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From: flaig@cit-vlsi.Caltech.Edu (Charles M. Flaig)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp,comp.sources.wanted
Subject: Re: programs for frp
Message-ID: <5106@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 6 Jan 88 22:17:38 GMT
References: <4897@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <220@tsc3b21.UUCP> <153@coplex.UUCP>
Sender: news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu
Reply-To: flaig@cit-vlsi.UUCP (Charles M. Flaig)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 49

In article <153@coplex.UUCP> jim@coplex.UUCP (Jim Sewell) writes:
>
>1. Another application is to solve a problem I've found in games I've been in.
>   Namely that of real time being VERY different from game time.  Many times
>   before I have seen the DM spring a trap and the player waste several minutes
>   deciding what to do and ask seemingly hundreds of questions.  This could be
>   solved by the DM entering a time interval, announcing what happened, hitting
>   a key, answering any questions the player has that are appropriate to answer
>   and asking for a response before a sound emits forth from the computer 
>   indicating it is too late to play around.
>	DM: (types 10 and says) You hear a click!"
>    PLAYER: "Uhm, are there holes in the ceiling?"
>	DM: "Yes, several spaced evenly across the hallway."
>    PLAYER: "I uh, uhm, well, I..." 
>  COMPUTER: "BEEP"
>	DM: "Sorry, you were under the portcullis and didn't move fast enough.
>	     You're dead, Jim."

While I agree that the DM should limit unreasonable amounts of discussion
in an action situation by making sure that game time advances regardless,
I think that such a strict method is unreasonable.  In the quoted example
it takes much less time to look at the ceiling and see holes than it does
for the player and GM to share this information.  Visual descriptions are
especially difficult to convey, and are impossible to describe in the
short period of time it would actually take the characters to look the
situation over. 

I think game time should be enforced for discussion between characters
(which corresponds exactly to real time), time spent digging through
a pack to find a useful item (GM's discretion), and time spent deciding
on an action once the scene is fully presented to the player (the "I uh,
uhm, well, I..." stage in the example quoted above).  But even for these
cases I would hate to use an external timer to limit player response
time, since this time usually involves a combination of all of the
above interactions.  Also remember that an alert barbarian (for example)
can jump onto a rock and swing his sword to cut through a rope in much
less time than the player can react simply because the player does not
have the same reflexes as the barbarian, let alone the time required
to describe the action to the GM.

To keep things simple and reasonable, I usually don't worry too much
about matching game time with real time in the games I run unless it
becomes obvious that the players (implying the characters) are spending
much too much time in thought or discussion, and even then I will give
them a warning (since the characters would probably realize how much
time is passing).

--Charles Flaig
  flaig@cit-vax.caltech.edu