(American) football season is one of my favorite times of the year. I consume copious amounts of beer and buffalo wings and schedule my Sunday events based on whether my favorite teams are playing in the early afternoon, late afternoon, evening, or Monday night. When I used to run Sunday RPG sessions, I would often start the game early, late or even cancel it depending upon that week's football schedule.
One of the things I often hear football commentators talk about during the game is time management. Is the team using the play clock effectively? Do they have possession of the ball longer than their opponents? Are they making judicious use of their timeouts? Will they have time for a last-minute drive based on how they handle the clock? Good time management can often mean the difference between a win or a loss.
Time management is also a crucial part of role-playing game sessions. It can make or break an adventure. In my own experience, I've seen many relatively straightforward adventures become bogged down with irrelevant scenes and other digressions. Inadequate time management usually rears its ugly head at the end of the session, when the Game Master exclaims, "Gee, I thought we would've gotten a lot farther than we did tonight" while he's packing up.
Sometimes this can't be helped, given the rules and the fact that the GM can only plan so much. A few bad dice rolls could turn a quick, simple combat into an arduous task that eats up half the game session. The GM might have thought that the PCs would have simply stormed the front gate and fought their way to the dungeon to rescue the crown prince, while the players instead held a thoughtful brainstorming session and orchestrated an elaborate ruse to spring the crown prince without any unnecessary bloodshed, a plan that would end up taking another game session to complete. Still, the GM can take steps to "manage the clock" more effectively.
Ironically, when I used to think about managing the clock, it was in the other direction. I was always afraid that I had not prepared enough material to get through an entire game session. Instead of effectively running through what I had and ending the game session a little early, I would encourage my players to roleplay the heck out of their characters so that even a casual encounter with a nameless NPC could eat up 20 minutes of time. Worse, I might even throw in a red herring were unrelated subplot just have the players blow an hour or two before returning to the main plot. Unsurprisingly, this could turn a nice tight two or three-session adventure into a two to three month mess. In some cases, I'd have to waste the first half-hour of a new session reminding the players of what the main adventure was about after they'd spent a session or two ignoring it.
Ineffective time management can derail the pacing of an adventure. Players may grow frustrated with an adventure that seems to take forever to finish, especially if the adventure seems like it should have been completed already. Some players may mentally check out if a tight mystery is put on hold while one of the PCs spends half an hour trying to win the affection of an NPC, especially if said NPC has no relevance to the mystery. Such players are particularly sensitive to stalling tactics, especially if it seems like the GM is encouraging irrelevant scenes or dragging out encounters.
It bears mention here that I'm not suggesting that players should not be allowed to pursue their own goals or enhance encounters beyond what the GM had expected. Indeed, some of the best scenes I've ever run as a GM or played as a player were the result of unexpected scenes. What I am suggesting is that a good GM should keep an eye on the clock and make sure that these interesting digressions do not derail the adventure.
Here are a few tips that I've learned from the Game Master School of Hard Knocks.
Start in media res (in the middle of the action).
In my experience, many mission-based campaigns begin with an "origin story." The PCs are gathered together for the first time and introduced to their mission. This sounds like an attractive option for the beginning of a campaign. After all, the players have to introduce their characters so this is a good time for everyone to describe their PCs and interact with each other for the first time. They also get to interact with and respond to the NPC or organization that is sponsoring their endeavor. It can also be a grand waste of time, especially if the first adventure proper has nothing to do with how the PCs got together.
I've seen many promising campaigns fatally wounded from the beginning because of the failure of PCs to gel as a party. I've even seen some PCs get indignantly hostile with their superiors to the point that it makes no sense for such superiors to keep the PCs on the payroll (or still breathing). Effective PC concepts have been reduced to token comic relief, because of a botched first encounter. Some PCs become openly hostile to each other. In my early days of AD&D, it was almost a ritual for the PCs to get involved in a barroom brawl with each other, only to conveniently forget the fact when it was time to get on with the adventure proper.
I've found it to be far more effective to start campaigns with an action scene, a mini scenario that showcases the PCs’ abilities and sets the tone for the adventures to follow. This is usually just a single scene. There may be the suggestion of a whole adventure, but the PCs start playing at the climax of it. For example, a fantasy campaign may start with the PCs staring at a sleeping dragon atop a treasure hoard. The GM instructs the PCs that amongst the hoard is a golden scepter that they were hired to find. The PCs must extract the scepter and escape with their lives. After they've accomplished this single encounter, the Duchess will congratulate them on their prowess and assign a new mission for them, the adventure proper.
The benefit of this approach is that the PCs get introduced within the environment in which they'll be expected to perform. It's also a team-building exercise. The PCs immediately have to rely on each other’s skills and abilities. There's a sense of urgency that does not allow for the players to get off track and pick fights unnecessarily. The clock is managed, as the GM does not have to waste a session or two to get the PCs to finally work together and move on to the adventure proper.
Don't let the players spin their wheels for too long.
As a whole, players generally enjoy solving mysteries. It makes them feel good when they can analyze a set of clues and figure out the solution to a mystery. This could be as simple as deciphering a puzzle to open a secret door or as elaborate as putting together the clues gathered from multiple murder scenes in figuring out the identity of the serial killer before he kills again.
Unfortunately, many game sessions can get bogged down for two reasons. Either the players aren't as clever as they'd like to be in solving mysteries, or the GM isn't as clever as he'd like to be in designing them. Sometimes it's a combination of both. Things can get even more complicated as the players put more stock in insignificant or incidental clues than the ones that the GM had expected them to consider significant. I actually had one player who considered himself a great mystery solver. Unfortunately, he had a tendency to come up with a theory early on and disregard any clue that conflicted with his theory.
As one can surmise, this can often lead to players chasing down red herrings and getting frustrated at their lack of progress. This in turn can lead to the players wasting several hours debating about their next move. And with every second that passes, the players' interest in the adventure wanes.
Time management is critical here. If the GM notices that the players are blowing something insignificant way out of proportion, that he should steer them back on track. This could be is innocuous as pointing out why they should have attached significance of a clue, or the GM could have them make an appropriate skill check to disregard the clue. Also, if the GM sees the players spinning their wheels for too long, then he should offer some guided assistance in the form of leading questions or appropriate skill checks.
Avoid Decker Syndrome.
Back when cyberpunk games were all the rage, it didn't take long before GMs, including myself, came up with a house rule that Decker PCs (a.k.a. netrunners or console cowboys; characters that could plug into virtual reality) were either disallowed altogether or had their abilities stripped down to a single skill roll. This was because the simple act of opening an electronically locked door could provide the Decker PC with an hour of solitaire adventuring in virtual reality while the other players went out to dinner or caught a movie. The only thing that really mattered in the adventure was whether or not the Decker could open the door. The rest was window dressing.
Similarly, some players enjoy creating elaborate scenes out of incidental encounters. Unfortunately, this often has the effect of sidelining the other PCs until the scene is played out. While these scenes in and of themselves can be enjoyable, the GM should manage the clock. He can do this by determining what the goal of the scene is and its relevance to the current adventure. For example, if a PC is interested in courting a recurring NPC, that it is not necessary for the player to accomplish that goal within the span of a single session or adventure. The GM could allow the PC a few minutes of witty banter or an attempt to impress the NPC, hand waving the rest of the scene as idle chatter.
Sometimes it's best to simply ask the player involved what he or she is hoping to get from the scene. This is a subtle way to put the player on alert that he or she is holding up the game and needs to express the importance of doing so. This is usually enough to get the player to quickly extract what he or she wanted from the scene and move on. In some cases, a quick description coupled with a relevant skill check will suffice. This will allow the player to accomplish the same while not wasting a lot of time.
Don't overload the adventure with too many plot threads.
I used to run my games with what was described by my players as "throwing a plate of spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks." In other words, my players would be inundated with so many possible plot threads that it was difficult to sift through them all and determine which one was supposed to be the main plot of the adventure.
Some GMs consider this a free-form style of generating adventures. The GM offers a number of interesting plot threads, and it is up to the players to determine which ones they want to follow. Unfortunately, in my experience, the players usually want to follow them all. This sometimes leads to the party splitting up as each player pursues a separate thread. The GM suddenly finds himself running for adventures instead of one with each player sidelined for long stretches while waiting for the GM to get back to him.
A related phenomenon is the "time waster." This is a plot thread that is introduced for no reason other than to fill time during a session. This could be a colorful NPC that crosses paths with the party that has no particular relevance to the adventure hand. This NPC may make trouble or sideline the PCs for a session only to disappear when the GM no longer needs to stall. A more intrusive time waster is a mini adventure that springs up out of nowhere to keep the PCs from getting to the climax of the adventure proper. An annoying example is the thief that suddenly shows up and steals some important artifact from the PCs that they need to confront the Big Bad of the adventure. The PCs are now sidetracked into spending a session or two, tracking down the thief and their artifact.
There are many ways to manage the clock under these circumstances. First, the GM should ensure that the players understand what the main plot of the current adventure is if it is not already obvious. Second, if the GM wishes for the players to choose one plot thread out of many to follow, he should make this explicit. Finally, whenever the GM wants to add something to the adventure, such as the aforementioned thief, he should first ask himself why he's adding this encounter. If the answer is simply "to stall for time," then it is probably not a good idea to add it in.
Keeping Kosher
Effective time management helps keep the game running smoothly and entertaining for everyone. Ineffective time management can hinder progress and take the emphasis off completing the adventure proper. There are no hard and fast rules for managing the clock. In the end, the GM must use his best judgment in regards to time management.
Good gaming!
