How do you personally deal with players who are prone to F'ing around during points where the story would have a ticking clock? I don't want to railroad my party, but i also am struggling to come up with a believable reason why the world kind of just "stopped" while they decided to do side quests. On one hand i COULD force them to deal with an enemy who has had time to complete their grand scheme/ plan and fortify against the parties coming. On the other if i gave my monsters that kind of time.... the party would probably get turned into a fine paste in a round or 2.
Your party clearly hasn't bought into the plotline you're on. Show, don't tell, your players how the world is impacted for their choices *good and bad*. If they decide to follow your arc, cool. If not, go to the DMG -world-Shaking Events- and pick something that the players want to deal with. Then drop that on em and start over. Or have the "Power's That Be" hire someone more trustworthy to undertake the important stuff.
If they're having fun doing the side quests let them do side quests.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
The DM for our group recently faced this. We opted for along rest, to clear some maladies our fighter and barbarian suffered. When we awoke and proceeded, the event we were on our way to deal with was over. Now some might say that wasn't fair, or hindered us, or was some form of railroading, but we saw it as a rather natural progression of events. The enemies don't "freeze" when the party gallops off to do whatever they wish to do, ignoring the path they had been pursuing. This has also occurred as we took a few side quests, and as a result, an entire town was lost to the great threat.
I'd stop short of TRULY screwing the party with events unfolding while they dicked about, but I would also make it clear that this WILL happen and it MIGHT not be as easy to overcome, in other situations. Let the party know, their actions have consequences, both good and bad. Chasing the nymph through the forest might seem like fun, but realizing the Orc camp they were on the way to raid had prepared, and called back some scouting parties to bolster their defense turned what would have been an easy raid into a dangerous battle. Cause>>>Effect.
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Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
It sounds like you are not actually using the ticking clock, and your players know it. If you tell them they need to stop a thing by tomorrow, and they go pick flowers instead, then you need to make the thing happen, and the players deal with it. If they die, they die. There need to be consequences for players actions, or inactions.
Otherwise its not a real ticking clock, its a video game ticking clock, where quest-giver says, you need to go over there right now, and instead of going right now, you spend three weeks running side quests around the open world. Then, when you finally get to the "there" the quest giver is still just standing around, glad you made it in the nick of time. This isn't a video game. You need to mean what you say, if you say there's a time limit.
The players in my game are currently on a ticking clock. They have 24 in-game hours to complete their quest without facing a severe repercussion. Their resources are getting depleted and they *want* to rest but occasional timed reminders of progressive and potentially debilitating events have kept them moving. Listening to the players debate each next move confirms this. It is tense and exciting for both me as DM and them.
If you want your players to feel immersed, the best way to do it is by shwoing them that the world does not revolve around them. Give them several side quests to take and if they decide on one and ignore the other for a while that quest has suddenly solved itself. Maybe not the way they wanted. For the main quest, that's obviously awkward, but in your case, now they know it has become really hard to do the next part and they will have to think how to handle that. Could be fun, if you are able to adapt and let them find ways to still progress despite having lost a lot of momentum.
How do you personally deal with players who are prone to F'ing around during points where the story would have a ticking clock? I don't want to railroad my party, but i also am struggling to come up with a believable reason why the world kind of just "stopped" while they decided to do side quests. On one hand i COULD force them to deal with an enemy who has had time to complete their grand scheme/ plan and fortify against the parties coming. On the other if i gave my monsters that kind of time.... the party would probably get turned into a fine paste in a round or 2.
Your party clearly hasn't bought into the plotline you're on. Show, don't tell, your players how the world is impacted for their choices *good and bad*. If they decide to follow your arc, cool. If not, go to the DMG -world-Shaking Events- and pick something that the players want to deal with. Then drop that on em and start over. Or have the "Power's That Be" hire someone more trustworthy to undertake the important stuff.
If they're having fun doing the side quests let them do side quests.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
The DM for our group recently faced this. We opted for along rest, to clear some maladies our fighter and barbarian suffered. When we awoke and proceeded, the event we were on our way to deal with was over. Now some might say that wasn't fair, or hindered us, or was some form of railroading, but we saw it as a rather natural progression of events. The enemies don't "freeze" when the party gallops off to do whatever they wish to do, ignoring the path they had been pursuing. This has also occurred as we took a few side quests, and as a result, an entire town was lost to the great threat.
I'd stop short of TRULY screwing the party with events unfolding while they dicked about, but I would also make it clear that this WILL happen and it MIGHT not be as easy to overcome, in other situations. Let the party know, their actions have consequences, both good and bad. Chasing the nymph through the forest might seem like fun, but realizing the Orc camp they were on the way to raid had prepared, and called back some scouting parties to bolster their defense turned what would have been an easy raid into a dangerous battle. Cause>>>Effect.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
It sounds like you are not actually using the ticking clock, and your players know it. If you tell them they need to stop a thing by tomorrow, and they go pick flowers instead, then you need to make the thing happen, and the players deal with it. If they die, they die. There need to be consequences for players actions, or inactions.
Otherwise its not a real ticking clock, its a video game ticking clock, where quest-giver says, you need to go over there right now, and instead of going right now, you spend three weeks running side quests around the open world. Then, when you finally get to the "there" the quest giver is still just standing around, glad you made it in the nick of time. This isn't a video game. You need to mean what you say, if you say there's a time limit.
The players in my game are currently on a ticking clock. They have 24 in-game hours to complete their quest without facing a severe repercussion. Their resources are getting depleted and they *want* to rest but occasional timed reminders of progressive and potentially debilitating events have kept them moving. Listening to the players debate each next move confirms this. It is tense and exciting for both me as DM and them.
If you want your players to feel immersed, the best way to do it is by shwoing them that the world does not revolve around them. Give them several side quests to take and if they decide on one and ignore the other for a while that quest has suddenly solved itself. Maybe not the way they wanted. For the main quest, that's obviously awkward, but in your case, now they know it has become really hard to do the next part and they will have to think how to handle that. Could be fun, if you are able to adapt and let them find ways to still progress despite having lost a lot of momentum.
Stressing the urgency and having consequence for loosing too much time is a good incentive to activate themselves.