You've got three spells left. The enemy's HP is still almost full. Your mana is enough for two more charms. Your sanity is almost done for. What are we talking about here? Resources.

What is a resource in a role-playing game? Basically, it's a pool that can be either used by players for something or it can indicate something about the characters or the team.

There are two different types of resources. One is a bar—it indicates something about the characters or the group but cannot be directly manipulated by the players. Hit Points are the most common example, and Sanity is also commonly represented as such a resource. We shall call this type of resource "descriptor resource."

The other type is a resource which can be directly used by the players to achieve certain effects and to fuel the characters' abilities, powers etc: mana, number of spells, conviction points and other such things. This type we shall call "controlled resource."

Sometimes a resource acts both as a resource to be called upon for abilities and as an indicator of the character's state. Vitae in Vampire: The Requiem is an example—it is used to fuel various powers, but if it runs empty, the beast overtakes the character. Other times, the line between resources can be blurred—when a spell fuelled by mana can increase hit points, then hit points become a controlled resource, to an extent.

Luckily, these distinctions are not too important when it comes to actually designing the game, since their uses and the consideration when they are implemented are largely the same.

First we'll talk about things that the game designer needs to determine about a resource: its availability and the way time is measured in regards to it. Then we'll talk about things to consider when designing the resource: the suspense of disbelief, the resource's predictability and its use in pacing the game. In the end we'll discuss some additional issues in regards to resources.

Availability

The resource's availability is determined by two parameters:

1) The effective maximum of the resource. By "effective" we mean to say, how much actual game effect can be caused with that amount of resource. 10 mana means different things if 1 mana can be used to light a candle and when 1 mana can be used to level a city.

2) The rate at which the resource replenishes.

Combined, these two parameters determine how available the resource is throughout the game: they answer every player's question of "if I use this now, how much will I have the next time I need to use it"? Or, if stated with descriptor resources in mind, "if I risk losing it now, how much will I have next time I might need to risk losing it?"

Measuring Time

We've said it's important to determine how often the resource replenishes in order to determine its availability; yet the question here is not only how often, but also how that time is measured. The three methods are in-game time, real-life time and narrative time.

In-Game Time

In-game time is measured in the terms of the game world: hours, days, months etc. Examples are numerous, such as abilities which are available a given number of times per day in various D&D editions and a myriad of other games.

Real-Life Time

Real-life time is measured in, well, real-life time. Examples include abilities which are available once per game session (coins in Don't Rest Your Head, for instance, disappear between sessions) or things that happen "every twenty minutes" (as used in Wilderness of Mirrors, for example).

Narrative Time

Narrative time is measured in concepts which guide the game's structure—encounters, scenes, story-arcs etc. Examples are powers which can be used once per encounter in the 4th edition of D&D and abilities which refresh at the end of each investigation in GUMSHOE.

Now we'll move on to discuss what the game designer should think about when creating a resource.

Suspense of Disbelief

First of all, it must be realised that some resources inherently cannot be explained in in-game terms. "Story Points" don't exist in the game world—they are a narrative element. The characters don't know anything about them and they aren't a factor in their life. Other resources, however, do represent things within the game world, even if sometimes with some level of abstraction. Hit Points exist in the game world and the characters are aware of their physical condition, even if they don't use the actual term "hit points".

So, when you're dealing with a resource with no in-game explanation to begin with, there's no sense in worrying about suspension of disbelief in regards to it. It doesn't need to be explained. Thus, with these resources, it is often better to count time in narrative time or real-life time.

Resources that do exist in the game world—such as Hit Points, mana etc.—may benefit from being measured in in-game time since it helps the suspension of disbelief: using in-game time makes explaining their process of refresh much easier within the game.

Thus, when using resources which represent things in the game world, you may consider using in-game time with them if the creation of a "realistic" simulation of a world is major consideration in your game.

Predictability and the Feeling of Control

It is very important for the game designer to be able to roughly predict what will happen in a given period of time (however it is measured). It is also usually important for the GM, and occasionally it's important for the players as well.

The game designer's need for predictability is a no-brainer. For the GM, it is important when he wants to structure the game in a certain manner and create certain events—which is usually the case. For the players, predictability translates into a feeling of control. If the players can predict what's going to happen, they have control over the situation. With resources, this control means that they can expend the resources how they see fit. In order to make that decision, they need to be able to roughly predict what's going to happen. Will there be another fight before the resource replenishes, or will it refresh fully after this fight ends?

With players, the feeling of control is not always what you want to have. When the characters are heroes, when they are, in fact, in control of the situation—it's a good feeling to create. However, sometimes you want to create stress and dread by not having the players in control—they don't really know what's going on, they can't fully predict what will happen and they need to be cautious with their resources. This is usually wanted in horror games. Of course, another result of the players not having control over the situation can be frustration (they spent all of the resources on the fight and were left with nothing for the boss fight, or they avoided using their resources thinking there's a boss fight ahead, and then there was nothing.) But this feeling is also often not out of place in horror games.

The only problem with this approach is that if there's simply too little information, the decision of how to spend resources may become essentially meaningless since there's no basis on which to make it, and stress turns into disinterest. The line where stress turns into disinterest is often personal—with the same rules, different people will react differently.

We'll now have a look at what the different methods of measuring time mean when it comes to predictability and the feeling of control.

In-Game Time

From the game designer's and GM's point of view, in-game time is pretty predictable. The players may surprise the GM, of course—not stop to rest in a point he predicted they would, or find an inventive way to rest and replenish their abilities under circumstances when he thought rest would be impossible. But this is relatively rare and usually isn't a big problem. After all, if the players decide not to rest before going into a potentially dangerous place, they get what's coming for them, and if they find an inventive way to replenish their abilities when the GM thought it'd be impossible, they certainly should be rewarded.

However, from the player's perspective, in-game time is very hard to predict, and thus it steals most of their feeling of control. If they're in a fight, they don't know how many more fights await them before they can rest. They don't know whether there's a dragon at the end of the tunnel, or maybe it's just the exit.

Thus, for creating a feeling of dread and stress arising from lack of control, in-game time may be useful.

This is the way all abilities are implemented in GUMSHOE, for instance—you need to spend resources to do almost anything, and the resources for general abilities (that actually govern the action in the game) are refreshed through in-game time.

Real-Life Time

There are two ways to measure time in real-life terms. One is "per session", while the other is specific time, usually under thirty minutes.

Measuring time by sessions, aside from being very easy to keep track of, is very problematic for everybody—the game designer, the GM and the players—because it can be very difficult to correctly predict what's going to happen during the gaming session.

From the players' and GM's perspective, it is difficult to tell how much is going to happen in a given time: will the session tonight last until midnight or will we get tired and finish earlier? Will there be another argument lasting two hours, or will we move forward quickly? With time, the players will likely get used to the pace and will be able to predict with greater accuracy how much will happen in a given time, but it will still be a problem with players new to the group.

From the game designer's perspective, it is not only hard, but outright impossible to know what will happen in a given time—because groups are different, and pace things differently. Some groups game for three hours each time, others for six, and even with two groups that game for the same time, the progress made can be vastly different.

Thus, measuring time in sessions is almost always a thing to avoid.

Using specific time largely avoids this problem when the intervals are fairly small (say, under thirty minutes) and is usually predictable enough for everybody involved—the designer, the GM and the players. Different groups may still want to adjust the actual time unit at hand (twenty minutes can be changed to thirty minutes, for instance), but this can be easily done without the risk of "breaking" anything in the system. However, to help different groups use the system more effectively, the game designer is highly encouraged to describe what he has in mind when saying "twenty minutes"—that is, to say what, in his opinion, should happen around the table in twenty minutes time.

Narrative Time

Narrative time is the most predictable of the bunch from everybody's point of view: everybody knows exactly what a given time unit means. Of course, there's still some leeway in what is defined as "encounter" or "scene", but generally the players will be able to distribute their resources pretty well. The best predictability is when things are once per encounter or scene (instead of several encounters or scenes). This way, the players know exactly what they face and there's no guessing involved. When an ability is "once per 3 encounters", the players aren't able to predict things quite so well—they don't know whether the next encounter will be easy or hard—but encounters and scenes are usually consistent or build up to something, and thus it is usually not too hard to estimate the difficulty of the next encounter.

All in all, the more difficult it is to predict what will actually happen in a given narrative frame, the more the level of predictability drifts towards what happens with in-game time. Once per encounter is very clear. Once per several encounters is less predictable—the more encounters, the more difficult it is to predict what will happen. Once per story-arc becomes very vague indeed.

Pacing

One of the main purposes of resources in the game is to assist in the pacing of the game. The players know how much of the resource they have, what it means about their situation and how it can be used, and how quickly they can get more of it—and it dictates their decisions. They can put in the extra effort when necessary or they can save the resource for later if the situation isn't too important.

Highly available resources will be used much and often, while rarely available resources will be used less often. This much is obvious. So, the first thing to determine is to what extent you want the resource to be used throughout the game, and determine its effective maximum and refresh rate accordingly.

A highly available resource usually fits action games, fuelling special and fighting abilities. A rarely available resource is appropriate when its uses should be rare and draw attention to them. This is appropriate for resources such as "Drama Points" and their ilk, for instance.

Now we'll talk about what different methods of measuring time do to the pacing.

In-Game Time

The biggest problem with using in-game time to refresh resources is that it will often lead to players trying to "kill time" in order to move into the next scene with their resources in the full. "Let's rest until tomorrow before we continue", "let's wait a few hours before we go in"—all of these are a result of using in-game time. Essentially, this neutralises, or at best weakens, the resource's usefulness in pacing. The less time is required to wait, the more it is weakened—it is easier for the players to wait for an hour then to rest for a day.

This problem can be dealt with when running the game by creating situations where in-game time is important (various events are happening and the characters need to act before something happens) or when "waiting before continuing" is otherwise impossible (the characters are surrounded by enemies and need to fight their way out). Still, this isn't a complete solution. Instead of the resource straightforwardly helping the GM create the pace, the GM needs to work quite a lot in order to effectively use the resource for pacing.

Real-Life Time

As has been discussed previously, measuring real-life time in sessions is very problematic. Since nobody can really predict what it actually means, it's practically impossible to use it for pacing as well.

On the other hand, using more definite real-life time can be much more useful, since it can more directly dictate a pace. When the situation worsens every twenty minutes, it encourages the players to spend less time talking and more time acting, and imposes an atmosphere of urgency. What has been said on the issue when we were discussing predictability still applies, of course, but all in all, using real-life time in this way can be a very simple and very effective method of creating a desired pace for the game. This method is used in Wilderness of Mirrors and Shotgun Diaries, for instance.

Narrative Time

Narrative time is, by its nature, very helpful when it comes to pace—the term of pace belongs to the realm of the narrative, and thus it's the most natural way to state things if you want the game to be paced accordingly. You can directly say how much can happen during a scene or a story-arc (assuming that most of the resource will actually be used up before it is replenished), and thus determine that scene's or story-arc's overall pace.

In addition, using narrative time doesn't allow the players to change the expected effect of abilities. If a power is available every 5 encounters, it doesn't matter how much you rest after the first encounter you used it in—you still won't be using it for 4 encounters.

On Focus

There is another thing that resources can do, and that is create focus on certain events and situations. You can do this by having the resources only available under specific circumstances (powers which only work at night, for instance) or have them refresh only under certain circumstances (you can only get blood by drinking it from human beings, you can only regain sanity by spending time with your loved ones, etc.) This can create a focus on these sorts of situations and cause the players to strive towards them.

You can use this to encourage the players to try and create certain conditions which you want to appear during the game. It will also cause the players to be stingy in using the resource when they're not sure how and when they'll be able to replenish it.

Here is a nice example. In FATE you receive Fate Points when your character is forced to do something not so beneficial to him due to one of his traits. This is called a compel—somebody compels the character to do something. For instance, a character may have an Aspect of "can't say no to a lady", and this aspect can be compelled to cause the character to help somebody who is likely an enemy spy even though the character should really know better. This mechanic causes players to often deliberately put their characters into situations where others will want to compel them, thus trying to get Fate Points—this phenomenon even has a name, and it's called "fishing for compels".

Transformation between Resources

The last thing we'd like to talk about is the players' ability to transform one resource into another—spells into HP, willpower into mana, etc. When you allow such transformations, there are two things you need to pay attention to. Both are obvious, but can still be overlooked.

The first is the refresh rate of both resources. Allowing the transformation of one resource into another always increases its refresh rate—it may be refreshed not only through its natural refresh, but also by transforming another resource into it. And the greater the availability of the transformed resource, the more available the target resource becomes. If you want Hit Points to be regained slowly, you shouldn't introduce a highly available healing spell.

The second is the risk of creating loops of positive feedback—situation when you can create a transformation cycle that ends up increasing the resource from which the cycle started. (The following article will discuss positive feedbacks more thoroughly.) If you can transform 2 mana into 3 HP and then transform 2 HP into 2 mana, you can infinitely increase both your HP and your mana, rendering all assumptions about the availability of these resources useless.

Summary

In this article we talked about resources. We talked about the two things that need to be decided about a resource: its availability and the way time is measured for it. Then we talked about things to consider when creating a resource: the suspension of disbelief, predictability and its use in pacing. Different decisions mean different things, and when you create a resource, you should stop to think what you want to achieve and how to achieve it. Lastly, we talked about using resources in order to create focus on certain events and situations, and also discussed the risks of allowing one resource to be transformed into another resource.