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Keeping track of time in Pencil/Paper RPG

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Tue, 07/25/2006 - 17:24
Pt314
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Joined: 12/31/1969

I know this is a bit off from board games, but I thought the design concept is still applicable.

In the Sci-Fi Pencil/Paper RPG I have been designing I have had a couple of problems incorporating some of my mechanics that depend on the passage of time, especcially in my physical condition system.

Example: A player has taken 3 points of bleeding damage, of which will slowly drain away hp until enough time has past for it to be healed or if somebody uses bandages on them. However I can only think of this working if I keep track of everything the players do, and how much time it would take, or if the entire game is in a turn-based combat mode, but I do like it how in a pencil and paper game the passage of time need not be constant.

Some things, such as short term vitality points, regenerate completely if you aren't in combat, but other stats don't regenerate so quickly.

Should I scrap the mechanics that are time based, or can somebody give me some hint on how to solve this?

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Tue, 07/25/2006 - 17:38
#1
phpbbadmin
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Joined: 04/23/2013
Keeping track of time in Pencil/Paper RPG

The great thing about RPGs is that you can abstract out a lot of things that you normally wouldn't/shouldn't in a board game, or you can apply rules only when the situation dictates it. I think the easiest solution would be to estimate how much damage a person takes in a given time period, then estimate how much time it takes to do whatever it is the players are doing.

For example, let's say that a player is wounded and will take 1 HP of bleeding damage per hour until the wound is dressed. The party desperately needs to get the player to town, but it's a three hours ride from where they are now. The player would then obviously take 3 pts of damage during the ride back to town. It's situations like this where players can come up with alternate solutions to their problems. For example here one of the players might rip up a portion of their clothing to make an impromptu bandage to at least alleviate some of that bleeding damage (at DMs discretion obviously). I think as long as the DM informs the players of the seriousness of the situation, then you can apply mechanics as exemplified above to deal with timing issues.

HTH,
-Darke

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Tue, 07/25/2006 - 18:34
#2
Pt314
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Keeping track of time in Pencil/Paper RPG

I guess that could work.
In the list of conditions I might have
5 points of bleeding damage : -5 hp / hour

And the game master decides when an hour has gone by.

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