Mike Mearls Games
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The Threat Clock: Shadowdark
🕑 Added 2025-04-03 13:00:13 +0000 UTCLast week I talked about using real time mechanics to help keep your game move forward while keeping a sense of dread and danger in your game. I've been absolutely slammed at work, so I decided to reconfigure my weekly games to focus on playing something fun. I love design and testing, but it's tricky to make everything a playtest.
So, I decided to run a Shadowdark game. But of course, the drive too create and tinker is always strong. I ended up hacking together a threat clock mechanic for my Shadowdark game. I've attached the mechanics below for your use. I'll hack together a version for D&D 5e for next week. Until then, enjoy!
Comments
Mike Mearls
I'll run the math by hand to make sure it's right - the columns are the number of dice rolled, the rows are the chance of rolling that number of 6s.
Mike Mearls
The main difference is tracking in real time and setting the value to a specific number of dice. It makes the mechanic a part of the environment. I also find that the timer makes it easier for me to track, as I can just forget about it until my alarm goes off.
Jason Juta
This is a good idea, but I struggled with the chart, so it might be worth representing it differently? What I mean is, I know there's a 50% chance of rolling a 6 on 4d6, and I don't see that in the chart. It's not a big deal, but if it confused me, it will confuse other people.
Justin Underland
This reminds me of Angry GMs tension dice pool. If you looked at that, How would you say it’s significantly better, different, etc, than that?
