Boredom In Pathfinder
Boredom In Pathfinder
And I Don’t Mean Waiting While A Player And The GM Argue Over Grappling Rules
That’s Usually Amusing, And Can Enhance Your Knowledge Of Profanity
Player:”I start going through the books in the lich’s library to look for a clue.”
GM:”It’ll take (roll) three hours.”
Player:”Fine.”
A common scene: A character has some task to accomplish that’s going to be protracted, or at least compassed. And they just say, “I do it”, and then, dice are rolled. The end.
But what about everyone else? While Libramwormius the Wizard is happy to read the blasphemous and forbidden tomes packed with eldritch lore in the lich’s library (with the occasional mad cackle and/or whispered mutter of “Yes… yes… it’s all so clear now… they are weak fools who must serve me or perish… yes… I understand… I will pay your price for power, my master…”), Blooddrinker the Barbarian and Poncy the Bard are less likely to be so sanguine. In any kind of reality, even the kind with liches in it, they would be, within five minutes, saying, “Would you hurry it the hell up, before I rip your head off, turn you upside down, and drain you like a wineskin?” (And the Barbarian is even less patient!)
Well, RPGBloggers’ December Carnival is “Homebrew Christmas Gifts”, so, I’ve got an excuse to throw out all sort of little rules and things that burble in my brain. (“They should be thrown out!” shouts brain-Waldorf, while brain-Statler cackles in agreement.)
This is where the Usual Suspects leap out of the woodwork to exclaim, “But we’re role playing, not roll playing! We don’t need (shudder, clutch pearls) rules to tell us if our characters happily sit around doing nothing for hour after hour after hour while the wizard mumbles the names of nameless abominations under his breath!”
Yeah, just like you don’t need rules to determine if you shiv the orc. You can just roleplay it!
Obviously, this is seriously optional stuff. Less obviously, this falls into the “breakfast crunch” category, defined as “rules I make up while eating breakfast at my computer before going off to work”, and I offer my personal guarantee: All such material is as well-balanced and playtested as you’d expect, given that description.
Gods, Give Me Patience… Now!
If, in the opinion of the One Who Wears The Viking Hat, one or more PCs is compelled to do virtually nothing for a long period (at least an hour), while others engage in non-interactive activity (stuff the non-acting PCs can’t aid, support, or otherwise be even peripherally involved with), a Will save must be made. The base DC is 15, +1 for each hour of inactivity, up to a maximum of +5. (The save is made once per hour, so the first hour is DC 15, the next DC 16, and so on.)
If the save is failed, the character has had it with waiting around while the wizard bargains away his soul. They’re going to do something, and will stride out of the room (or leave their position in the ambush, or go out and explore the town) unless stopped physically or via Diplomacy/Bluff/Intimidate as appropriate.
A few modifiers to the roll:
| Condition | Modifier |
| Chaotic Alignment | -1 |
| Class w/mandatory Chaotic Alignment (e.g., Bard, Barbarian) | -2 (does not stack w/above) |
| Lawful Alignment | +1 |
| Class w/mandatory Lawful Alignment (e.g., Monk, Paladin) | +2 (does not stack w/above) |
| Each hour of waiting | -1 |
| Character is at less than 1/4 overall resources (hit points, spells, class powers w/limited use, etc.) | +2 |
| Character is at more than 3/4 overall resources. | -2 |
| Character has generally been played as impetuous, short-tempered, impatient, hasty, etc. | -1 to -3, based on the GM’s judgment. |
| Character has generally been played as cautious, careful, patient, disciplined, etc. | +1 to +3, based on the GM’s judgment. |
| Conditions are uncomfortable (hot, cold, rainy, cramped) and leaving or moving away would mitigate this somewhat. | -1 to -2 |
What happens when someone fails their roll? They take some action, appropriate to the situation and the character. They do not necessarily go running off screaming for no reason, but they have some justification for not waiting around any longer. After four hours holding very, very, still in an ambush, waiting for the gnolls to wander by, a rogue might decide to ‘scout along the path’ and see what happened to them. In a dungeon, the fighter might decide he ‘heard a noise’ and go check it out. During ongoing negotiations between the party’s diplomancer and a local noble, the wizard might try to strike up a conversation with the court mage, looking equally bored at all the jibber-jabber.
So, there you go! Have a $USER_EMOTION_PREF $USER_HOLIDAY_PREF!
I think that the resources expended modifiers should be generalized out to relative risk/importance of the thing being waited for, and their modifiers bumped accordingly. People should be much more patient waiting to ambush Thraxus the Bandit King as a result of a previous adventure driving him down this road during this rainstorm than standing watch in general. Standing watch in your inn room just in case the whole place is a wererat front is a lot harder than doing so in the abandoned building in which someone’s written “Bewere of the werera…” in their own blood.
But really, I think this set of rules is less to be engaged with and more to shape the party’s actions in a dramatically interesting way. Now you’re just adding “Crochet needles for the barbarian” to the list of items like chalk dust, 10-foot poles, and climbing pitons to the set of random and interesting gear a party should bring down or be prepared to improvise.
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