On this episode of the Lair of Secrets we talk about pacing your game, including techniques you can use and techniques baked into some of our favorite RPGs. First though, we’re venturing back into the Game Room to catch up on new games and new campaigns.

The Game Room

Ironsworn: Starforged

Evolved from Powered by the Apocalypse games

Can be played traditionally, but also has solo and co-op modes

Has extras to help you keep track of things in a novel way

Tiny Tina’s Wonderland

a fun reskin and improvement on the Borderlands franchise (Ken & David)

Atari VCS to PC conversion failure

It works, but not as well as they say without significant upgrade.

New Year, New Campaign

Ken's Elemental Apocalypse campaign

Answers the question … What If the Temple of Elemental Evil rose … and the heroes couldn’t stop it?

Flips the classic Keep on the Borderlands scenario - the heroes are hiding out in the “Caverns of Hope” (as opposed to the Caves of Chaos), while the bad guys control the keep.

Inspiration?

B/X Blackrazor’s post: The Secret of Keep on the Borderlands, which points out that if you’re in it for the loot … your target should be Kendall Keep

The Willow TV series: The next generation rises to deal with an ancient evil .. and kicks ass doing it.

Red Dawn: Fight the invaders!

Independence Day: The apocalypse happened. Now what?

Mechanics

PCs start at 3rd level.

They’re getting bonus feats (1st, 3rd, 6th, 12th level) and we’re swapping out the Inspiration die for Liberation dice. Liberation dice have the following effects:

Re-roll any result

Double damage

Change a story aspect

Ken wants players to take risks - yeah, go ahead, jump off that castle wall while being chased by a dozen elemental goblins. You’ll figure it out on your way down.

Main Topic: Pacing Your Game

Why should you pace your game? Why does pacing matter?

Time-boxed sessions - how to fit the game in the amount of time you have

Keeping everyone enthusiastic

Reinforcing the game’s themes

Types of pacing:

Ad Hoc and Organic

The Way Games Were

Different Levels of Pacing vs. Gamer Skill

Cyberpunk RED and pacing - p. 395

Cyberpunk RED uses Beat Charts to script the game and set the pace.

Games are broken up into Beats. Each Beat takes about 30 minutes.

A typical adventure consists of:

Hook

Development

Cliffhanger

Climax

Resolution

Adventures have only one Hook, Climax, and Resolution.

The rest of the adventure is made up of Developments (which move the story along) and Cliffhangers (which provide tension/excitement).

Scripting the Game: A Few Good Beats [PDF]

Blades in the Dark

Clocks help drive tension while providing an indicator to the PCs about how much time/effort they have left.

Can be used to track progress toward completing a project, setting off an alarm, or other time-based or resource-based progressions.

ALIEN

Cinematic vs. Ongoing

In their Cinematic scenarios (Chariot of the Gods, Destroyer of Worlds, Heart of Darkness), the action is divided up into Acts.

Acts consist of an overall arc, and may conclude with a particular revelation (e.g. character development cards are flipped to reveal how that character deal switch the situation; e.g. Ash’s betrayal in the original Alien).

FATE

From the Fate Adversary Toolkit

“As we talk about adversaries in this book, keep in mind the Fate Fractal: everything is a character (Fate Core, page 270). An adversary is not necessarily a person, monster, or other kind of creature you can punch. Rather, it’s a thing that exists to hinder, challenge, or oppose the players. There are three main types of adversaries: enemies, obstacles, and constraints.

Includes a number of spreads showing how to build out adversaries for a FATE campaign, focusing on low-threat challenges that build toward the confrontation with the boss.