I like to keep the world moving, even when the players aren’t directly observing the NPCs or events that are changing. However, achieving this has often been a challenge for me. Just when should a GM trigger the next step in a sequence of events that should, or could, happen?
You might do it based on real world time (number of sessions?), but that requires tracking sessions and can feel cruel or awkward (“now would be a bad time for this to happen…”).
Maybe events only trigger when characters are there to interact with or observe them? That’s certainly the way a lot of modern published adventures work. However, this is difficult to do in a way which gives meaning to the player characters actions and choices and makes the world feel sterile.
GMs who are more diligent than I may choose to strictly track the in game calendar and the number of days which have passed since certain triggering event or action. This is a perfectly valid approach. I personally find I have enough book keeping during a session that I often lose track of the passage of days (nor do I have a calendar for my game world).
You can not have a meaningful campaign if strict time records are not kept.
“Time in the Campaign”, AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide (1979), p. 38
Given that I would like to present a dynamic world, in which events occur even when the players aren’t there to observe them, and I don’t want (or am incapable of managing) to keep track of the cycle of days in my world, what can I do?
While reading through Electric Bastionland and learning about author Chris McDowell’s approach to running games, where the conductor (aka referee, GM or DM) is advised to “Expose your Prep” (p306), I was inspired to utilise a fun mechanic I first read about in relation to The Black Hack — Usage Die.
Usage Die in The Black Hack are how consumable resources are tracked. Rather than keeping track of how many charges your item has used, you roll the item’s usage die on each use. On a roll of 1 or 2 the item the usage die shrinks for the next use, throught the sequence d20->d12->d10->d8->d6->d4. When you roll 1 or 2 on a d4 the item is spent.
For example, a torch may have a d6 usage die. Each 10 minute turn it is lit, roll a d6. If a 1 or 2 is rolled, the torches usage die drops to a d4. Continue to roll the d4 each turn the torch is used, on a 1 or 2 the torch is expended and the light goes out.
A very elegant mechanic. Let’s steal it!
Event Die
For each series of sequential events in the game write the events in a list. Choose a starting usage die size depending on how soon you want the next event to happen (see table below for average number of rolls before a result of 1 or 2 occurs). At the start of each session, roll the die in front of the players to see if the next event in the sequence is triggered (on a roll of a 1 or a 2). Optionally, drop to a smaller die size on the next event roll.
This system gives a lot of flexibility to pace events and show your prep to the players. The die size indicates how likely an event is:
| Die | Avg. rolls before consumed |
| d20 | 30 |
| d12 | 20 |
| d10 | 14 |
| d8 | 9 |
| d6 | 5 |
| d4 | 2 |
If you want the events in the sequence to be more frequent, use a smaller die size. If you want things to start slow and speed up as new events occur, drop the usage die size down when events are triggered. You could have a series of six events, starting with a d20 usage die (may take 30 sessions before the first event is triggered) and dropping a usage die size after each event (until the final event is likely to happen within 2 sessions).
I think this mechanic could really stimulate player engagement. When you first start rolling the die at the start of each session your players may not know why, but as they discover more about the sequence of events and can guess outcomes of the die rolls the shared anticipation only increasea.