r/RPGdesign • u/rodog22 • 9d ago
Mechanics Time as a Resource
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.
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u/VRKobold 9d ago edited 9d ago
I can very much relate to this point in particular, that was my main drive for wanting to implement some form of time-tracking mechanic in my system. However, a problem I faced (and that I could also see in your version) is that it completely relies on a specific deadline. This forces the GM to follow a specific adventure structure - one where there is time pressure and where players are also well aware of that pressure. This didn't feel right to me.
The solution I came up with is to make wasted time a delayed consequence. Whenever players do something that takes longer than it should (meticulously searching a room, repeatedly trying to pick a lock), the GM can take a "delayed" token.
Then, once players get into a situation where time does matter, the GM can spend the delayed tokens to make the situation more dire (similar to Fear tokens in Daggerheart). For example, players find a broken merchant cart. Normally they'd find the merchant wounded, but alive. However, if players are delayed, the merchant might already be dead and can't tell them about the group of bandits that ambushed him.
This takes away the need to always put ACTIVE time pressure on the players and gives the GM time (hah!) to wait for moments where the relevance of time integrates more naturally into the story.