u/rodog22

Time as a Resource

I've been thinking about how to implement time as a resource in my ttrpg and the current idea I'm working on is what I call the Quest Clock. It's a variation of a progress clock that measures abstractly how much time the PCs have to complete a quest.

The problem that quest clocks would solve is that time as it is measured in most rpgs is basically GM fiat. Precise real time measurements are provided in seconds, minutes, hours or days. But realistically speaking its completely up to the GM to decide how long it takes to get from A to B, whether it's day time or night, or what consequences if any there are to doing something that would take up a lot of time.  I'm not necessarily opposed to GM fiat when the alternative is to have complex and uninteresting rules but I believe quest clocks have the potential to make time management rules interesting.

The idea behind the Quest Clock is that it 1) objectively measures time in the narrative, 2) creates tension as PCs have to make decisions on what to do with the time allotted to them and 3) applies limitations to actions the PCs can make that are high impact or would otherwise be consequence free.

How it works:

Certain useful actions such as recovering health, doing research, repairing armor, and performing rituals fill up segments on the Quest Clock. If one player fails a knowledge check all the other players can't just ask to have a go at it. Each attempt costs time. Chances are there are other things you could have spent that time doing while your ally does the knowledge check like fixing your armor or casting a spell that boosts an ally's stats. If you want to summon an entity as an ally you have to spend a lot of time to do that. If its body is destroyed you have to spend more time to resummon them.

You can adjust the quest clock to account for the scale and scope of the quest. Perhaps when participating in a larger scale quest tasks the segments of time it costs to take a given action is reduced to a minimum of 0. You wouldn't bother spending time mustering a legion of soldiers to go on a diplomatic mission you expect to complete in a week but you would if you needed to go on a military campaign.

The quest clock can flexibly measure different scales of time in a way that has an impact without fundamentally changing the rules.

Failure to complete the quest would either result in failure or less desirable outcome upon success. The consequence could be diminished rewards, less exp, a hit to reputation etc.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions I'm open to hearing them.

I've been working in insurance for 1.5 years now and I think I'm decent at it but I'm burnt out. I work 4 day 10 hour shifts. It's remote which is nice but I dread working and I'm exhausted afterwords. The back to back calls is grueling.

Are there alternatives to this? I would like to see if maybe commercial insurance would make for a nice change of pace but I'm struggling to find remote opportunities for it. I've also considered going into related fields but the only one I have relevant experience for is probably Recruiting other insurance agents which doesn't seem to come up much. I've seen two recruiting opportunities at my current job open up since working at my current company and one of them was when I was first hired.

I generally don't read litrpgs for reasons I won't go into here (I love progression fantasy without it though). But I have tried a few and one has stuck with me. He Who Fights with Monsters. I haven't changed my mind about the litrpg elements themselves. Still hate it. But I love the series otherwise.

I wondered why the MC was so divisive when people brought it up. Come to find out he's an t, opinionated, judgmental, preachy, progressive, anti-theist and argues with people like an online keyboard warrior with ADHD. So basically he's my spirit animal.

One thing I will say is that a damage over time focused fighter makes for pretty boring combat. I enjoyed fight scenes involving other characters but the fights that focus on the MC just come across as repetitive. He's casting the exact same spells in the exact same order regardless of context and just giving him a new DoT adds absolutely nothing. The scene in the imaginary world (I forget what they called it) is one notable exception.

I think it would have helped if he had something akin to the blue silver grass from Soul Land which doesn't just apply poison damage overtime but can actually be used to ensnare enemies and such.

For a Cultivation Fantasy themed setting I'm working on social mechanics that breaks down persuasion into separate categories. Every PC has a certain amount of points that they must invest specifically in the social stats so everyone's build would be viable in at least some social situations. No face of the party charisma based classes like in DnD that does all the social interaction because they are the only ones who get bonuses for that. The four methods of persuasion are listed below and each come with their own advantages and disadvantages.

Charisma

Deception

Intimidation

Logic

In my game rolls involve potential complications that may you have to deal with if you do not roll well enough. In the case of the persuasion system what those complications look like depend on what social stat you roll and the situation. For example if you try to intimidate someone while you might succeed they may run and tell the authorities or their superiors at the first chance and they may try to seek to get revenge on you. If you use Deception you might initially fool someone but they will later find out about it and you'll get a similar result. Charisma may work but your target may become obsessed with you (the obsession may be aromantic in nature) or act in a way that complicates your situation.

To persuade someone you always need leverage but what constitutes leverage is contextual. Logic is the safest method of persuasion because you are trying to convince someone to do something based on known variables but you have to do some investigating to figure out what matters to the person you are persuading. What matters to that character is based on their passions which function similar to social mechanics in other games like Runequest, One Roll Engine and intimacies in Exalted. The other options allow you to create leverage. If you are using Intimidation or Charisma you are the leverage. With Deception you are basically creating fake leverage.

I recall in 2e at least The Forsaken Lion had three talking heads whom he regularly consulted similar to Mimir from Norse mythology (think God of War). Is there an actual spell for that because that would be a cool thing to do to your enemies in the game lol

If not that's an idea for a necromancy spell right there.

This is the most common objection I get. They talk about getting the policy when they get paid but of course they don't answer the phone when I call them back. How do you handle this objection? The suggestion about getting the money from someone else or telling them the quote is only guaranteed for today doesn't do anything for me.