The d12 time management system: a virtual hourglass

I see my job as setting up an environment that allows the party to create an interesting story, complete with true tension through real risk of disaster. As with all good stories, acts of bravery, prowess and startling creativity are the highlights. Fun toys, increased wealth and power, and moments of hilarity are rewards.

What this means is that player motivations are... I want to be known as remarkably brave, incredibly proficient, the one with the genius idea. And in order for make this possible, as the DM I need to set up situations that are genuine challenges. On the surface this can sometimes look like I am at odds with player goals, because I need to keep one step ahead to maintain a difficulty that lets players showcase themselves. But a quick second look shows I'm not at odds with players - I'm working with players. I want a great story as much as they do. I want to be surprised by their genius idea or a really great one-liner, too.

As I'm learning the game, I'm realizing that there are some built-in mechanics that actually make it almost too easy to make an end run against challenge levels. And players are understandably motivated to do this. But the sad fact remains: end runs around balance mechanics really lessen the ability for the group to generate an epic story. An important example of this is explained by a guy with a much better known blog than mine who is known as AngryGM. According to him (and many others), one longstanding big flawed mechanic in D&D is ...the passage of in-game time.

In a nutshell, there are no built-in consequences for taking forever to do something. Rolled a 3 on a lock pick? Why can't you try again (other than an arbitrary 'no' from the GM)? Just had a big old combat and you want to get your spellslots and hitpoints back? Why not take a long rest (no matter that it's 10 am)? To paraphrase AngryGM, a single spoken sentence just erases all the troubles. This is a real issue as the Dungeon Master's Guide says there should be 6-8 encounters between long rests in order for the game to be balanced. (Now, to be fair, many encounters - perhaps most - are not combat. An encounter can be any interaction with an NPC/critter that requires significant decision-making.) Sure, many DMs are totally comfortable making stuff up on the fly to deal with this, but I'm looking for something that is less fussy and easy to apply in general.

You know what sucks even more than having a good story gutted because it's really hard to keep the situation challenging enough for the party? Having to constantly tweak and modify due to a simple pervasive and recurring problem. Being a time bookkeeper and a nag, to boot. I didn't restart playing D&D so I could sit around and watch a virtual clock and remind people about it. I can do that all day long without rolling any dice. And yeah sure, you can wing this without a consistent system, but arbitrarily punishing people for taking long rests or rolling over and over again to pick locks or disarm traps can seem adversarial. It's not a social dynamic I like.

AngryGM came up with an ingenious idea (called the Time Pool System) that was just a little too complicated for me. He created a dice pool where for every action that would take about 5 or 10 minutes, you added a die of a specified size, and after a certain number of them accumulated, you rolled all the die and if any scored a one, Something Bad happened. To my eye, there were too many variables you had to decide each time you implement it. What side die? How many to hit the cap? And then there's the odds. You roll six d6s... odds are really good Something Bad will happen. Seems too high pressure for me, and there's the Arbitrary "GM Decision" just sitting there, staring at the players, making it feel a little less collaborative than I'd like. I just want there to be a sense of the passage of time, and an incremental amount of pressure that is appropriate to the situation to try and avoid wasting time.

So, I thought a little bit about AngryGM's idea, and came up with a simplified system that is directly inspired by it:

Adar's Simple d12 Time Management System:

• Designate a d12 in the center of the table as the "clock die". A d12 is pretty ideal seeing as the number 12 is so closely associated with clocks, and divides 60 minutes evenly into 5 minute intervals. To start, put it '12' side up, which actually means 'reset' in this system. 
• In non-combat situations, every activity that could be reasonably expected to take 5 minutes advances the clock die one pip. Let people work on different tasks simultaneously if they wish.
• When the die gets all the way back around to 12 again... it's time to roll. If the die comes up a 1, Something Bad happens. 
• Once you roll, the dice is 'reset' at 12 to start all over again.

Nuances of the d12 Time Management System:

• Explain the above to your players in advance. But also, explain any nuances you adopt below in advance. This avoids people feeling railroaded/cancels the "Arbitrary DM Decision" vibe that can poison the atmosphere.
• Great role play... doesn't have to count.
• For the purposes of time keeping, party movement to new locations, encounters or actively prepping for encounters do not count (with one major and important exception that I will describe in the next bullet point). Only exploration/investigation and rests do. 
• If, however, a party is on the cusp of a combat encounter and they're taking forever to sort out what to do, it is reasonable to explain to them that in-game time does not stop for their bickering, and sitting around arguing tactics instead of acting has consequences. After a few minutes without resolution, the d12 gets rolled. A 1 or a 2 means (either all or a subset of, DM's choice) the monsters/adversaries get surprise or advantage first round (DM's choice).
• A short rest takes an hour. It automatically means you roll the clock die.
• A long rest is 8 hours. You probably don't want to be a pedant and roll the clock die 8 times, but maybe 2 or 3 times would be appropriate if you are in a relatively safe space and set a watch. 4 times if you are in a dungeon that is crawling with creepies. If they've paid for a night's rest - no rolls whatsoever. (Inns can charge more if they're overbooked.)
• Use the full potential of the Something Bad result. Sure, it could mean a random encounter. But it could also mean that the bad guys your party was chasing caught on to their proximity and moved all the loot/their hostage/the MacGuffin to a location the party knows nothing about. It could be that a high level thief makes an attempt to filch an item off a party member during a rest. It could be that someone gets bitten by bedbugs and is so itchy for the next few hours that they take disadvantage on intelligence rolls. Etc. Be creative.
• And use this system in useful ways. If you are role playing everyone attending a street fair to discover intrigue, you can use the d12 to track time and have the Something Bad be that the fair is over after you've spent 3d12 intervals at the fair. Or however long you want people to be there. I'm sure there are ways to adapt this d12 system to help manage wilderness travel, too.

The goal is to make the players value curtailing the passage of "low value" time and yet:

• not feel punitive
• not feel arbitrary
• not feel railroad-y
• not cause a bookkeeping nightmare for anyone
• gives a pervasive "the world keeps going even if you don't" vibe without inciting paranoia
• works a lot like real life in terms of time pressure, that is, it varies - at the beginning of the reset folks should be thinking 'eh... i've got 11 more pips to burn through, I can take some extra time', but by the time the dice reads '10' they will feel the time pressure. 
• it's easy to dispense with - you can say... "Hey, you've got a couple of days here, do what you want with them," if the situation warrants.

I'm looking for a simple mechanic that has some flexibility for DM discretion, but still feels fair and easy to apply. I'm looking for a way to remind people that time passes, and the passage of time has consequences. That is all.  I think this does that. I'm going to talk to our players and see how they feel. 

If nothing else, in the couple of sessions I've already run, a lot of questions have come up about when they can rest, what it means in-game if a lot of OOC haggling is going on, etc. Everyone - players and DM alike - would like a little guidance on this. A mechanic that provides some guidance would be helpful.

If this mechanic interests them, I'll try it out.