Countdown To Adventure

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Without further ado, here’s our weekly newsletter. Today, I talk about my thoughts on how to make a compelling adventure.

Countdown to Adventure

An in-game countdown goes a long way to making an adventure exciting. If there's no pressure to act quickly, PCs can rest, gather all the equipment and retainers, and make plans that account for nearly every possibility. I want that as much as I want to roleplay another "shopping session". Note to players out there, do not attempt to make your judge relive their days working retail. Back to the point, we all have the real world countdown of the time we have scheduled to play the game, but an in-game countdown puts the pressure on players to commit to accomplishing a lot in a single session. Speaking of a single session, I'm going to be discussing this topic with the intent that the countdown ends at the end of the session in which it begins. Of course, you can have a longer countdown that lasts the course of a story arc or an entire campaign, but that creates a whole different discussion when covering things on that scale.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I put a countdown in Race Against Flame in the form of fire giants chasing the PCs. This is a very obvious "countdown" where if the PCs don't act then they will die. However, Where Demons Roost has a hidden countdown where the world will face consequences if they do not "cleanse" the tree. I am intentionally being vague so to not spoil the adventure beyond the premise. But in The Conquest of Chaos I put a great countdown into the level 2 adventure, The Cyclopean Storm. The PCs must stop a flying island from crashing into the city of Punjar!

Now ye olde D&D adventures sometimes used the narrative method of countdown, but sometimes this was less explicitly presented. More often they would rely on random encounters to punish overly cautious and slow play styles. The Cyclopean Storm does include random encounters, but it is presented as combat encounters that occur if the PCs do not pay attention to the narrative. Ideally, this happens once or twice, but the environment and roleplay opportunities teach them how to avoid these encounters. The more narrative countdown of "you are on a sky island that's on a crash course" means that the PCs can always look at the horizon to see a TPK growing closer and closer.

This countdown means that players and their PCs can just take their time with everything. The answer to "why can't someone else solve this problem" is "you're the only one around who can do it in time". "Can we take a week to rest and prep" is answered with "The catastrophe is occurring right now". Indecisiveness is eliminated. Some adventures communicate the countdown to the judge through a timeline of "what happens if the PCs do nothing", while others communicate this less formally.

So how what are some smart ways to put a countdown in your adventure? I suggest looking at your favorite movies! Watch Crank and get inspired for how the PCs can wake up poisoned and in need of an antidote. Escape From New York has the hero given a suicidal mission to accomplish so that he can earn a pardon. Check out The Boy and The Heron which offers the protagonist a false chance at finding a missing family member that turns into a chance at avoiding a catastrophe that threatens an entire world. Go rewatch The Raid and make the PCs escape a confined area alive before they are caught by ceaseless enemies.

But what is the countdown reaches zero? Adventures are generally made with the intent that the PCs succeed in some regard. But you gotta let things happen sometimes. Mothership adventures often assume that the PCs will Survive, Solve, or Save. Maybe two, but not all three. Without risk and consequence, there is no true reward.

What’s the most memorable “ticking clock” you’ve encountered in a TTRPG adventure?

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