so I've been a DM for a bit now but there is one mechanic I've always ignored and, for better or worse, have not even come to fully understand. That is the game mechanic of Time. For as long as I can remember I have always ignored time and, instead, let the game flow naturally. I let time passing be up to my discretion and I feel that most of my campaigns ran smoothly even while doing this. however, I now feel it is time for me to at least hear out and consider this mechanics usefulness. Can someone detail how they use Time in their own campaign? Also, can you tell me why Time is an important mechanic? Perhaps even give me an alternative use for Time.
Might be useful to mention that the next campaign I am building will be in 5e
>>44124401
Time is a resource, arguably the most valuable one.
Give benefits for spending it, but keep in mind that they have in fact spent it.
and if you have any questions about how I am able to run campaigns while forsaking the mechanic of Time I'm more than willing to answer.
I should definitely specify that I did use some sort of Time mechanic, but certainly much different and much less focused on than the actual mechanic.
>>44124419
See I've always been just.... annoyed at the concept of set times. For instance (I'm just throwing this out there as an example, I'm aware it is not the actual number), let's say that the books claim all encounters should take roughly five minutes, or that all actions of whatever type take three seconds. Why? In the real world none of that is uniform, you could do the same thing twice and one time could take an hour while the next takes two.
Maybe this is me being nitpicky, but the way I've played out time is sort of based on this: number of actions + difficulty of action = amount of time. But I can't find a proper way to express this in dice and paper and so, while it works well in my head, it probably comes off as random when i attempt to express it
And, you know what? This might all just be due to my ill understanding of the entire mechanic. Could you, perhaps, detail how to use it? For some reason I do not understand.
>>44124401
Resource management! Torches will die and random encounters will occur as time passes, for instance. I usually have a sheet with boxes which I can tick after each turn. By marking when torches are lit, I can easily track when they should die.
so perhaps this is just a case of me nitpicking too much? I've always been that way, I do hate sacrificing realism.
Can someone go ahead and point me to what page I can find details about the Time mechanic for 5e? I AM new to 5e and would like to find out how it works here.
>>44124594
It's in chapter 8 of the basic player rules: http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/BasicRules_Playerv3.4.pdf
>>44124654
thank you. Maybe I can make some tweaks to better suit me too :)
>>44124710
Sure, I can perfectly imagine a game in which it's fully up to the DM to determine when to roll for a random encounter or when a torch dies out. The rules are just there to provide guidelines and add some consistency to your rulings.
>>44124742
yea I had a system in place for my older games but I've found it hasn't translated well to 5e and I just can't get it to work. Oh well, i think a lighter use of the mechanic might suit me, perhaps with some rolls to provide the randomness of reality (i.e. some torches happen to last longer than others, etc)
