tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1210373310486731809.post2041238209961597843..comments2024-03-26T01:02:03.579-07:00Comments on All Dead Generations: TIME - The Risk Economy Part IUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1210373310486731809.post-40952595620014538132021-03-12T11:52:48.859-08:002021-03-12T11:52:48.859-08:00So yeah - this is a blog post, not a ruleset. You ...So yeah - this is a blog post, not a ruleset. You get what you pay for?<br /><br />Still the only answer I have is both the end and the beginning? Now as far as when I'd roll an exploration/Overloaded Encounter Die, I think one rolls it (or - and I personally enjoy this - have a player roll). The roll exists in that liminal space between turns. It's almost a ludic, meta-narrative pause in play. An oracular appeal to randomness that marks the characters future. Perhaps I shouldn't day drink when I answer these.<br /><br />So yeah, there's maybe two ways to to handle this:<br /><br />A) You roll after the action of each Turn and before the next (when the random encounter might occur).<br /><br />B) The GM rolls a whole mess of rolls prior to play. <br /><br />I don't really like the second as it recreates the record keeping that the roll avoids - you're not tracking torch burn down anymore, but you're tracking something and that's GM effort that could be better used describing bugbears. <br /><br />One thing I'd like to add is that while I think things like torch burn down, exhaustion and spell duration - supply concerns or player focused events should occur at the immediate start of the turn following (see I don't have to answer the question...), encounters, omens and such can occur at any time during the turn. For encounters one might even place them on the map nearby -- if a sudden invasion of the room the PCs are in by beasties makes no sense.<br /><br />There's still a fair bit of room for GM interpretation, and frankly I don't have answers on the modalities of that.Gus Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14872819206286105195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1210373310486731809.post-54709210104649462142021-03-12T09:26:52.093-08:002021-03-12T09:26:52.093-08:00This is a great read. I intend to use the explorat...This is a great read. I intend to use the exploration dice method, too. Just to point out though, you have a direct contradiction in the text; "At the *end* of each Turn the GM rolls 1D6", followed a few lines later by "Roll 1D6 every at the *start* of every Turn. I'd actually like to know the answer to when the dice is rolled.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02852144658839566704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1210373310486731809.post-29379989027315527392020-09-20T07:52:43.388-07:002020-09-20T07:52:43.388-07:00That's a neat way to track time. I've seen...That's a neat way to track time. I've seen the recommendation of using a cribbage board as well as a visual track, but personally I still prefer attaching supply loss to the random encounter die -- not the least because I am a profoundly lazy GM and don't want to get need poker chips or any sort of track for timekeeping. <br /><br />For 5E however one of the big issues is the length of time required to use supplies and the speed of exploration. 5E's minute long turns mean that the the 4 hour flask of lantern oil lasts 240 exploration turns...<br /><br />As you appear to have done, you can go back to the longer turns(still 24 turns for oil, which feels long to me but...) found in earlier systems, but playing 5E RAW, clever timekeeping still won't help much, because the supply economy suffers from such serious deflation. Why track oil use when you're never finishing a flask of oil?Gus Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14872819206286105195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1210373310486731809.post-45644876511053901182020-09-20T07:39:45.955-07:002020-09-20T07:39:45.955-07:00Although I have left 5e for a modern BX clone, I d...Although I have left 5e for a modern BX clone, I did run and old school dungeon crawl 5e campaign. <br /><br />A simple way of tracking time is using poker chips. I have 5 alternating white and blue chips (wbwbw) and a bunch of red chips. After each turn I add the next chip in the stack. When a blue chip co,es up it time for a random encounter check. When i run out of chips I replace the stack with a red chip (signifying a hour), torches have to be replaced, and roll for an encounter.<br /><br />The next turn I start the process over again by stacking a white chip on top of the red chip.<br /><br />This makes it VERY easy to figure out how much time has passed - just count the red chips for hours and the other in 10 minute increments. I never forget to roll for encounters,use up torches, etc.<br /><br />I could use a black chip at hour 4 to require the use of a flask of lantern oil, but haven't. <br /><br />Time problems solved! Between this and having the players keep track or certain things, it has increased both my fun, and the engagement of my players, as they can SEE the time management economy play out (time = risk).<br />Jojodogboyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06870044018296516914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1210373310486731809.post-32304587292929134782019-04-29T06:25:25.288-07:002019-04-29T06:25:25.288-07:00The first thing I addressed in my upcoming bx-ifie...The first thing I addressed in my upcoming bx-ified hack of 5e, was tie in a much stricter adherence to time mechanics in all phases of play (though I renamed the dungeon turn to "exploration segment" since turn means something else in 5e). I also use necropraxis' idea (I call it the event die) and have adapted it to all phases of play (even an optional rule for using it in combat).<br /><br />I think for old school play, it is an essential element that time is working against you viz a viz resource management.<br /><br />Want to take a short rest? np, but it's another roll of the event die as it takes one segment. Once the group gets a feel for how each meaningful set of actions for the party means time advancing and the event/exploration/hazard die rolling, it changes the feel of exploration completely.Anders Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11654797360283177027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1210373310486731809.post-85343688628746604372019-03-22T16:52:01.811-07:002019-03-22T16:52:01.811-07:00IT IS DARK. YOU ARE LIKELY TO BE EATEN BY A GRUE.
...IT IS DARK. YOU ARE LIKELY TO BE EATEN BY A GRUE.<br /><br />re: what to do when the lights go out and it's not in combat: yeah, I'd want to abstract that. FUMBLING HOME IN THE DARK: If the game had an Architecture check, I'd use that, otherwise I'd use a difficult wisdom check. Succeed and the players move to the next room they want to go to; if they fail, randomly determine the next room from all exits including the one the players want (if you roll that, they THINK they're lost, but they accidentally went the right way.) Roll an encounter check each time. Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07649420272387984400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1210373310486731809.post-44817619147730726472019-03-22T11:13:54.156-07:002019-03-22T11:13:54.156-07:00Oddly I find the idea of playing or GMing an effor...Oddly I find the idea of playing or GMing an effort to escape from some underworld hellpit after running out of light to be pretty cool. Alternatively one could create a horrifyingly punitive table (that J. Rients on about camping in the dungeon comes to mind)for trying to escape in the dark. <br /><br />I agree that airless environments antithetical to human life would more immediately create the sense that character supply was deadly important and would emphasize the danger of time. However, I don't necessarily find that lacking from a good sized dungeon crawl of the standard 'building underground' sort. Above I mention that the time element discussed is one part of a triad of mechanics (random encounters and meaningful resource depletion being the others) which make exploration tense. <br /><br />With resource depletion I've found the key is encumbrance. Yes characters should take multiple torches, lanterns and vials of oil into the adventure location - but with a strict encumbrance system, and I like STR = Significant Items, that comes at the cost of other supplies: rope, weapons, scrolls, rations, and other tools. It also plays directly into treasure recovery because most treasure (jewelry which thus becomes more valuable) has encumbrance value as well.<br /><br />I like the way all this interacts - the questions of safety vs. potential wealth and such.Gus Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14872819206286105195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1210373310486731809.post-63999149370403722882019-03-21T23:05:24.191-07:002019-03-21T23:05:24.191-07:00I sometimes think that the ideal location for reso...I sometimes think that the ideal location for resource-management focused play would be deep underwater or in the vacuum of space - where it's understandable that the available resources would be severely limited, that you would want/need to track the depletion of resources very closely, and that each unit of resource depleted doesn't buy you very much exploration time.<br /><br />We generally accept that each character can only wear two oxygen tanks, that carrying extra oxygen is EXTREMELY cumbersome and difficult, and that it's both possible and very VERY dangerous to replace someone's oxygen tank if they run out early. It's harder to see why an entire party of adventurers would fail to bring 2-3 torches apiece into the dungeon.<br /><br />There's also plenty consensus that those are environments that inherently antithetical to human life, in a way that "building that happens to be underground" is not. Like, in a crypt that's no deeper than my basement but filled with skeletons, or a human-built fortress that's been taken over by goblins, I accept that the skeletons and goblins are dangerous, but it's harder to BELIEVE that the environment itself hates me, even if I agree in principle that the underworld SHOULD feel like that.<br /><br />The other nice thing about oxygen is, when the characters run out, they die. I'm not really sure what's supposed to happen if you truly run out of light sources. Is the DM really just supposed to say "it's perfect darkness, you can't see anything" and then let the players try to describe shuffling around with their arms outstretched, groping with their fingertips to try to feel the wall? I really don't think I could do it, as either a judge or a player. I just don't have it in me.Annehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15493700749333105771noreply@blogger.com