Time limits are a difficult thing to handle in an open-ended tabletop game. A movie or book protagonist will always defuse the bomb with one second left on the clock since the writers have full control of the scene. Trying the same in a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons game is likely to blow up in your face.
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Ther🧜e are a few different ways you can still use time pressure to advance the plot and create interesting storie🍬s. These let you still keep that fast-paced tension while being able to account for all the different ways an improvised story can go off-script.
Types Of Time Limits
Different types of time restrictions serve different purposes. Mixing up which ones you use keeps your game in𝓰teresting and ensures the time pressures are felt by your players.
|
Type Of Time Limit |
Effect |
Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Hard Time Limits |
There's no wriggle room in either direction. As long as the party succeed within the🍎 overall time limit, all is good. |
If the party needs to gather magical reagent𝓀s ahead of an astronomical event, they ca💖n't show up ten minutes late for the solar eclipse. |
|
Soft/Negotiable Time Limits |
These allow flexibility. You can allow these time limits to expire because the consequences aren't campaign-ending. |
If a mountain pass becomes icy during winter, the party can still attempt to cross but will face extra challenges. |
|
Subjective Time Limits |
These are nearly completely open-ended. The consequences escalate over time,𒀰 but there's no 'game over' if they move slowly. This lets the players decide where the boundaries are. |
If the party are searching for the antidote to a local plague, the sooner they find it the more people they can save. |
Each of these types of time pressure is good for creating different types of tension. A good campaign can use several or even all of them.
How To Use Hard Time Limits
These strict time limits cannot be defied. They're good for creating urgency since the party cannot complete the quest unless they move at the pace you set for them. The advantage this offers is that you have the greatest amount of control over that timing, and can work out how many rests, encounters, and combats the party will be able to handle𝐆 within that time limit.
These work best for short-term ♍tasks that make the best use of the urgency they invoke, but you can change the precise deadline to adjust the challenge:
- An ally has been arrested or taken hostage and will face execution in one day. They can take a long rest and still perform a jailbreak.
- The bad guy has completed their plan and will become unstoppable if not confronted immediately. The party doesn't have enough time to cast buffing spells before rushing in.
- A collapsed mine shaft only has enough air to supply its occupants for a few hours. The party have time to prepare equipment and cast ritual spells.
How To Use Soft Time Limits
Soft time limits work great for optional tasks. They provide an extra reward if the party is quick, or a penalty if slow, but give them the 𒅌choice of what risks to take.
The stakes with these time limits are generally lower but they have h🙈ooks fo🧜r the party members to interact with.
- Courier jobs can offer a bonus for speedy delivery, or might withhold payment for delays. A persuasive party member might be able to negotiate for their full payment.
- Changing tradewinds or seasonal weather that make travelling easier or harder over time. A skilled ranger might know alternate travel routes to compensate for this.
- Magical items or resources might spoil if not used quickly. They'll still be worth something but lose value over time. An alchemist might preserve them for longer.
Soft time limits are also good for situations where you expect the party to find a unique time-saving solution. Spells like Passwall, Knock and Dimension Door can allow the players to move faster than you expected. A soft time limit can reward them for that while still providing an incentive to not slack off with the extra time they gain. Here are a few ways of rewarding y�🃏�our players:
- Arriving at a scene early, the party can prepare an ambush against their enemies.
- Entering a stronghold via a back door allows them to skip most of the guards and traps, entering the remaining encounters with a full spellbook and no missing hitpoints.
- Arriving in a city faster than news can travel gives the party new options for social encounters.
How To Use Subjective Time Limits
These work best on the scale of a campaign. There should𒀰 be a narrative reason to hurry, but the🌞 players decide how important it is to be quick.
|
Campaign Type |
Time Pressure |
Consequences |
|---|---|---|
|
Plague |
A contagion♊ is spreading that will claim more lives if the party is slow to find a cure. |
Key NPCs might die, and civil unrest will increase as hope for a cure wanes. |
|
Hexcrawl |
A military campaign or adventuring expedition can only go on as long as supplies and morale last. |
The party's leadership will be questioned, prompting desertion and mutiny. Malnutrition and poor health migh🌠t ca🌄use escalating debuffs. |
|
Race |
Another group is pursuing the same objectives. The party might ꦅnot know if they're keeping pace with their rivals. |
The final confrontation will become harder the further the party falls behind. |
When running a game with this type of time limit it can help to decide on specific events that can happen to make the time limit felt. Perhaps a character related to the party is infected with the plague, prompting them to find a cure within a narrower time limit than saving the kingdom.
Players take the time limit more strictly than you intended, taking forced marches and neglecting long rests. Use 𒉰narrative and roleplaying scenes to emphasize that they do🐠 eventually need to sleep.
How To Enforce Time Limits
Tabletop gaming isn't the only place where characters can defy the author's time constraints. Video games often have to design timed scenarios that still cater to various playstyles and skill levels.
They can provide examples both of how to narratively enforce a time limit and different ways to represent them mechanically. It's as important to look at examples that miss the mark ꦅas those that succeed, as both can teach you different sides of the process.
|
Game |
Types Of Time Limit |
Narrative |
Mechanics |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Baldur's Gate 3 |
Hard (ish) |
Baldur's Gate three grounds its urgency on the looming threat of ceremorphosis: A process that typically kills people within days. |
You can take a year's worth of long rests without becoming a mindflayer. The tension is entirely driven by the story and sidequests. |
|
Wrath Of The Righteous |
Soft/Negotiable |
Your time pressure is a constantly dwindling morale among the crusaders, as people question your leadership if you don't show fast results. |
The game has a quantified morale system that applies debuffs if not respected. Despite this, you are never forced to move quickly. |
|
XCom 2 |
Soft/Negotiable |
The aliens use escalating amounts of military force until they win. There's also the Avatar Pr🎉oject, a research goal that will allow 🌊them to instantly achieve their objectives. |
Wasting time in the game's strategy layer increases the difficulty of the tactical layer. The Avatar Project is an instant game over but amounts to little more than a monthly sidequest to delay the end of the world. |
|
Mass Effect 2 |
Hard |
Mass Effect 2 functionally presents no time limits until a certain event flag is triggered. Once that happens you're forced to either commit to pursuing the main plot or accepting the deaths of multiple cast members. |
The player is encouraged to metagame around the timelimit by doing all the sidequests first and then rushing through the entire plot in a si🍃ngle burst. |
|
Unsighted |
Subjective |
Unsighted takes a very novel approach. Every character in the game has a timer after which they will die, including the main character. Dawdling means all of these timers ticking down at once but t♍he most urgent doomsday ꦅclocks are given to the least important characters. |
Rare collectables can extend the time of one character, letting the player choose between spreading resources thin or keeping important people alive for longer. |
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