Today, Sean and I talked about how the party's preparations should be managed during the next session. In situations like these, it's easy for the group to deliberate logistics until the night is almost over by the time everyone is ready to act. For tomorrow, I'd like to try something different:
While the above might seem heavy-handed, it should definitely keep the pace of the game moving. It's also worth considering that, during the course of an actual day in the game world, there likely are many matters to which the PCs must attend. Even locating and arranging a simple conversation with a specific third party (Pol Rallinoth, for example) may take the better part of an hour, if not more. At any point in the day, Audric may be tending the Mystran/Malaran shrine while Zeb is ensuring the safety of a departing hunter while Zargon is searching for damsels to impregnate. In short, that ten minutes of three players talking at the game table may take their actual characters substantially longer in the campaign world.
The above approach should put pressure on the party to make decisions quickly without forcing a hard stop. The players still retain agency to continue refining their plans as long as desired, albeit with heightened tension that something may interrupt them before they're ready.
In any case, I'd like to go ahead and try this out for a night. We can always reevaluate if a similar situation arises in the future. Anyone have thoughts or concerns?
- I'll start a timer when the session formally begins. Every ten minutes of real time will constitute a full game day of planning.
- After each ten-minute period, a night will pass in Dagger's Deep, along with any advancements in the surrounds.
- The timer will pause during any events not initiated by the PCs and other breaks.
While the above might seem heavy-handed, it should definitely keep the pace of the game moving. It's also worth considering that, during the course of an actual day in the game world, there likely are many matters to which the PCs must attend. Even locating and arranging a simple conversation with a specific third party (Pol Rallinoth, for example) may take the better part of an hour, if not more. At any point in the day, Audric may be tending the Mystran/Malaran shrine while Zeb is ensuring the safety of a departing hunter while Zargon is searching for damsels to impregnate. In short, that ten minutes of three players talking at the game table may take their actual characters substantially longer in the campaign world.
The above approach should put pressure on the party to make decisions quickly without forcing a hard stop. The players still retain agency to continue refining their plans as long as desired, albeit with heightened tension that something may interrupt them before they're ready.
In any case, I'd like to go ahead and try this out for a night. We can always reevaluate if a similar situation arises in the future. Anyone have thoughts or concerns?
Sounds like the party already has a tentative course of action in mind, so there shouldn't be any need to employ this tonight. I decided to leave the post up as it may be something to circle back to, down the road.
ReplyDeleteI will defer to you guys on things of this nature being so new at this
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