The Forgotten Art of Pacing in RPGs

Comments · 183

• TH

  @theDMLair · 3 years ago · pinned

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• EU

  @eunomiac · 2 years ago (edited)

  &quot;Remove the dead space between meaningful choices&quot; is just about the best new roleplaying truism I&apos;ve heard in a long long while. &nbsp;Everyone should write that verbatim on a post-it note and stick it top-center on their GM screens, right next to &quot;be a fan of your players&quot; and &quot;show no fear&quot;

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• JO

  @johann219 · 2 years ago

  As a completely new DM, who&apos;s started running a campaign for two groups of friends about a month ago - this is EXTREMELY helpful. Despite the fact everybody seem to enjoy our gaming time, I couldn&apos;t brush off the feeling that something is off. And after watching this vid I&apos;m basically sure that it&apos;s the pacing which I cant maintain. So now I know where to improve (and even the means to do that). Thank you very much, Luke!

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• BR

  @brencelionheart6837 · 2 years ago

  To make shopping more interesting have things happen during it. Have interesting npcs and events, use it to create links to other quests. Also if there is a shopping sesh in the next game have the players send a list to you beforehand. If there are any special requests it can be prepared and if there are mundane items, that can be handwaved as assumed to be got.

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• SS

  @SSBJVids · 2 years ago

  I&apos;m sensing frustration regarding the crossing of a river by means of a turtle

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• GA

  @Gagneto · 2 years ago

  Bartle&apos;s chart is a nice pillar of design and if you know your players you can really cater to them, but don&apos;t forget that the chart and the theory was primarily used for MMOs, this means that there are some adaptations and things you should observe when implementing it, as in an MMO you should strive for (debatably) a balance of all 4, on your game table you have a much smaller group and should try to cater to them primarily, that means you&apos;ll probably often use one or two of &nbsp;those very sparingly compared to the others

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• HE

  @Hedron-Design · 2 years ago (edited)

  Pacing seems to be THE thing that makes or brings down a game session for me. I am constantly working on it. Also, don&apos;t feel bad that the river crossing sticks in your brain. We (one of my play groups) had a DM that threw a similar thing at us but it was stairs... no traps or encounters just stairs. We still make fun of that game and how most of us left over that one session lol. There were several issues but those stairs were the deciding factor.

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• OR

  @orokusaki1243 · 2 years ago

  Fun thing to consider about that river crossing example: &nbsp;Sometimes it is the PCs who want to roleplay out every little detail, so they too can be guilty of screwing up the pacing.

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• DE

  @dennysquintanilha4917 · 2 years ago (edited)

  Once on a game session, our group was tasked to go to a temple, and kill all the bandits that invaded it. We go there, spot the bandits, and the group spent about 20 Minutes debating what to do. I was really bored, attacked one of the bandits, killed it. My group immediately started apologizing to the bandits for my attack, restrained my character, and the DM had to stop the session so he could prep the entire background of all the 20 bandits because the group wanted to be friends with them. It developed into a cool plot afterwards, but I will never forget the 20 Minutes of nothing and how absurd was the whole situation.

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• RO

  @Robert-bm2jr · 2 years ago

  I&apos;ve had so many games where the first hour is my players wanting to see what they can buy at the local shop. &nbsp;I always feel like there&apos;s got to be something cool to buy. &nbsp;But I frequently have that cool item be so expensive that no one can afford it. &nbsp;Hopefully this works to make my players want to go adventuring to afford the super expensive thing.

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• NI

  @nicholasharris4306 · 2 years ago

  Through The Breach calls your &quot;slow time&quot;... &quot;Dramatic Time&quot;. Sounds a lot more fun and engaging that way. That&apos;s when tense drama is happening, and lots of decisions are being made

• E.

  @e.prybylski5665 · 2 years ago

  To really nail pacing, you should also do some studying on story arc and novel pacing. Using a story structure like the one out of &quot;Save the Cat&quot; (Blake Snyder) is a great framework to help you create a campaign. You don&apos;t need to use every piece of the beat sheet, but following the gain and loosening of tension will really help you nail the story pacing in addition to the tricks suggested here to hammer home individual session pacing. :)

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