When to start the countdown

[Tukka]

Spoilers for the Island at the Axis of the World below

I just started The Sabotage encounter in my PBP campaign, and I'm not quite clear on when you're supposed to start the countdown -- when combat begins and the national anthem starts, or as soon as Delft sends the party down to fetch the duchess?

My party went to fetch the duchess as soon Delft gave them the order, but Sokana and the duchess managed to stall them for about a minute before they picked the lock on the door and the combat had started (I had Sokana leave the room through the aft window almost as soon as the constables made it clear they weren't going anywhere, and had her emerge through one of the fore gun ports when the party opened the door.)

Sokana made it to the berth deck in the first turn of combat, where another constable, who was checking the other rooms, was waiting for her. I figured that the engineers could see the constable tangling with one of Sokana's fire sprites, so they moved to the valves during the first round had them shut (but not rusted) by the end of the second round. Sokana will probably make it to the boiler with the rod before the constables are able to intercept her.

It seems to me that even though the constables didn't particularly dally, things are going to be tight if their minute or so delay knocked 10 rounds off their countdown right at the beginning. This group is also new to 4e (and one is new to D&D in general), so I don't want to go too tough on them.

OTOH, this is a PBP game, so the PCs have a little more time to collect their thoughts and figure out how to deal with the crisis (I can't really put them on a 30 second clock), and they do have a technologist in the party.

I am leaning towards deciding the timer was at about 35 rounds when combat started. Thoughts?

 

[RangerWickett]

I suggest you follow Hollywood chronology. The clock always stops at 1.

Actually, I'd have the anthem start when combat begins, and have the countdown start at the same time. Basically, the guys down below are waiting for the music to begin, because they know nobody will be coming down for a few minutes. They'll have enough time to do the deed and get out before the music stops.

 

[Tukka]

Thanks, Ryan. That helps a lot.

I wasn't quite sure if there was any special thing the engineers had to do to "officially" start the sabotage and countdown. I got the impression that the engine was overheating due to the boiler being over-stuffed with firegems. My assumption was that it was already near safe tolerances when Ilton came down to take care of the guards and Fitzcairn. After that the engineers would immediately start shoveling as much as they could into the boiler, so that shortly thereafter, it'd start to overheat.

Edit: I think my players are enjoying the game, by the way. I've been wanting to run this campaign for a while -- my first Zeitgeist session as a player was probably my favorite D&D session ever (we found out the duchess' plan early when one of our party members ridiculously decided to try to lift Sokana's purse while she wasn't looking ...)

 

[gideonpepys]

In the same way that I am almost jealous of folks who say they are just about to start watching the Wire (because I know how much enjoyment they're going to have), I experienced an odd pang at your reminder about that opening encounter, which I ran back in September.

It really is a fantastic start to a fantastic adventure. Hope you have as much fun as we had.

 

[Tukka]

In the same way that I am almost jealous of folks who say they are just about to start watching the Wire (because I know how much enjoyment they're going to have), I experienced an odd pang at your reminder about that opening encounter, which I ran back in September.

It really is a fantastic start to a fantastic adventure. Hope you have as much fun as we had.

Indeed. I'm not a highly experienced player or DM, but I've read through the first two adventures and skimmed the third, as well as the campaign guide, and the quality and scope outshines anything I've ever been able to cobble together, or any other adventures I've ever read/skimmed through.

It's a shame that my RL group ran into a bunch of scheduling conflicts as we got started with our Zeitgeist campaign, though in a way I'm glad it did, because in many ways I feel like this is the perfect campaign for me to DM. It's a got quality scaffolding and structure, but also a fair degree of built-in flexibility, with enough setting/plot arc detail that, to some extent, it seems like extra NPCs, stories, etc. almost write themselves (not that I think any of the side/buffer elements I'd come up would necessarily be on a par with what's in the adventures themselves, but I think I'll manage OK and develop my creative faculties some in the course of this campaign).

The only thing that bothers me is that I'm running the game with an inexperienced group, under an unconventional format, so I often feel compelled to stop and explain things which may take some of the focus away from the story/action. However, this is no worse than the interruptions that often accompany any live game, and the PBP format overall has worked very well for us so far. I think this campaign suits it well.

I'll probably be posting a campaign log sometime after my party moves into Act II of Adventure 1.

Also, I feel the same way you do about the Wire.

 

[gideonpepys]

Here's an idea that might help you if you are worried that your inexperienced players might fail to stop the destruction of the Coaltongue (and bring about an early TPK in the process):

When I was prepping this adventure I was concerned that I would fudge the countdown (if it came down to it) because I wouldn't want to go through character generation all over again (I mean, who would?) I decided that if the PCs failed and blew the ship sky-high I would immediately have the party's Skyseer awake from a sweat-soaked nightmare with a terrible, non-specific foreboding about the security mission that lay ahead.

Then we'd skip to the point where the party discover the plot, and run the whole encounter again. (If they screwed up twice, I reasoned, then they derserved to die!)

Bit of a bizarre idea, but it meant I could be as ruthless as I liked and still have a back-up option. If you don't have a Skyseer, it could be any 'mystic/magic' character in the party.

 

[ve4grm]

Personally, I had the countdown start when Sokana tossed the amber rod into the furnace, as it seemed to me that that was what would trigger the massive overload.

I think this interpretation would tie in well with your goal of not making the party suffer for that minute.

(And yes, this means that, had the party been able to prevent the amber rod from entering the furnace, the countdown may never have started in my game. But it got in there on round 2 of combat anyways.)

Alternately, as RangerWicket said, start the timer as combat starts. In either case, though, I wouldn't consider the time spent talking to be part of the encounter for the countdown.


EDIT: As a note on what gideonpepys said, this can be a pretty brutal encounter if your group is still forming and getting used to each other. I ended up about 2 rounds away from a TPK when it ended.

(That said, there was still tons of time left on the clock. The reason it ended up so close to a TPK, I think, is that the group focused a lot on the furnace and extending their timeframe, and not enough on the immediate threat of the enemies.)

 

[gideonpepys]

My group had just 2 rounds left. And that was with one player taking huge amounts of damage shovelling firedust back out of the furnace.

The trouble is that with every stage of sabotage the countdown drops hugely, and Sokana managed to fulfill all of them. If she get the amber rod in the furnace, and the countdown clock halves, things can get very dicey indeed.

 

[Tukka]

Yeah, round 3 just started and Sokana just threw the amber rod into the furnace, and the engineers rusted shut the valves.

By my count they have 14 rounds left on the clock. If decided to have the countdown start when Sokana threw the rod in, that would add 1 extra round to the countdown.

I've decided I'm going to have the fuel bin release have less of an impact. Only the firegems directly adjacent to the boiler will affect the countdown, so at most it will only shave 2 rounds from the countdown. The fact that they're difficult terrain, fill space that could otherwise be filled with shoveled firegems (and I assume deal fire damage like shoveled firegems, though that's not made explicit in the text) should be enough of a hindrance.

The party does a have a tiefling, so they have that going for them. Also, the party's knight actually removed a mounted fire ward from the magazine while searching the berth deck before combat started, so that might buy them some time.

Thanks for the suggestions and comments, everyone.