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The Blood of Dawnwalker’s Interesting Solution to Urgency in RPGs (Patreon)

Published:
2026-09-29 19:19:50
Imported:
2026-09

Content

A new short essay on The Blood of Dawnwalker is now available from Nick!

Files

The Blood of Dawnwalker’s Interesting Solution to Urgency in RPGs

The Blood of Dawnwalker asks, "what if we actually added some urgency to our urgent plotline?". Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SecondWindGroup Second Wind Merch: https://shop.secondwindgroup.com/

Comments

JR

4:06 "Letting the players get comfortable with the loop of the game and then changing the structure to be time-based would have... allowed emotional bonds to form." - I like this idea. I think it might even do two more things: 1) Take players' fears about experimenting with the game's systems (I haven't played this game, but in others, when under pressure by time, I am not very keen on experimenting). And 2) Make the player feel a loss mechanically which supports the loss the character's supposed to have emotionally. And this in a better way than "Here's your toys - aaaand they're gone." (Assassin's Creed 1 style). It'd rather be a "Remember how nice and not-stressful it felt with your loved ones around?"

James Bevan

Only other game I can really remember pushing back on you with a set time limit was Unsighted. And that made it even more stressful because just about every character was on their own internal clock that would turn them into mindless beasts once it ran out.

Bj Last

Upgrades costing time is really interesting. I kind of like it from the view of showing that learning something new takes time. I can also see arguments that the time gaining the xp to learn the skill is the time investment in learning it so there shouldn't be a time cost to unlock it.

Ronny Cook

Mass Effect 2 doesn't force its timetable, but if you spend time on other missions after the Normandy crew is kidnapped, when you reach the final mission you find almost your entire crew has been killed. You catch an earful from the sole remaining survivor. It came as a bit of a shock to me as VERY few RPGs have any time sensitivity in mission completion.

ImmenseCookie

I fear I would get choice paralysis if there was a 'long' time limit. I got on with the Citizen Sleeper actions limitation per day as I could rationise what I could and couldn't do from the limited list of options and a short term goal to hit, but with longer time, unknown pay offs and only a long term goal in mind I feel like I would be lost. I hope the game has enough breadcrumbs to help navigate after the ghost train ride intro finishes. Thanks for the video Nick!

Tim Wilson

I think I like signposting and consistency. In Cyberpunk and Mass Effect for example, some missions seem critical but you can push them back indefinitely. However, some actually do have consequences if you take too long but these aren’t well or explicitly signposted, which just stresses me out. BOTDW sounds like it would stress me out anyway but at least I know the clock is there and what I’m losing from each action.

Douglas Wykstra

There should be an RPG system where you choose your new skill first and then have to build up the XP to master it. That's how skills generally work in real life! Perhaps you can perform the action, but with a much lower success rate than when you've mastered it.