Key Mechanics: Timers! 

Two best things I've learned from Hankerin: Timers and Trap Theory. Everything else writes itself when you understand these concepts.

Hella rad video as usual! I used your D4 suspense die for the first time in my last session and it went great. Players came across a farm being attacked by Quasits. There were stacks of hay near the house, one of which was on fire. My timer decided how many rounds before the fire jumped to the roof of the farmhouse, which had innocent people inside. Good times were had by all! Gonna try and implement the D4 regularly form now on.

Love this. I wish more DMs did this, and I'll definitely use it in the future. :D

The advice in this video drastically improved my campaign.

"It will be Town for DAYS".... LOL I agree fully, that time is a super scarce resource and should be highly valued by a DM. I think of time in People Hours, 25 minutes is not JUST 25 minutes; it is 25 X (# of people) or 150 people minutes for 1 DM + 5 Players You owe it to everyone to be as entertaining as you can be!

*TOWN FOR DAYS* This video is straight up immortal. It served as a true awakening moment for me so many years ago. THANK YOU for bringing this radness into the world, u.r.a. goldang wizard.

I appreciate the spider spawning idea! The chase seems solid. I'm glad you addressed the idea of them knowing the timer.

Classic Runehammer. We need Hank in the spotlight more often.

as a rookie DM these videos are a treasure trove of awesome ideas that i find make the game just straight up better man. Thank you sir!

I watch this and the perception vid once between sessions ( once a month ) It's like a pep talk! Lol

oh and i used your timer mechanic from your previous vids in my last game. They thought it would be something generic like the lava rises to consume the bridges or more orc berserkers would spawn (they where bad enough!)...Nope I introduced "The Land Shark!" a warped human being turned into an unstoppable mass of flesh and teeth blocking off thier planned escape route. Man did they freak! I had the dwarven defender on deaths door (high AC ain't breaking MY game! lol!) and the rest of the party running like ninnies around the board until one of them thought of the keg of beer I had the dwarf chained to at the start of the session (they where rescuing the PC). He made a tough charisma check and offered the monster a sweet mug of the golden precious ale. The shark stopped his unstoppable rampage with a tear in his eye and curled up with the rogue and the keg (and more charisma checks) while the rest of the party dealt with the rest of the Orcs and a gelatinous cube. A little role-playing and humanity saved there asses. They freaked that it was too hard but it just goes to show that a little RP and using the environment can win the day. I loved it. I didn't think about CRs until I was done I just kept nailing them until they solved the room or fled. FYI I tallied it up at the end and 6 lv2 players ended up taking on a CR7 encounter! Timers are permanently in my game now. Thank you!

I'm currently running a AD&D 2e campaign that I wrote for WFRP 1st edition 20 years ago. I wanted to say thanks for the refresher course, new perspectives on what I have always viewed as "GM Instinct" and the great humor. Keep the vids coming like "A Big Ole Badass!!!"

1st few seconds: "Woah, Walter White contemplating d4 crystal!"

Hells yeah! Jammin at the end.... "...but the legend of the rent was way hard core!!!" [wicked drum solo] - School of Rock

As far as making timers fit into the story, I feel using descriptions to reinforce the ticking clock is a nice fit. For instance with the swarm, each time the timer counts down describe the door getting more damaged as more enemies start making holes. If there's an enemy arriving in 3 rounds, describe war horns or a dust cloud on the horizon getting closer. We're badass gm's, we can definitely portray the encounter in such a way that the players' awareness of impending doom complements the Hero Sense that the characters should have, since in their world, they would DEFINITELY be able to pick up indications we at the table wouldn't think of. And when all else fails, Ethan Hunt on the phone realizing the Agency is DEFINITELY en route to grab him based on his professional expertise and intuition is a tried-and-true trope. M:I 5E

Thank you so much for this video, Im a rookie DM started about 9 months ago, and my campaign im running has 7 to 9 players show up to play. and campaigns been long and hard. this video and all your others are very helpful. Instant Sub.

I've come up with a small chase rules during my last session it was a blast! I simply drew 10 squares on a sheet of paper and in some of them I drew a number. It looked something like that : ##1#2#345# Character were pursued by too powerful foes so they had to outrun them. The encounter starts after the PC had already ran for few rounds so that they need to make a CON check every round. If they failed, they would not move. If they succeeded, they would move 1 square on the "ladder" I drew. After 3 rounds, the foes would appear. They would ALWAYS move 1 square, no check. When a PC started his turn on a number, they had to face a certain challenge. One of them was deep snow (STR check), there was a rocky and steep river bed (atheletics), thick torn bushes (Dex check), a sudden drop ona cliff side and a stampede of fleeing animals. And for sure, in the 'ol badass Hankerin philosophy, each challenge had its DC raised by 1 (10 for the first, then 11 for the second, 12, etc). If a character started its round on the same space as the pursuing monsters, he took an hefty 4d8+8 dmg, no save, no attack check (the enemies are numerous, no point of making checks, statistically they will be hit, so the damage only reflects the average damage they'd get if you rolled for each of them... which you don't 'cuz you'r a big 'ol badass). It was a blast! Kudos to your contagious frantic way of playing RPGs!

I run for 6-10 fairly frequently. Everyone goes home happy lol

I like to use 2D3 and if the result is 5 or 6, the players is up for a particularly awful surprise. 25% chance of getting just one turn before the players are screwed (with a D4) is a bit TOO unfair most of the times, I think ;)

You're the bee's knees.

Thanks Hank for this video. I'm using the d4 of impending doom in the Call of Cthulhu module I'm writing at the moment. Cthulhu does not conform to the schedules of humanity.

the swarm...so good with something like gnolls..

I'm done running man, BRING IT!

great tips...been using the three T"s and my players love it..crafted my first board last month and haven't stopped..thank you for everything and we look forward to all your vids..

I love these! I use a screen, but it's not to hide my rolls - it's to hide my notes, and what minis I do&don't have ready to hop out at them :)

Great ideas man!

Here from Deficient Master. Cheers!

My players convinced a Nothic to leave them alone briefly to loot, I rolled a 1d4+2 for the number of rounds it would be away. When they barely made it out on the last round it was super suspenseful and probably one of my favourite games so far!

This is perhaps the only subject area in all your vids that I would not happily try to incorporate into my game, but I still enjoyed watching you talk about it. Thanks for all your great videos.

0:19 "town for days" is a reference to the "Story Mindfreak Session" in which the Drunkens & Dragons guy says "fuck town," so check that one out yo ... 1:43 "you cannot let your session drag" and that is what this one is about...Talking about one of the three big Ts he always talks about (timer, threat, treat) that hasta be in your room if you wanna play D&D like a big old badass... If you don't want to to that, then this video is NOT for you -- go watch people do their taxes... 2:48 set the tempo at the beginning of the game... that's the first timer when you recap and start... 4:19 now he's starting -- there are many kinds of timers, he will show three kinds here: (1) Chase Room, (2) Swarm Timer, and (3) Imminent Doom. 6:06 Timers push the game... so DO IT NOW! 6:55 The tools you need to push time -- 1d4 ("suspense dice" -- lets you know something is going to happen in a few rounds), ... 10:11 use a coaster for your drink... back to the tools, or just some sort of Boggle timer or something (maybe a Candy Land spinner?... 10:37 IMPENDING DOOM TIMER -- put a bunch of yucky stuff in the room and then make it worse with some sort of unbeatable threat that is on the way in a d4 number of rounds and then lock them in the room with it so it really sucks... 13:27 SWARM TIMER -- barricade the people in a room with some disgusting swarm freakshow on the way and will get there in d4 rounds...expose them to the stuff (no screen) so they will have nightmares later on and will cry...once the swarm starts, it's a never-ending spawn... 15:47 CHASE TIMER -- like the Out of the Abyss (alright, my rogue character in this is like "let's get the fuck out outta jail" while everyone else is kinda going slow, so i hear ya)... make the enemy freaking fast so he keeps catching up, then they go to another board with yet another obstacle or slowy down things like webs and difficult terrain... you might even cut time dice in half (1 & 2 = 1, 3 & 4 = 2, or maybe just use the Chutes & Ladders spinner)... rogues shine like crazy because of the big moves... these are harder to run than the other two...you should practice them first and then you don't need a lot of notes either... 22:25 DM needs to be on the ball yo! He's got to come online and go double duty live gonzo so that the game flows faster than a bored turtle... So get out your Chutes& Ladders spinner because timers can help you do it...

Awesome! So glad I asked for this before, really changes the feel of the game and takes it to a whole new level. This vid covered really well how to revolutionize my dungeons, thanks man

Great vid as always. I love your common sense approach that still allows it to feel like a game. Games should have visual mechanics it adds to the fun. I am defiantly using the chase mechanic next time I run a game. I use to just run chases without a board and it did not really have a sense of suspense or movement. Now I am going to try this.....why did I not think of this? It is so easy lol.

On like Squeaky Fromme!!!

awesome vid! agreed. nowadays these young wipersnappers are so impatient... and... im sooo olllddd! haha

I would just like to say that, I am new to D&D... and can't understand why I didn't start earlier lol... but Mr Hankerin...sir, your system is the ducks nuts man, and I have already started to use it in my first adventure. So a big thank you and please keep up the vids man, 👍🏻

Ehhhmm... what do you do if the group does not get out of the "Impending Doom" room before the timer runs out? Will the "unfightable foe" suddenly turn fightable? Or are they all dead and have to roll up new characters?

Everyone loves trinities; how do you feel about having your countdown _always_ be three turns? This way you can plan in advance what will happen in each phase, and the players also start to internalize how long they have to mess around. Another possibility is to have the doom come after three failures of some kind. This dovetails nicely into "three before three" simplified (or perhaps generalized) skill challenges.

lol love the Zaxxon reference!

I've always got an encounter generator ready to go in the event stuff starts to drag. By the time I notice, it's been going for a while, so I like to set it to deadly (We really like combat) Still like these ideas

Honestly, I love Alaskan Amber, at least as far as Ambers go. Though my favorite Alaskan Brewery beer is the Winter Ale, brewed with spruce tips, tastes like you're drinking a fermented Christmas tree! ... In a good way.

I'm writing an adventure for D&D 5e and it will include timers 😉

great video definitely going to make the starter set and future home brews more interesting also could I use the D4 time method for rests cause knowing my players they'll want straight to the point, not too much time spent travelling or resting. basically more dungeon hunting and combat I know as a DM (very new DM) I've got to make sure they're having fun but I don't want to just hand them back there hit points like they're invincible, do I need to draw a line somewhere or will I just being too controlling thanks for the vids as always

Wonderful video sir, thankyou!!

Amazing info once you get into it. :)

Love you, man! Greetings from the vast bavarian wastelands!!!

Bad Ass, as always.

in the chase, shouldnt it make sense that the players can get away if they succeed a couple times? if they are forced to confront the enemy then mechanically, there was never a point in running away was there?

Awesome ideas, and explanations.

I love playing my games like this, but players always panic and die.

Hank, do you tell them what the timer is for exactly, or just let them guess. Or like the impending doom example, give a small hint as to what is to come?

Great video! Question: what amount of checks or "actions" can characters make in 25 minutes? I know that it should make narrative sense, but I'm looking at something concrete since the time mechanic is a concrete number of rounds. Thanks!

P.I.C.K. your battles: Plagiarize Improvise Compromise Keep moving

22:32 so as long as we DM faster than William Shatner sings, we should be in the clear XD

In pathfinder D.master guide theres an very nice rule for chases

Where is the funny series "The Quest" that you were referring to in the last four minutes of the video? Can anyone link it or point me in the right direction? I looked for it but it was too vague of a reference...

What’s is your opinion on co dming for larger groups

so your players know exactly what will happen when the time's up? or they just know something bad is about to happen?

On the bottom left corner, there is a kind of modern/brand new warhammer. Care to tell us more about ?

How do you get that almost felt look to your green board? It doesn't "shine" like a paint would.

mmm courage...liquid courage...

I have that warhammer too. its a good one.

cant you just use a dash action in the chase?

How would you do timers in a game like Dungeon World which does not feature rounds?

Noticing your shirt, you from WA?

Love your vids! Keep them coming! Yer relighting the fire on some of us old timers! Another timer mechanic can be imminent danger to someone or something important to them (....even Capt. Kirk). Nothing better than the self inflicted need for speed, risk taking and suspense than a rescue. Maybe they succeed (yay!) maybe they fail (guilt trip). Having to pass up juicy treats for lack of time doesn't hurt either. Whatever the results are they can then drive episode 2. redjak.com/blog2

:D :D :D no words

what would you recommend for a dc 12 room with 5 players 4 lvl 1s and 1 lvl 2?

I'd pay to play in a game you DM tbh

My problem with the chase timer is, my players NEVER run away

But, I like arbitrary danger