Giving players the advantage of time

[Hobbo Jim]

Time is usually used to create a sense of urgency. Villains are often the active ones, and force others to come stop them before it's "too late". I was wondering if any DMs (or players who might have experienced it) have had any success doing the opposite, making it so players had time on their side.

A few examples that could be fun, but I haven't tried, are giving the PCs the macguffin in which they must play keepaway for x days, or the big bad villain is on a rampage and the PCs find a scroll leaving it up to the villain to come in and stamp out the ritual before it completes. While it certainly wouldn't be the norm, this kind of role reversal I feel could be interesting. This would probably take a lot of prep work, knowing exactly what the villain can/can't do to make sure that any clever ploys are rewarded and not DM-fiated away (on purpose or on accident).

Anyone recall this being done well/it being fun, or know of other ways it could be implemented?

[Man_Over_Game]

Time is usually used to create a sense of urgency. Villains are often the active ones, and force others to come stop them before it's "too late". I was wondering if any DMs (or players who might have experienced it) have had any success doing the opposite, making it so players had time on their side.

A few examples that could be fun, but I haven't tried, are giving the PCs the macguffin in which they must play keepaway for x days, or the big bad villain is on a rampage and the PCs find a scroll leaving it up to the villain to come in and stamp out the ritual before it completes. While it certainly wouldn't be the norm, this kind of role reversal I feel could be interesting. This would probably take a lot of prep work, knowing exactly what the villain can/can't do to make sure that any clever ploys are rewarded and not DM-fiated away (on purpose or on accident).

Anyone recall this being done well/it being fun, or know of other ways it could be implemented?

The classic use of this is playing a defensive game as enemies attempt to assault your fortifications.

Like "The Undead Army is attacking the temple before the Blood Moon Ends", or "The Bandits are attempting to raid the village you're in before the lord's knights show up on the 3rd day", or "The Magi is finishing his banishment ritual, but the flood of demons are charging through the Prismatic Wall", or something along those lines. Lots of fun when implemented properly.

[Rukelnikov]

Time is usually used to create a sense of urgency. Villains are often the active ones, and force others to come stop them before it's "too late". I was wondering if any DMs (or players who might have experienced it) have had any success doing the opposite, making it so players had time on their side.

A few examples that could be fun, but I haven't tried, are giving the PCs the macguffin in which they must play keepaway for x days, or the big bad villain is on a rampage and the PCs find a scroll leaving it up to the villain to come in and stamp out the ritual before it completes. While it certainly wouldn't be the norm, this kind of role reversal I feel could be interesting. This would probably take a lot of prep work, knowing exactly what the villain can/can't do to make sure that any clever ploys are rewarded and not DM-fiated away (on purpose or on accident).

Anyone recall this being done well/it being fun, or know of other ways it could be implemented?

This is pretty much the norm in my group, as sandbox players, you basically decide what you do with your time, and there's generally enough stuff going on that you can't be everywhere at once, so some stuff you can intervene in, and some stuff you'll miss, just have to choose which is the more interesting/approachable/reasonable right now.

We also do a lot of "build a town" adventures, where for whatever reason we end up with a bunch of mostly commoners and have to guide them to safety and eventually end up just making our own town, recruiting, gathering basic and not so basic supplies, dealing with problems when they arise, clearing out nearby locations for W/E reason are pretty common things. The "endgame" of this kind of game is when you create your own dungeon castle/fort/keep. For example, my epic lvl bladesinger and his lifelong companion an epic lvl high priestess of Mystra live on whats basically a Enclave covered with permanent invisibility, antypathy and forbiddance, with around 20 half celestial elves ranging from lvls 3 to 10, a young prismatic dragon that lives on a cave in the lower part of the enclave (with its own hoard), and enough riches to outfit three to five 20th level parties (5e attunement limits made it so I have to decide which artifacts I leave on the bench cause I can't attune to all of them :S). So we have basically gone full circle and become what adventurers raid for riches and glory T_T.

As for the McGuffing example, in my first campaign as a DM, I gave the McGuffing to the party at lvl 3 or 4 right after they finished their first adventure (Sunless Citadel), one of the PCs had a Seed of Mystra within him, which allowed him to cast Wish at will, the bad guys were after him. So the bulk of the adventure was the PCs trying to gather information while at the same time having to deal with the minions the bad guy sent to find them/retrieve the seed.

Not all this stuff is proactive, but a chunk is. My group plays a good deal of WoD and in that system, and many others, player proactivity is expected, I think its generally the more combat focused systems/games that tend to put the players on the responsive side.

[willdaBEAST]

I like the flip a lot and struggle as a DM when my players are overly reactionary. I think it ultimately comes down to player composition, any group keen on sandbox aesthetics is likely to thrive in a situation that the OP suggested. Likewise it may be the encouragement that a more reactive group needs to put more of their fingerprints on the world.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

The key is probably to have some variety of activities and let the party guide you. Some groups if will have two hours of fun designing fortifications like a siege tower game.

[PhoenixPhyre]

My parties are most often the proactive ones. My villains have long-running plots, with timelines in years or decades (or centuries, like one particular one). But what I do is set up a domino-effect. Once the players get in and start meddling (often unknowing), they knock stuff over. Then the villains (and other people) start reacting, and it snowballs from there. But it's the players who are generally pushing the timeline.