Player options in HOURS and DAYS

question
#1

Hi, guys!

I’ve experimented a few times with giving players time in HOURS and DAYS for both narrative and functional reasons, and I was curious how you use this in your games. What can players do?How have they responded? How does it serve your games?

In my experience, I’ve used it to let them prepare for upcoming encounters, and it basically gives them loot or temporary stat buffs. For instance, “I want to sharpen my blade” will give them +1 Wpn dmg for a day or something.
My players seem like they don’t know what to do, so I usually nudge them to tell them what the purpose is.

#2

It is totally ok to nudge players with options, especially if they’re new to the system. Makes things easier on everyone, in my experience.

Your sharpening a sword idea is great. Here are some more: work open a chest, RECOVER, create a spell, get to know an NPC, get to know another PC, get information from the local pub, shop for supplies.

Have you seen this? It’s worth every second of the hour (all of Hank’s videos are digital gold). Just beware the damn nudicles. They get in your head:

#3

Yes, I have seen that video, they’re always great. :slight_smile:

I think a challenge I’m facing is what players can do while walking . I won’t count out the creativity of my players, but I won’t be surprised if a lot of them just pass their turn and say “I just walk”.

I do know I want to encourage them to scrutinize their LOOT, because I don’t feel they’ve fully understood their potential…and another player has some (CURSED) Loot that needs to be Learned… :smirk:

#4

I would say if they want to just walk it’s a sign that they’re not really interested in roleplaying the journey, and that’s ok. My players are the same and these days I just say “does anyone want to do anything during your travel? No? Ok. Several days later you come to a village nestled in a narrow valley…”

Best advice I have learned for myself as a dm is don’t be afraid to skip stuff.

#5

Yes, that’s probably how it’s going to be with my game. I am definitely going to give them that option though because I’m trying to use SUPPLY as an actual mechanic, so travel actually matters. Also, some players have items that need to be Learned over time.

#6

Can I ask what the genre is? What was the pitch you gave the players?

#7

I’m playing Ghost Mountain, so it’s a Fantasy/Western. I had talked with them a lot about Ghost Mountain as it’s described in Worlds.

#8

I started a GM game this week, and I’m allowing PCs to take each other as LOOT, similar to how NPCs are treated as LOOT here. They can spend a turn to build TRUST with each other, even while travelling. After a short RP interaction, the acting PC rolls CHA, and on success rolls BASIC EFFORT. Once one HEART of TRUST is full, that PC is equipable. The equipping PC gets +2 to whichever stat the equipped PC has the most base points in (think of this as an inspiration bonus). The equipping PC may blow the TRUST for a Hero Coin any time, but this will remove the bonus and strain their relationship somehow, TBD out of character. Blown TRUST can be rebuilt as before.

As for your LOOT, I might just tell them to draw a HEART next to the LOOT and when they’ve done ten effort of scrutiny, they will learn something important about the LOOT. That would be irresistible to my players.

I might also give a journey HEARTS and have them do effort to the journey as they travel. Each round costs one SUPPLY.

#9

This is a very interesting idea, and I like it. It only requires that I actually have something interesting for them to learn, and that I give them enough time to scrutinize their stuff. Thanks!

#10

The other thing I might do if I were you is try to make the survival mechanics as narrative as possible. Maybe don’t track supply as a raw number, and instead tell them they have half a bear flank, a jug of whisky and a couple carrots. When they go hunting and find one supply, on your sheet mark they found 1 supply, but to them it’s a chicken. If they lose a supply, the carrots went moldy or a coyote stole their chicken. This kind of thing makes it a lot more engaging to players IME and draws them in.