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Persona is the game series that taught me the importance of time limits and deadlines in games. Ever since, I've always paid close attention to time in my games and enforce time limits to encourage action and meaningful decisions. The first game I ever decided to make time an important factor, it was a horror mystery game where the main characters were cursed to die after certain amount of days had passed, before they could vanquish the 'ghost of the week' haunting them. Every session was filled with tension and fun, and knowing certain events and locations could only be accessed during certain times of the day or week meant planning ahead was necessary. It was a lot of fun.
Idk about putting the exact time up for everyone to see. "early morning, late morning, afternoon, evening, etc" It's better for the DM because they can be a bit more liberal and loose with their approximations, but it's also more realistic to the characters that aren't wearing watches lol
Luke: "Keep it simple!" Also Luke: keep track of time on a whiteboard, keep elaborate notes when players longrest and what day it is, make sheets of comming events and movement of enemies. Ps. Learned a lot ;)
About Strahd and kidnapping. Players are usually smart. They will notice you insert drama when they are away. Many will consider this a cheap shot, because if they didn't know about an event, they couldn't have acted accordingly, so this is, in my opinion, lazy DMing. Players need to have an opportunity to assess risks and make informed decision in game. Also, what I usually do is present players with some villain that needs to be dealt with before a certain known point in time. Then present them with opportunities to prepare for said event that they under no circumstances can do ALL before the time runs out. Then the players will have to choose what to do, and what to leave to its fate. I also inform the players that a villain doesn't sit idly. So the sooner they deal with him, the better the outcome. This way time pressure naturally solves the problem of players long resting all the time with zero resistance from players.
In the real world plenty of things happen when people aren't there. If I take a vacation from December 15th to the 23rd and I miss my work Christmas party oh well, it isn't lazy dming. It is creating a living world that doesn't just revolve around the whims of the pcs like some video game.
I saw that foreshadowing paw next to Gary! I know what is happening here! Clearly it is old man commoner ready to reveal himself to be an artificer with a fat cat homunculus!!!! Brilliant foreshadowing of that twist Luke!
Back in 1E I stole the 20 year calendar out the yellow pages. Since I did ageing due to special effect, players had to give their pc a birthday. If they didn't their birthday was the pc birthday.
I like to use distance as a measure of time. So, when in a dungeon, the players can move so many squares in an hour while they check for traps, keep on the look out for enemies, etc.... Half the number of squares for stealth, double if they are moving fast, and change up how many squares cover an hour depending on the size of the dungeon.
@@AuntLoopy123 I normally like to run larger dungeons like caves or abandoned cities, so I’ll count out how many squares it is from the first “room” to the second and use that as the base number. Adjust as needed if I want more or less random encounters and traps.
Regarding your "actions per day" point - I actually do something like that, but in a very minimalist form. When they are travelling, so we are skipping chunks of time, I actually give each player one opportunity to say what they are doing along the way (either each day or each week, depending on how long the journey). The classics are looking for herbs, reading a book, talking to the NPCs who travel alongside them, etc.. I resolve each such action with a roll or a quick conversation (or, in the case of reading, I just tell them a small tidbit of what they learned). =)
My setting: There are small artifacts scattered around the world. The PCs and the BBEG are collecting them. I pre-planned the sequence that the BBEG finds them (i.e. how long it takes her to get there and how long it takes to deal with whatever/whoever has the item). When the PCs get an item first, the BBEG adjusts. If the BBEG gets there first, the PCs deal with the aftermath/carnage/collateral damage. The BBEG has a magic item that point to the closest of these artifacts. It doesn't say how far, how many, or anything like that - only the direction. If the PCs are closer to the BBEG than any of the artifacts, the magic item points to them, which may result in an encounter. There is a very powerful monster (a kraken) that has at least one of these artifacts. This creature is deemed too powerful for either the BBEG or the PCs to deal with (at least right now). The PCs learned that if they remain on the far side of the kraken, the BBEG won't find them. Relevant point is: Not only must I keep track of time in the campaign, but I have to be flexible, in that I must know where the BBEG is at all times, and what the BBEG is doing.
Holy Crap I'm DMing for my first game very soon and this video helped a ton. Thanks for the great explanation, really helped clear up all of my confusion.
Heists are another time sensitive mission. In Edge of the Empire, the Jewel of Yavin was an adventure timed over three days, during which the players had to gather information on the vault holding the rare jewel, prepare for a race to gain access to the venue and also manipulate the auctioneers to ramp bids up as high as possible. This involved three distinct tasks (the stealing the jewel itself, preparing to rob the bids and preparing for the race to have physical access to the auction itself) that the players only had 3 days to accomplish across the entirety of cloud city. The key thing is that these tasks should have a tight enough time limit with a variety enough of potential tasks that it should be practically impossible to complete unless the party spilits up. Which allows individual players to shine and delegate themselves towards tasks they *think* best suits them, which allows the stakes to be really amped up and disrupts the age old tradition of "never spilit the party" that I believe is a crutch for less cool groups that should be wavered for this particular type of mission.. Seriously, out of all the adventure books fantasy flight had produced the Jewel of Yavin is a fascinating where combat is only a tiny part of the adventure and is well worth the read on how to plan a complex heist; even if the idea of having to win a race, set up a back door to a bank and steal a jewel is a little far fetched.
Very cool vid! Thanks for the tips! I'm a brand new DM with no games under my belt as a player setting up to run the Dragon of Icespire peak, haha. Im trying to learn as much about the intricate mechanics as i can but i'm not gonna force it all in once shot. Having at least a passing glance of knowledge will definitely be helpful if we run into a situation that calls for it and the passage of time was one of those things in the rulebook that it left me a little more confused than informed. Since my party also never played a campaign before we'll all be learning and figuring out the rules as we go along but as the DM i want to be as prepared as possible for my first ever run.
Time really starts at what the players see in the sky. Then moves to seasons, then to calendar and then finally to your map. Players should never feel bamboozled by time. It should be clear, relevant and understandable. But it never should be complicated. Time is tangible and measurable and players with an average int should know how long it will take to get anywhere on the map. A DM should alway use time, but should never be coy with it. However if the DM does not understand their own world, time will become abstract and hard. A DM will become coy and it will frustrate players. All events should be timed. Great Video!
I am preparing for my very first DnD game and I am making a analog 24 hour clock to keep track of time, light levels, tides (yes it will be relevant in my campaign) but you've given me an idea for also keeping track of buff/debuff durations. I am rather pleased with myself ngl
In the game I play we keep track of time very well. In fact we have a whole 15 month calendar with moon cycles because two of the four of our players are Werewolves, so we need to know when there is a full moon.
Thank you again for another great video. I have only one concern regarding what you said at 7:30. While I understand the importance to keep things simple, when possible, you can't really forego the rules of downtime and keep it simple because Xanathar's has introduced downtime rules that the players should follow. DMs can no longer keep downtime simple. The DM should impose how many actions of different types can be performed within a given downtime. Otherwise, certain players will abuse the downtime for mechanical advantage.
Would you have allowed the party to both defeat the Dragon and get to the Orcs before they caused damage, if they had found some way of doing so? For example, found a way to teleport. Combat with a Dragon is hard but realistically only takes a few minutes.
I was thinking the same thing. One fight with the dragon, with only one enemy to defeat, and then teleport to the other, that might actually require multiple battles, due to the number of enemies. You might even need to lay siege to the them. I think if they were due to arrive the same day, it would be really problematic, but if they could teleport from one location to the other, and had one day's difference, it could be done. However, the PCs did not know the exact dates, anyway. Luke doesn't say, but it's possible they chose the wrong option, and might have managed, if they chose to fight the giants, first.
I make a laminated time tracker sheet for the campaign's calendar system. Lamination film works for dry erase (except red). Just check off time as it passes, dry erase rounds at the start of a new minute, marking the minute... Etc. I can tell the players the exact time, if the PCs have a way to get that information.
Note, the players can't see my time sheet. I'll tell them about sunrise, noon and sunset during the game day. If they want more accuracy, they need a way the PCs can get the info.
How about in dungeons? If you have some ideas for that I think people might be interested. Most of these are great advice when you are in city, but not on the dungeon when you might have some effects that are 10-30 min or torches can go out if you are going too slowly. It would be easier to have a "rule" to going through dungeon. In older versions there were rules for this.
Maybe Luke just wanted to run a d&d sketch channel, but knew with how youtube treats short form content, he wouldn't be able to support his family. So instead, he tries to find lengthy topics as a cover for his intro sketches
Heya! Really nice video! If I may, I would like to make a suggestion. Could you add "spoiler" warnings in sections where you talk about official modules? I have a good friend who is also a DM and I would love to link him some of your videos, such as this one, but he is also a player in my Curse of Strahd campaign and while I am sure he would not metagame, the reveals about (Curse of Strahd spoilers that are also in the video) Vallaki being an absolute mess and the windmill with the old ladies being a tad bit suspicious is something I would rather have him experience during the campaign.
I love winter from both a player and DM, winter is the time of year when things slow down, travel becomes difficult and it becomes more practical for the majority of people to stay close or inside their homes for most of the day. It gives a wonderful chance for some downtime. I also love holidays and life event celebrations for RP and world building, nothing makes the world seem more real than the way people celebrate. Weddings are always interesting, especially involving politically important figures.
We've only have three or four days in our current campaign (I have it written down, but I forget off the top of my head) and I only just now got the calendar, so I've decided it will be late winter. February has the YUCKIEST weather, some of the time. I want them to have at least one or two days when it is just SO YUCKY outside that they debate whether they should go on a quest today, or maybe stay indoors and read books, or chat with the old adventuring wizard who is retired, and not into teaching or taking apprentices, but is willing to share his stories and give advice. He's going to advise them about how to properly harvest monster parts, if they give him a chance. Also, some downtime might encourage a bit of role-playing and actually chatting with each other.
Our group had a similar dilemma in IDRotFM... we chose to go after Xardorok, and as a result the chardalyn dragon has destroyed almost all of Ten Towns. Oh... and Luke doesn't completely suck!
There are two major reasons I can think of for tracking time closely in 'downtime'. The first is if struggling PCs have found themselves in a failure state: They were unable to recover enough treasure to live like rock stars between ventures into the dungeon, thus had to get day labor jobs. Meaning anything they try to do that isn't 14 hours of drudgery per day has to be 'stolen' from their 'generous' employers, so they need to handle errands quickly/discreetly. This first reason is unlikely to apply to any of the Hasbro-era games, with the 'treasure packet' mentality, or any game of any edition that uses modules (which tend to be Monty Haul tier in over-rewarding PCs). The second reason is if the PCs are supposed to have a life outside of being murder hobos, i.e. there are demands on their time, therefore if you can get away from your responsibilities for 2 hours to go adventure, you have exactly 12 10-minute turns to act before your waifu is tapping her toes and reaching in and out of hammer-space while glaring at the clock. Less tongue-in-cheek, if the PCs are in Knight School or Magic School, they only have so much free time in which to get into mischief, and that's the time you want to track.
In my first game, I was tracking time down to the round. I found it constraining. It's day or night, not what ever is dramatic. You end up waiting or missing dramatic events. I've found the same in rpg computer games that had timed events. The illusion of time is great. Realistic time- not so much.
I think one thing D&D 5th ed. does poorly is time. Although Luke, you cover time in more detail than me lol. I track month, day, morning, noon, and night. I only worry about the other stuff (i.e. hours) if it is important for that Act.
Since your video on gm tips iv also kept a calendar and filled it with events that happen if the PCs do nothing. Like cities being taken in the war, monster attacks, and the like
I used donjon to create a new calendar for my game, and it was great, including moon phases and celestial events. I do need to add my own holidays, which I have not yet done. However, when I went to print it, the moon phases did not print. So, I had to screen print each month, and place it as a bitmap into a presentation, so now I have a 12-page calendar, in nice big print, with moon phases (highly necessary, in case of lycanthropy). But AFTER I did the printing, then, I realized, "Holy crap! I suck!" I forgot the holidays. Oh, well. Faerun has no holidays this year. They're going to Barovia soon, anyway, and they can have a calendar with holidays there. It's my first time DMing, so my players will forgive me. Next campaign, I'll do a better job, and design a calendar with holidays and PC birthdays, too. Nevertheless, I still like Donjon, because of the moon phases. I have time to sort out formatting and all that for the future calendars, but figuring out moon phases and celestial events was outside my area of expertise.
I printed out 3 copies of the calendar. One for my players, and two for me. One will be specifically to track what has already happened and the other for me to anticipate what will, but it is still open for change.
Fantasy Calender is a free tool that works great. It keep track of time and events. You can share a link to your players and keep events public or secret.
in medieval fantasy day time was always a bummer to simulate. Most things either take way to long to track in hours or are way to quick to bother. However because of this it was easy for me to simulate years. Meanwhile in modern settings all the long stuff is gone and most simple tasks begin to take longer. Travel is faster in an airship than by foot / maintaining your guns is way more complicated than maintaining your sword. Also I have an easier time to simulate urgency in a setting where you can communicate with distant people in seconds, rather than days. So in modern games I have an easier time to simulate hours than to simulate years. I kinda half solved the modern years with (again) set city scenarios. In a set city its not a problem to let a week or month pass every session. You have your daily life in between. But Tolkien style travelers? They cant stay for two weeks in the same spot. 7:30 Giving players X actions a day isnt complicating, its making it simpler. By a margin. It isnt sucking fun out of the game. Its limiting not-fun time. You just need a game where it fits and have to implement it smart. I used this concept in a steampunk game and reused it later in a pirate game. Both games had a lot of travel between set locations and a crapton of time based events. However most of the time its very boring what happens between your travel from town A to town B. I had this before, as a dumb 13 year old DM in regular DnD I simulated casual travel. Talking, Walking, Wow. It stretches the game out for no real reason. Sure sometimes you have an encounter, sometimes an event occurred. But everytime you enter a road you have non stop action? That sounds like a terrible silly game. And I hope we all can agree on this. However I didn't want my players to be stagnant during this travel. Feels like they are frozen in a shipping container. So I implemented the "During travel do one thing from this list or something you came up with"-a-day mechanic. Which looked a little bit like this: Practice a skill Use an travelitem (yes I created items for travel. My favourite is the teapot) Have an conversation with an npc about a topic (usually an indirect conversation and yes my players always have npcs with them) Prepare something Heal yourself or somebody else with an consumable item And it works marvelous. They knew they had at least X days until they arrive. Which means they have at least X actions. They could plan it out. They knew an attack or something like a storm could still always happen and screw with there plans. So they had to plan for the unknown too! Nevertheless it didn't take ages to use this mechanic. It increased fun by stupid amounts bc you get to the fun parts so damn quick. Its a list of options without incredible impact so players that struggle to decide have an easier time to just do something in the game. And most importantly, it didn't felt like you lost something bc of travel. Used in right circumstances its a great mechanic.
I give my players rough estimates on what time it is but if they want more exact I have them roll a Nature check. They've realized that knowing what time it is is helpful and now my Rogue is trying to buy a timepiece somewhere.
Nature checks! Thank you! That makes perfect sense, and it is also an under-utilized skill. Also, if someone has a high Passive Nature stat, they can simply know. Two of my party have 13 as their passive nature check, so maybe those two will always know, at least in general terms. Like, what hour it is, but not what minute.
Interesting question; couldn't your players have posted a mission for OTHER adventurers to handle the mission they weren't going to do? With a reward for the "group" that did it? Would you have allowed your players to do that? Just a thought I had about it.
I'll admit that I'm a bit loose on tracking time unless it's really important. I'm thinking of adding a "sun dial" to the front of my DM's screen showing the players the time of day. Something simple like just a cardboard circle with an arrow I move around. Maybe laminated with dry erase tick marks for things like spell duration or rests.
Good idea on location, but do not attach it to the screen, or you'll have to flip your screen back and forth to change things on it. Maybe use a laminated sheet, and some clothespins/binder clips to hang it on the front of the screen, but still allow you to easily grab it and change it, and then hang it again. Alternately, if you don't mind using up the paper, a new clock for each day. You can use all your markings for your notes, without having to write it all down twice during the session. When the day is over, get a new page, mark it up as needed, if any spells/effects are still in play, and hang it up. I think I'll have a sundial in town, and at major locations. But when they're not in sight of a sundial, they'll get, "It looks like approximately X hours past sunrise," or "The sun is quite high in the sky," or "It's getting along towards dusk," or "the night is deepening. It's approaching midnight." Eventually, either someone will take the "I always know what time it is" feat, or else someone will cut a deal with a gnome tinkerer and get a "pocket chronometer," or something like that. I think starting out with general times, and getting more precise, as they get used to it, will help us learn, and not get too nit-picky during the learning process. Also, it's pretty much more believable, if you don't have an actual watch. Wrist sundials are cool in cartoons, but I don't believe they're all that accurate. Maybe if you have a bunch of tools to go with them, and calibrate them everywhere you go. But sundials are pretty much specific to location, aren't they?
Sorry for spamming, but one more point to your giant + dragon dilemma. I feel like this is extremely important, and while to you (a great DM) it may seem like a given, I feel like this is where lots of newer GMs go wrong. The world should not revolve around the heroes. They matter, yes, but if they weren't there, life would still go on. This is prevalent in PC RPGs, where the world literally waits for you to solve its problems, but in a ttrpg, the world should shift, change, adapt or perish outside of the scope of the party as well. For example, my long campaign party started a minor sidequest in a city, but then went on to solve a more pressing issue. When they came back and wanted to finish the quest they originally started, they learned that a noble Brettonian knight, Ulrich de Lyonesse, had already solved the issue and reaped the reward. Needless to say, they were grumbling about it all evening in a tavern, while I was smiling ear to ear =D
Probably a dumb question, but how would the time mechanic work if a player actually did take the Keen Mind feat, even if it was just for the +1 to Intelligence? Would they not know the hours left from the white board but also know this route through the forest while having deadlier monsters will be quicker than path through the meadow or would that just be something all players just know so it becomes a group decision which way to take. Could it simply be where say 3 times a day they roll d20 + intelligence and if higher than whatever DC decided the player can arrive at a place at precise time like we're going to talk to king 10 minutes before the ceremony and ok they are now at the king, you take a sand timer or alarm on phone, tell the players to roleplay. Or is at irrelevant because no one is going to bother taking Keen Mind to think about anyway.
This video is old, but I've been binging a lot and I find myself thinking "Ho-ly crap" " staaabby staaaby" and the various rogue insults at random times of the day during my routine...
Oh just in time. I just started a campaign with some students. Last week, I introduced a quest to find a lost prince and the first question out of one student's mouth was, "How long to do we have to find this prince?" Also, is the warlock coming back?
My ex gave me a blue tanto that looks like the rogues, wasn't impressed by the quality of mine, never thought to use it as a prop. Wonder what my group would think if I brought my battle ax peace pipe?
I do feel that this can cause issues if you keep doing this. If players feel punished because they went to do something they were interested in doing or by having no choice but to let some people die and others live then they are going to feel railroading into not being the heroes that they want their characters to be.
I try to keep a calendar but my big problem is keeping distance up to match. I have a game in a world where I am not sure what the physical distance are between certain things, I blame the IP. So I have no idea how far they have moved so it does get a little messy.
I recommend you get yourself a compass (the kind with the adjustable legs, and you can use it to draw a circle, not the one that points out directions), and a printed map. Decide for yourself how much distance per inch or centimeter, or whatever measurements are on your grid, and stick with that. You're in charge, and can make the things far apart or close together, as long as you are consistent. If you don't have a compass, use a ruler.
You left out the egg-timer. Mine is 30 seconds, and yes, I have had players rage quit over this. I usually use it during chase scenes, but there are other times when it's appropriate. The players blame me of meta-gaming as the DM by using an outside resource, but the fact is, the players are metagaming. "You got a green dragon blowing poison gas at you from the alley and three minotaurs chasing down the street toward you. Your character does not have 20 minutes to study the map and determine the most strategic maneuver to make." I'm not a hardass about making everything happen in those 30 seconds. We can take as much time as we need to make things happen, but the players have to declare what they're doing or else their characters are standing there dumbfounded and unable to make a decision... "During those 6 seconds, here's what the monsters do on their turn, now you have 30 seconds again to decide what you want to do or have your character stand there bewildered."
Of course players don't know the exact time, the characters don't have watches, which haven't been invented yet. Time mechanics are great and much simpler than all this -- I don't guess, I count, with tick marked turns blocked in sixes to show hours ... oh never mind, you 5e people don't really have turns, do you, and just call rounds "turns"....
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Don't know if you've done it, but a video about giving the game depth and things happening in the world would be nice.
Persona is the game series that taught me the importance of time limits and deadlines in games. Ever since, I've always paid close attention to time in my games and enforce time limits to encourage action and meaningful decisions.
The first game I ever decided to make time an important factor, it was a horror mystery game where the main characters were cursed to die after certain amount of days had passed, before they could vanquish the 'ghost of the week' haunting them.
Every session was filled with tension and fun, and knowing certain events and locations could only be accessed during certain times of the day or week meant planning ahead was necessary. It was a lot of fun.
sounds like a great campaign!
Valakie: The beatings will continue until moral improves
Idk about putting the exact time up for everyone to see. "early morning, late morning, afternoon, evening, etc"
It's better for the DM because they can be a bit more liberal and loose with their approximations, but it's also more realistic to the characters that aren't wearing watches lol
Caleb Widowgast enters the chat.
Yes, except there are certain abilities/spells that last 10 minutes or 1 hour, so knowing when those times are up are important for planning.
I literally spent 2 hours yesterday thinking about this ecact topic. Luke really knows his audience.
Uh oh, he's reading our minds now
Luke should fill the vacant position as himself playing a character off his character sheet but not being "in character".
Hey, youtube, this guy right here dont completly suck! Lets put him on the railroad of success!
Luke: "Keep it simple!"
Also Luke: keep track of time on a whiteboard, keep elaborate notes when players longrest and what day it is, make sheets of comming events and movement of enemies.
Ps. Learned a lot ;)
This is very helpful as a first time DM preparing for my first campaign.
About Strahd and kidnapping. Players are usually smart. They will notice you insert drama when they are away. Many will consider this a cheap shot, because if they didn't know about an event, they couldn't have acted accordingly, so this is, in my opinion, lazy DMing. Players need to have an opportunity to assess risks and make informed decision in game.
Also, what I usually do is present players with some villain that needs to be dealt with before a certain known point in time. Then present them with opportunities to prepare for said event that they under no circumstances can do ALL before the time runs out. Then the players will have to choose what to do, and what to leave to its fate. I also inform the players that a villain doesn't sit idly. So the sooner they deal with him, the better the outcome. This way time pressure naturally solves the problem of players long resting all the time with zero resistance from players.
In the real world plenty of things happen when people aren't there. If I take a vacation from December 15th to the 23rd and I miss my work Christmas party oh well, it isn't lazy dming. It is creating a living world that doesn't just revolve around the whims of the pcs like some video game.
I saw that foreshadowing paw next to Gary! I know what is happening here! Clearly it is old man commoner ready to reveal himself to be an artificer with a fat cat homunculus!!!! Brilliant foreshadowing of that twist Luke!
Over complicating time, how i imagine it : "It takes you 16 minutes to eat your breakfast with a small talk of 45 seconds approximately per sentence."
I like the tracking of time. This also alows me to describe how much rounder some NPC's gott since the PC's last interacted with them. ^^
Back in 1E I stole the 20 year calendar out the yellow pages. Since I did ageing due to special effect, players had to give their pc a birthday. If they didn't their birthday was the pc birthday.
I like to use distance as a measure of time. So, when in a dungeon, the players can move so many squares in an hour while they check for traps, keep on the look out for enemies, etc.... Half the number of squares for stealth, double if they are moving fast, and change up how many squares cover an hour depending on the size of the dungeon.
That's a really good idea? So, how many squares per hour, at normal speed, please?
@@AuntLoopy123 I normally like to run larger dungeons like caves or abandoned cities, so I’ll count out how many squares it is from the first “room” to the second and use that as the base number. Adjust as needed if I want more or less random encounters and traps.
Regarding your "actions per day" point - I actually do something like that, but in a very minimalist form. When they are travelling, so we are skipping chunks of time, I actually give each player one opportunity to say what they are doing along the way (either each day or each week, depending on how long the journey). The classics are looking for herbs, reading a book, talking to the NPCs who travel alongside them, etc.. I resolve each such action with a roll or a quick conversation (or, in the case of reading, I just tell them a small tidbit of what they learned). =)
My setting: There are small artifacts scattered around the world. The PCs and the BBEG are collecting them. I pre-planned the sequence that the BBEG finds them (i.e. how long it takes her to get there and how long it takes to deal with whatever/whoever has the item). When the PCs get an item first, the BBEG adjusts. If the BBEG gets there first, the PCs deal with the aftermath/carnage/collateral damage. The BBEG has a magic item that point to the closest of these artifacts. It doesn't say how far, how many, or anything like that - only the direction. If the PCs are closer to the BBEG than any of the artifacts, the magic item points to them, which may result in an encounter. There is a very powerful monster (a kraken) that has at least one of these artifacts. This creature is deemed too powerful for either the BBEG or the PCs to deal with (at least right now). The PCs learned that if they remain on the far side of the kraken, the BBEG won't find them. Relevant point is: Not only must I keep track of time in the campaign, but I have to be flexible, in that I must know where the BBEG is at all times, and what the BBEG is doing.
I like how you think!
Holy Crap I'm DMing for my first game very soon and this video helped a ton. Thanks for the great explanation, really helped clear up all of my confusion.
Heists are another time sensitive mission. In Edge of the Empire, the Jewel of Yavin was an adventure timed over three days, during which the players had to gather information on the vault holding the rare jewel, prepare for a race to gain access to the venue and also manipulate the auctioneers to ramp bids up as high as possible. This involved three distinct tasks (the stealing the jewel itself, preparing to rob the bids and preparing for the race to have physical access to the auction itself) that the players only had 3 days to accomplish across the entirety of cloud city.
The key thing is that these tasks should have a tight enough time limit with a variety enough of potential tasks that it should be practically impossible to complete unless the party spilits up. Which allows individual players to shine and delegate themselves towards tasks they *think* best suits them, which allows the stakes to be really amped up and disrupts the age old tradition of "never spilit the party" that I believe is a crutch for less cool groups that should be wavered for this particular type of mission.. Seriously, out of all the adventure books fantasy flight had produced the Jewel of Yavin is a fascinating where combat is only a tiny part of the adventure and is well worth the read on how to plan a complex heist; even if the idea of having to win a race, set up a back door to a bank and steal a jewel is a little far fetched.
Very cool vid! Thanks for the tips! I'm a brand new DM with no games under my belt as a player setting up to run the Dragon of Icespire peak, haha. Im trying to learn as much about the intricate mechanics as i can but i'm not gonna force it all in once shot. Having at least a passing glance of knowledge will definitely be helpful if we run into a situation that calls for it and the passage of time was one of those things in the rulebook that it left me a little more confused than informed.
Since my party also never played a campaign before we'll all be learning and figuring out the rules as we go along but as the DM i want to be as prepared as possible for my first ever run.
Time really starts at what the players see in the sky. Then moves to seasons, then to calendar and then finally to your map. Players should never feel bamboozled by time. It should be clear, relevant and understandable. But it never should be complicated. Time is tangible and measurable and players with an average int should know how long it will take to get anywhere on the map. A DM should alway use time, but should never be coy with it. However if the DM does not understand their own world, time will become abstract and hard. A DM will become coy and it will frustrate players. All events should be timed. Great Video!
I love this guy, his breakdown method and advice are so perfect
Thank you! :D
Glad you released a video on this! Just in time for my Curse of Strahd game!
I am preparing for my very first DnD game and I am making a analog 24 hour clock to keep track of time, light levels, tides (yes it will be relevant in my campaign) but you've given me an idea for also keeping track of buff/debuff durations. I am rather pleased with myself ngl
In the game I play we keep track of time very well. In fact we have a whole 15 month calendar with moon cycles because two of the four of our players are Werewolves, so we need to know when there is a full moon.
Thank you again for another great video. I have only one concern regarding what you said at 7:30. While I understand the importance to keep things simple, when possible, you can't really forego the rules of downtime and keep it simple because Xanathar's has introduced downtime rules that the players should follow. DMs can no longer keep downtime simple. The DM should impose how many actions of different types can be performed within a given downtime. Otherwise, certain players will abuse the downtime for mechanical advantage.
Would you have allowed the party to both defeat the Dragon and get to the Orcs before they caused damage, if they had found some way of doing so? For example, found a way to teleport. Combat with a Dragon is hard but realistically only takes a few minutes.
I was thinking the same thing. One fight with the dragon, with only one enemy to defeat, and then teleport to the other, that might actually require multiple battles, due to the number of enemies. You might even need to lay siege to the them.
I think if they were due to arrive the same day, it would be really problematic, but if they could teleport from one location to the other, and had one day's difference, it could be done.
However, the PCs did not know the exact dates, anyway. Luke doesn't say, but it's possible they chose the wrong option, and might have managed, if they chose to fight the giants, first.
I make a laminated time tracker sheet for the campaign's calendar system.
Lamination film works for dry erase (except red).
Just check off time as it passes, dry erase rounds at the start of a new minute, marking the minute... Etc.
I can tell the players the exact time, if the PCs have a way to get that information.
Note, the players can't see my time sheet. I'll tell them about sunrise, noon and sunset during the game day. If they want more accuracy, they need a way the PCs can get the info.
How about in dungeons? If you have some ideas for that I think people might be interested.
Most of these are great advice when you are in city, but not on the dungeon when you might have some effects that are 10-30 min or torches can go out if you are going too slowly. It would be easier to have a "rule" to going through dungeon. In older versions there were rules for this.
Yeah the 10min exploration turn add alot of structure to Dungeoncrawling
Very useful stuff I used OneNote for my DMing and I forgot that I could use Table for the log keeping it is much nicer looking now 😁🤗⚔
Damn, I rolled a nat 20 to be this early
are you a time traveler?
Maybe Luke just wanted to run a d&d sketch channel, but knew with how youtube treats short form content, he wouldn't be able to support his family. So instead, he tries to find lengthy topics as a cover for his intro sketches
this is why dnd sketches are so common on tiktok
I love where the skit is going 😂😂
Ooh, maybe the DM will get to b a player next! I hope so!😄
Your skits are always so awesome!!
and the topics are good as well, thanks
I was just meaning to research about in game time. Thanks. Great video!
I actually worked a bare bones time mechanic into a One shot I wish my ftiends had more interest in, so this is pretty helpful!
Heya! Really nice video! If I may, I would like to make a suggestion. Could you add "spoiler" warnings in sections where you talk about official modules? I have a good friend who is also a DM and I would love to link him some of your videos, such as this one, but he is also a player in my Curse of Strahd campaign and while I am sure he would not metagame, the reveals about (Curse of Strahd spoilers that are also in the video)
Vallaki being an absolute mess and the windmill with the old ladies being a tad bit suspicious is something I would rather have him experience during the campaign.
I love winter from both a player and DM, winter is the time of year when things slow down, travel becomes difficult and it becomes more practical for the majority of people to stay close or inside their homes for most of the day. It gives a wonderful chance for some downtime.
I also love holidays and life event celebrations for RP and world building, nothing makes the world seem more real than the way people celebrate.
Weddings are always interesting, especially involving politically important figures.
We've only have three or four days in our current campaign (I have it written down, but I forget off the top of my head) and I only just now got the calendar, so I've decided it will be late winter.
February has the YUCKIEST weather, some of the time. I want them to have at least one or two days when it is just SO YUCKY outside that they debate whether they should go on a quest today, or maybe stay indoors and read books, or chat with the old adventuring wizard who is retired, and not into teaching or taking apprentices, but is willing to share his stories and give advice. He's going to advise them about how to properly harvest monster parts, if they give him a chance.
Also, some downtime might encourage a bit of role-playing and actually chatting with each other.
Our group had a similar dilemma in IDRotFM... we chose to go after Xardorok, and as a result the chardalyn dragon has destroyed almost all of Ten Towns.
Oh... and Luke doesn't completely suck!
You're my favorite TTRPG channel
Good tips
We use notes that are sent to each player after each session so we know where and when we are
There are two major reasons I can think of for tracking time closely in 'downtime'. The first is if struggling PCs have found themselves in a failure state: They were unable to recover enough treasure to live like rock stars between ventures into the dungeon, thus had to get day labor jobs. Meaning anything they try to do that isn't 14 hours of drudgery per day has to be 'stolen' from their 'generous' employers, so they need to handle errands quickly/discreetly.
This first reason is unlikely to apply to any of the Hasbro-era games, with the 'treasure packet' mentality, or any game of any edition that uses modules (which tend to be Monty Haul tier in over-rewarding PCs).
The second reason is if the PCs are supposed to have a life outside of being murder hobos, i.e. there are demands on their time, therefore if you can get away from your responsibilities for 2 hours to go adventure, you have exactly 12 10-minute turns to act before your waifu is tapping her toes and reaching in and out of hammer-space while glaring at the clock. Less tongue-in-cheek, if the PCs are in Knight School or Magic School, they only have so much free time in which to get into mischief, and that's the time you want to track.
In my first game, I was tracking time down to the round. I found it constraining. It's day or night, not what ever is dramatic. You end up waiting or missing dramatic events. I've found the same in rpg computer games that had timed events.
The illusion of time is great. Realistic time- not so much.
Just re-invite the Druid and have Gary DM. Problem solved! Bring in the dancing lob- I mean dancing Kobolds!
I think one thing D&D 5th ed. does poorly is time. Although Luke, you cover time in more detail than me lol. I track month, day, morning, noon, and night. I only worry about the other stuff (i.e. hours) if it is important for that Act.
Has anyone else noticed that his hand motions are reminiscent of Ask A Ninja? Hmm…deadly DM?
Since your video on gm tips iv also kept a calendar and filled it with events that happen if the PCs do nothing. Like cities being taken in the war, monster attacks, and the like
I used donjon to create a new calendar for my game, and it was great, including moon phases and celestial events. I do need to add my own holidays, which I have not yet done.
However, when I went to print it, the moon phases did not print. So, I had to screen print each month, and place it as a bitmap into a presentation, so now I have a 12-page calendar, in nice big print, with moon phases (highly necessary, in case of lycanthropy).
But AFTER I did the printing, then, I realized, "Holy crap! I suck!" I forgot the holidays.
Oh, well. Faerun has no holidays this year. They're going to Barovia soon, anyway, and they can have a calendar with holidays there.
It's my first time DMing, so my players will forgive me. Next campaign, I'll do a better job, and design a calendar with holidays and PC birthdays, too.
Nevertheless, I still like Donjon, because of the moon phases. I have time to sort out formatting and all that for the future calendars, but figuring out moon phases and celestial events was outside my area of expertise.
I printed out 3 copies of the calendar. One for my players, and two for me. One will be specifically to track what has already happened and the other for me to anticipate what will, but it is still open for change.
Fantasy Calender is a free tool that works great. It keep track of time and events. You can share a link to your players and keep events public or secret.
in medieval fantasy day time was always a bummer to simulate. Most things either take way to long to track in hours or are way to quick to bother. However because of this it was easy for me to simulate years.
Meanwhile in modern settings all the long stuff is gone and most simple tasks begin to take longer. Travel is faster in an airship than by foot / maintaining your guns is way more complicated than maintaining your sword. Also I have an easier time to simulate urgency in a setting where you can communicate with distant people in seconds, rather than days. So in modern games I have an easier time to simulate hours than to simulate years.
I kinda half solved the modern years with (again) set city scenarios. In a set city its not a problem to let a week or month pass every session. You have your daily life in between. But Tolkien style travelers? They cant stay for two weeks in the same spot.
7:30
Giving players X actions a day isnt complicating, its making it simpler. By a margin. It isnt sucking fun out of the game. Its limiting not-fun time. You just need a game where it fits and have to implement it smart.
I used this concept in a steampunk game and reused it later in a pirate game. Both games had a lot of travel between set locations and a crapton of time based events.
However most of the time its very boring what happens between your travel from town A to town B. I had this before, as a dumb 13 year old DM in regular DnD I simulated casual travel. Talking, Walking, Wow. It stretches the game out for no real reason. Sure sometimes you have an encounter, sometimes an event occurred. But everytime you enter a road you have non stop action? That sounds like a terrible silly game. And I hope we all can agree on this. However I didn't want my players to be stagnant during this travel. Feels like they are frozen in a shipping container. So I implemented the "During travel do one thing from this list or something you came up with"-a-day mechanic. Which looked a little bit like this:
Practice a skill
Use an travelitem (yes I created items for travel. My favourite is the teapot)
Have an conversation with an npc about a topic (usually an indirect conversation and yes my players always have npcs with them)
Prepare something
Heal yourself or somebody else with an consumable item
And it works marvelous. They knew they had at least X days until they arrive. Which means they have at least X actions. They could plan it out. They knew an attack or something like a storm could still always happen and screw with there plans. So they had to plan for the unknown too!
Nevertheless it didn't take ages to use this mechanic. It increased fun by stupid amounts bc you get to the fun parts so damn quick. Its a list of options without incredible impact so players that struggle to decide have an easier time to just do something in the game. And most importantly, it didn't felt like you lost something bc of travel. Used in right circumstances its a great mechanic.
I give my players rough estimates on what time it is but if they want more exact I have them roll a Nature check. They've realized that knowing what time it is is helpful and now my Rogue is trying to buy a timepiece somewhere.
Nature checks! Thank you! That makes perfect sense, and it is also an under-utilized skill.
Also, if someone has a high Passive Nature stat, they can simply know. Two of my party have 13 as their passive nature check, so maybe those two will always know, at least in general terms. Like, what hour it is, but not what minute.
I use a spread sheet with month, day, season, moon phases, and other specific events.
Interesting question; couldn't your players have posted a mission for OTHER adventurers to handle the mission they weren't going to do? With a reward for the "group" that did it? Would you have allowed your players to do that? Just a thought I had about it.
Hey UA-cam. This guy doesn't completely suck.
I'll admit that I'm a bit loose on tracking time unless it's really important. I'm thinking of adding a "sun dial" to the front of my DM's screen showing the players the time of day. Something simple like just a cardboard circle with an arrow I move around. Maybe laminated with dry erase tick marks for things like spell duration or rests.
Good idea on location, but do not attach it to the screen, or you'll have to flip your screen back and forth to change things on it. Maybe use a laminated sheet, and some clothespins/binder clips to hang it on the front of the screen, but still allow you to easily grab it and change it, and then hang it again.
Alternately, if you don't mind using up the paper, a new clock for each day. You can use all your markings for your notes, without having to write it all down twice during the session. When the day is over, get a new page, mark it up as needed, if any spells/effects are still in play, and hang it up.
I think I'll have a sundial in town, and at major locations. But when they're not in sight of a sundial, they'll get, "It looks like approximately X hours past sunrise," or "The sun is quite high in the sky," or "It's getting along towards dusk," or "the night is deepening. It's approaching midnight."
Eventually, either someone will take the "I always know what time it is" feat, or else someone will cut a deal with a gnome tinkerer and get a "pocket chronometer," or something like that.
I think starting out with general times, and getting more precise, as they get used to it, will help us learn, and not get too nit-picky during the learning process. Also, it's pretty much more believable, if you don't have an actual watch. Wrist sundials are cool in cartoons, but I don't believe they're all that accurate. Maybe if you have a bunch of tools to go with them, and calibrate them everywhere you go. But sundials are pretty much specific to location, aren't they?
The "old man" should fill the vacant player position.
Sorry for spamming, but one more point to your giant + dragon dilemma. I feel like this is extremely important, and while to you (a great DM) it may seem like a given, I feel like this is where lots of newer GMs go wrong. The world should not revolve around the heroes. They matter, yes, but if they weren't there, life would still go on. This is prevalent in PC RPGs, where the world literally waits for you to solve its problems, but in a ttrpg, the world should shift, change, adapt or perish outside of the scope of the party as well. For example, my long campaign party started a minor sidequest in a city, but then went on to solve a more pressing issue. When they came back and wanted to finish the quest they originally started, they learned that a noble Brettonian knight, Ulrich de Lyonesse, had already solved the issue and reaped the reward. Needless to say, they were grumbling about it all evening in a tavern, while I was smiling ear to ear =D
Great topic today.
Hey UA-cam, this guy doesn't suck.
Great content like usual, but I felt like half of the video was an add your patreon
Thank you
Probably a dumb question, but how would the time mechanic work if a player actually did take the Keen Mind feat, even if it was just for the +1 to Intelligence? Would they not know the hours left from the white board but also know this route through the forest while having deadlier monsters will be quicker than path through the meadow or would that just be something all players just know so it becomes a group decision which way to take. Could it simply be where say 3 times a day they roll d20 + intelligence and if higher than whatever DC decided the player can arrive at a place at precise time like we're going to talk to king 10 minutes before the ceremony and ok they are now at the king, you take a sand timer or alarm on phone, tell the players to roleplay. Or is at irrelevant because no one is going to bother taking Keen Mind to think about anyway.
This video just came in time for me (hehe, pun)
One good exemple is the Dead Rising Franchise. Most side quest's are lost If you DON'T know the map and game already.
Hey UA-cam He does not suck
This video is old, but I've been binging a lot and I find myself thinking "Ho-ly crap" " staaabby staaaby" and the various rogue insults at random times of the day during my routine...
Oh just in time. I just started a campaign with some students. Last week, I introduced a quest to find a lost prince and the first question out of one student's mouth was, "How long to do we have to find this prince?"
Also, is the warlock coming back?
My ex gave me a blue tanto that looks like the rogues, wasn't impressed by the quality of mine, never thought to use it as a prop. Wonder what my group would think if I brought my battle ax peace pipe?
I try so hard to keep time in mind for urgency reasons...... But my sense of scale is absolutely shit. It effects travel, too😂😭😭😭
I do feel that this can cause issues if you keep doing this.
If players feel punished because they went to do something they were interested in doing or by having no choice but to let some people die and others live then they are going to feel railroading into not being the heroes that they want their characters to be.
given up trying to find people to try dnd with so i got the wrath of ashardlon boardgame coming. Atleast i maybe able to play with wife :P
Right in time for lunch in here, France.
I vote bring the warlock back! More dry erase board humor, please.
Brett's wife
If I get the patriot to be able to get in to one of your games what digital platform do you use ? Fantasy grounds unity ?
My next session is going to be time based
Festival! Be happy by order of Landrew or the Lawgivers will come.
Skull face has an awesome voice.
Tracking time is very important in book 5 of Age of Ashes.
Good resource information, but why does your vids and others as well cut short before you say your catch phrase
I try to keep a calendar but my big problem is keeping distance up to match. I have a game in a world where I am not sure what the physical distance are between certain things, I blame the IP. So I have no idea how far they have moved so it does get a little messy.
I recommend you get yourself a compass (the kind with the adjustable legs, and you can use it to draw a circle, not the one that points out directions), and a printed map. Decide for yourself how much distance per inch or centimeter, or whatever measurements are on your grid, and stick with that. You're in charge, and can make the things far apart or close together, as long as you are consistent.
If you don't have a compass, use a ruler.
@@AuntLoopy123 That sounds awesome. I will try that
video starts @3:11
leaving a comment!
What they mean player spot? 4 people is the absolute best number in my opinion.
Players just want to have fun does not mean making it easy for them.
The video starts at 3:00
Speaking of tracking time, lets save the viewers, shall we?
Great
You left out the egg-timer. Mine is 30 seconds, and yes, I have had players rage quit over this. I usually use it during chase scenes, but there are other times when it's appropriate. The players blame me of meta-gaming as the DM by using an outside resource, but the fact is, the players are metagaming.
"You got a green dragon blowing poison gas at you from the alley and three minotaurs chasing down the street toward you. Your character does not have 20 minutes to study the map and determine the most strategic maneuver to make." I'm not a hardass about making everything happen in those 30 seconds. We can take as much time as we need to make things happen, but the players have to declare what they're doing or else their characters are standing there dumbfounded and unable to make a decision... "During those 6 seconds, here's what the monsters do on their turn, now you have 30 seconds again to decide what you want to do or have your character stand there bewildered."
Bring druid and Fat cat back from the shadow realm, just give fat cat an upgrade!
Just another comment for the algorithm to let UA-cam know that Luke Hart doesn't completely suck.
Luke doesn’t (completely) suck.
Timestamps Luke!
Kenny G? 🎷
3:10 for video
Poor Druid, ha ha. Nobody remembers him, it's been so long ...
The Fantasy United Nations would be the Lord's Alliance.
For the algorithm.
...you don’t completely suck!
Great video, but you keep spoiling Curse of Strahd for me with all your examples lmao
They should have sent a hireling to sabatoge the giants lol
Of course players don't know the exact time, the characters don't have watches, which haven't been invented yet.
Time mechanics are great and much simpler than all this -- I don't guess, I count, with tick marked turns blocked in sixes to show hours ... oh never mind, you 5e people don't really have turns, do you, and just call rounds "turns"....