D&D & the Fourth Dimension

If combat at your table has become a little routine, or players are taking too long to act on their turn, or everything is going great and you want to make them even better: Adding a timed element is a powerful tool Game Masters can use to pump up the action and ratchet up the stakes. It is very potent so it's probably not something you'll want to do use for every fight.

We said in the last post, you can almost always add the third dimension in, but adding the fourth is way more spicy so we'll want to spread it around. A little goes a long way. But start that tic tic tic going and watch combat go to a new dimension.

One easy example of this that won't stress out your players too much: of course the level 5 PCs can take out the patrol of CR ½ monsters, but can they do it in a single round so that the rest of the citadel isn't alerted? Players who like planning are going to respond well to this sort of thing.

Or to turn things up you can take away that option of planning things and starting the fight on their terms. The party walks in on the cultists at the end of their ritual to open the portal and summon something really nasty. Better hurry, it looks like you've only got two rounds before that guy in the back rips the heart out of your favorite NPC a la Temple of Doom ("Om Namah Shivaya.")

It doesn't have to be a combat encounter though, you can make it a skill challenge: Save the McGuffin from the burning building, you have about 5 rounds. Better to keep it loose and mysterious so you can control pacing. The PCs must find their way around in the smoke, avoid collapsing floors and dodge burning timbers, all while breathing fumes and making constitution saves. Maybe they find their quarry but surprise: the arsonists are still in there and are ready to fight to keep them from escaping.

Any encounter where the objective isn't simply kill all the baddies can create new opportunities for team works and strategy. There are plenty of ways to do this: The fuse is burning on the keg of black powder, the Edgar Allen Poe pendulum is swinging low, the walls are closing in, the waters are rising up.

If you want to take it to eleven and keep the tempo up you can literally take out a little sand timer from a board game or set a countdown on your phone. Alright everybody, one minute turns. Now usually the threat is enough and when times up the player will blurt out their decision, but be careful actually taking turns away, no one will like that. In fact the timer alone may be enough to ruin the fun for certain people, and even the ones who enjoy the tension probably won't want it every game night.

But with careful application adding a timed element and creating a sense of urgency can really up the drama and player engagement during combat. It can also solve the issues many tables have balancing short and long rest classes and the problem of the five minute adventuring day. That's what we're talking about next time.