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Forged in the dark : one large clock, or stacking small clocks ? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works to c/rpg@ttrpg.network

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A very short question, for people used to Forge in the dark games.

To manage a situation evolving negatively or positively on the long term, do you use a large clock, or stack several one small ones with a concrete impact every time they fill?

let’s say the PC are asking questions they shouldn’t be asking about “the bad guys”. Would you say

3 times 4 tick clock : leading to “bad guys hear rumours about someone asking question”/Bad guys Finds out who asks the question/ Bad guys guards find the PC.

A 12 tick clock and continuously increasing the pressure on the PC as the clock is filling ?

The related question, is how do you handle the consequence of the clocks filling beside the : Enemy guard found you (or missing accomplished when it’s on the PC side). Just by role-playing, or would you change the PC position or is it as often in rpg “it depends” ?

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[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

I don't usually use any kind of pre determined timing that would be measured with a clock. I use story beats to introduce new ideas and events in the story so it always flows naturally based not just on what I have my NPCs doing in the background, but also what the PCs are doing in the foreground. I might have things that are timed out in weeks or months that can be triggered by the party resting or training or whatever, but this would only be because they've triggered an event like an incoming invasion force or something as it falls along the way the story has progressed.

Let's say the players are asking questions they shouldn't be asking about...

If the players are asking questions that are metagaming, I direct them back to the game and what information their characters have and what questions they would have based on that. If the characters shouldn't be asking the question because of some in-world reason, such as the characters they are talking to are loyal to a king who finds such talk treasonous, well then it would just play out in-game taking those things into account and the party may be pushed into a fight or taken to jail.

I employ as much improv as I write things down ahead of time. There is no way you can account for every single thing that every other player at the table may do, so I think it's best to leave a huge degree of vagueness until things start happening, so you can just make shit up on the fly for things you couldn't prepare for.

Time is relative. Especially in story-telling.

[–] Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 months ago

I feel like you misunderstood my question,

I talk Forged in the dark mechanic (FITD) which have a mechanic called "clock". It's a bit similar to long term action on traditional games where you stack success points / failure points until a long term goal is reached except that FITD uses it really everywhere no matter whether we talk about "HP", "opening a door" "being seen by the guard". An So it's not about general "time in RPG" which is also an interesting discussion (especially in a game like Vampire, the threat of the dawn coming can add a lot of pressure to the PC). And like other so called "rule light games" you end-up with large rule books and mechanics that you need to follow.

Regarding the asking question, I am not talking about meta-gaming, but question that would drag attention story wise. Without going asking question about the Kim family in North Korea, if you start asking about the local mafia, it's likely that at some point the local mafia will hear about these persons asking questions. I took that as an example of a threat which isn't immediate (You're spacesuit is running out of air if you don't make it soon to the ship you'll die) but which is present. In a more traditional game, I could use what make sense in the story to plan the encounter with the mobsters.

[–] corcaroli@ttrpg.network 1 points 5 months ago

It feels like you've never run Blades or any kind of a similar game...