol" data-source="post: 7324569" data-attributes="member: 23935"> I think this is somewhat backward.  In-game time is constrained by meta-game time.  If I know, for example, that the game expects set-piece combats that will take more than an hour to resolve but I'm playing at lunch hour then I can't have more than a single battle even though less than a minute of game time has passed.  Additionally, a group may decide to have a half-hour discussion over the value of a particular tactic in the space of a single character's combat move.  In-game time offers no constraint to the meta-game time.  Meta-game constraints affect all elements in-game. In most games, in-game time, like time we experience, is a causal constraint.  you won't see effect before cause.  But, that's not particularly meaningful.  Breaking that causality is limited to specific genres like Gumshoe's Timewatch game. Many games play with the notion of time is foundational and even more tables adopt this approach in games that nominally treat time as a concrete constraint.  More cinematic styles presume in-game time is more like a canvas for drama than a constraint: the ships can reach the BBEG guy before the attack starts, defusing the bomb will complete with one second to spare, etc,  Tales of the Floating Vagabond explicitly calls this out with the shtick "Just-in-time Drive" where the PC will always arrive... just in time.  It depends on context.  If player choices led to the point where the PCs are out of position sufficiently that they can't thwart the villain's plan then it is certainly a world-setting constraint.  It's not really a lever in the sense I was meaning though.Levers are those instabilities constructed into the game world that, once detected by the players, the PCs can try to use to change the current circumstances.  A few examples follow:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Beneath the castle in a forgotten room is a summoning circle containing a demon bound for a century or more.  If freed, she will attempt to destroy the conjurer's heirs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The queen is having a torrid affair with the king's most powerful and most trusted knight.  Exposure of the infidelity will banish that knight from the realm at a minimum.  If the PCs discover the adultery, do they expose it or help cover it up?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The kingdom is currently ruled by a Steward even though there is a known heir to the throne.  The heir doesn't want the position, but can be persuaded to make the claim if he is convinced that is the only way to save the kingdom.  Do the PCs try to install the heir?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The king is strong.  The king's brother is known to be ambitious but cowardly.  He would never attempt to seize control from his brother, but if the king was held for ransom...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The people are restive.  The king's authority is granted by the jagged crown he wears at court.  If that were stolen...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There is a book that provides a first-hand account of the formation of the major religion.  It differs from the official history and lends support to a major heretical splinter.  Do the PCs keep it hidden or expose its contents?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There is a device that can be used to make a desolate region fertile.  It destroys all constructs already present though.  Do the PCs use it and where?</li> </ul></blockquote>

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