I've always considered timekeeping pretty annoying in old-school gaming: keeping track of turn-based spells' duration, shifting from rounds to turns or the consumption time of a torch have always been a burning thorn in my dark hole.
With this post I just wanna focus on torches, because in the past - as a DM and also as a player - my gaming groups have always neglected their durability while exploring multi-layered dungeons.
This HR handles this in a very simple way, with a 4+ roll and the use of the so called dice chain (i.e. scaling from a die to another die with less faces): as long as a torchbearer rolls 4+ the torch consumes regularly, otherwise it consumes faster.
Every brand new torch starts with a d12 (let's call it torch die), torches hanged in a dungeon's room can start with a smaller die. Whenever the party visits 4 rooms (combat counts as 2 rooms in addition to the room where it takes place, moving back to a previously visited room still counts as 1), each torchbearer must roll the torch die: if he rolls 4+ he keeps the same torch die, otherwise with 3- the torch die scales down to the closest die (from d12 to d10, from d10 to d8, from d8 to d6, from d6 to d4).
The torch will stay lit until the torchbearer fails the roll with the d4, causing the torch to exhaust definitively.
Great!! I'll definitely use this house rule in my campaign.
RispondiEliminaGlad to read that. ^_^
RispondiEliminaI like the dice scaling down mechanic. You could do something similar with torches but only using one die type, let's say d6. Each time you roll the minimum on a die it is banned, if you roll a banned number the torch goes out. So at first rolling a 1 bans it, rolling a 1 again causes the torch to go out. After 1 is banned then 2 is the new lowest so rolling a 2 bans it. Eventually all numbers will be banned and the torch will go out. It's a bit more complicated and I think I like your method better.
RispondiEliminaWell, actually it's a good idea too to use the d6 only (or any other type of die if you have torches of different quality).
RispondiEliminaI am still working to use the same method with Hit Points in a new custom rules set of mine.
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