At the start of combat, roll a d4. In that many rounds, something (usually something bad) will happen.
I once had a GM whose house rules included every battle receiving enemy reinforcements each d4 rounds. One combat took three weeks to resolve. At the end there were four factions in the ruckus and it was taking about 60 minutes per round for him to run it. After the first evening we weren’t even trying to fight anyone, we were just withdrawing.
So a lot of these suggestions need “…but not to the point of bogging down the game” added.
I once had a GM whose house rules included every battle receiving enemy reinforcements each d4 rounds.
he end there were four factions in the ruckus and it was taking about 60 minutes per round for him to run it.
Actually if combat are long enough that re-inforcement have the time to come you’re doing something wrong. NPC aren’t stormtroopers who always miss, and PC aren’t doing practice shooting. A combat shall be quick and deadly, if you’re lucky one hit shall cause an injury, but usually an opponent doing a successful attack roll will at least incapacitate a PC.
PCs that hit 0 HP aren’t dead, they’re just helpless (disarmed, KOed, socially cowed, etc.) Make it clear that nonlethal options are always on the table. [Spiceomancy]
In the same category, once a character lost enought HP to get maluses, I ask them to roll endurance (whatever how it’s called in your game) to simply stay conscious, not only it helps preventing stupid death, but make combat faster. I believe some OSR games have a morale roll acting a bit similar
Actually if combat are long enough that re-inforcement have the time to come you’re doing something wrong.
I thought then and I think now that a rule which can potentially increase the number of opponents every round shouldn’t apply in every combat. And that running a TTRPG as a solo wargame with (very!) occasional participation by other players is a bad way to have fun with your friends.
So it is possible to have reinforcements every single round? Yeah, that is a terrible rule.
I have used a d4+2 to determine how many rounds of combat will draw attention, but only for a single reinforcement. The floor of three rounds is because that is 18 seconds in DnD. Enough time for other enemies to wonder if someone is just having a spat and not worth checking out or for the enemies to realize they are going to die and think of calling reinforcements being worth it over being ridiculed or punished by higher ups.
I once had a GM whose house rules included every battle receiving enemy reinforcements each d4 rounds. One combat took three weeks to resolve. At the end there were four factions in the ruckus and it was taking about 60 minutes per round for him to run it. After the first evening we weren’t even trying to fight anyone, we were just withdrawing.
So a lot of these suggestions need “…but not to the point of bogging down the game” added.
Actually if combat are long enough that re-inforcement have the time to come you’re doing something wrong. NPC aren’t stormtroopers who always miss, and PC aren’t doing practice shooting. A combat shall be quick and deadly, if you’re lucky one hit shall cause an injury, but usually an opponent doing a successful attack roll will at least incapacitate a PC.
In the same category, once a character lost enought HP to get maluses, I ask them to roll endurance (whatever how it’s called in your game) to simply stay conscious, not only it helps preventing stupid death, but make combat faster. I believe some OSR games have a morale roll acting a bit similar
I thought then and I think now that a rule which can potentially increase the number of opponents every round shouldn’t apply in every combat. And that running a TTRPG as a solo wargame with (very!) occasional participation by other players is a bad way to have fun with your friends.
So it is possible to have reinforcements every single round? Yeah, that is a terrible rule.
I have used a d4+2 to determine how many rounds of combat will draw attention, but only for a single reinforcement. The floor of three rounds is because that is 18 seconds in DnD. Enough time for other enemies to wonder if someone is just having a spat and not worth checking out or for the enemies to realize they are going to die and think of calling reinforcements being worth it over being ridiculed or punished by higher ups.
Good call. Makes sense in fantasy combat-context.
Runehammer has a nice video on Timers with some more examples.