| Site Index > Rules > Basic > Game Safety > Time Stop Calls |
| Time Stop Calls | |
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| Call: | Time Stop!
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|---|---|
| Call Type: | Safety
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| Description: | The game is put on pause so that secret things can happen in-game
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| Common Sources: | Gamemasters, some creatures
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| Associated Condition(s): | None |
The Time Stop call is used to pause the game so that secret things happen, or to allow gms to deliver narrative events.
Time Stop Situations
A Time Stop is a period of time where the game is paused briefly, strictly for in-game reasons. During a 'time stop' you should close your eyes and babble, ramble, mumble or hum to reduce the chances that players can hear what is happening. The goal is for whatever occurs to be as much of a surprise as possible.
This call is done when changes need to happen in-game that would normally happen instantly but cannot actually happen while players are roleplaying such as being teleported out of the inn, blowing up a giant rock, or turning into a werewolf.
The "Time Stop!" Call
This call is distinctly different from a 'hold' call because this call is to advance the story, while the 'hold' call is done for out-of-game reasons.
When you hear someone call Time Stop! you should immediately:
- Cease all in-game activity such as combat, conversation, traveling, spellcasting, ect.
- Repeat the call by also calling 'time stop' to ensure that others have heard it.
- In the rare event that you stumble upon a 'time stop' in progress (for example, you were in the bathroom and did not hear the initial call) you should immediately join it.
- Close your eyes.
- Cover year ears (if possible) and babble, ramble, mumble or hum.
- Sometimes a 'time stop' will have a narrative aspect and make the humming component unnecessary. The person calling the 'time stop' in this case will specify that you should be silent when they initiate the call.
When the person who initially called the 'time stop' has accomplished what they needed to do, they will loudly and clearly count down from 3 before calling 'Game On!' to indicate a return to normal game play.
It is important that when this happens you remember that your character doesn't know a 'time stop' occurred. Immediately looking around the room to see what changed is metagaming, and undesirable behavior. The best roleplaying after a 'time stop' is to keep doing whatever it is was that you were doing before it was called.
No normal player ability allows for PCs to call a 'time stop'. This will almost always be an ability used by game masters or specific creatures.
References
Calls
The game uses calls to efficiently share information in the middle of combat. While calls are generally completely Out-of-Game you can gather some information in-character from them. For example if you hear a lot of numbers being called you can refer to that as "the sounds of battle".
Call Types
Calls can be sub-divided into different types for reference to what they do. You don't need to know these at all. Calls are only categorized like this to make it easier to know which you need to learn right away and which you can take time to learn.
- Safety calls convey information about the game and are the most important calls to pay attention to.
- Defense calls tell you information about if your attack affected the person you hit.
- Damage Type calls mostly tell you information about what variety of damage you are taking. For most of them you only need to understand the call type if you have a defense that cares what kind of damage you are taking.
- Modifier calls impact how the damage works when you take it.
- Offensive Effect calls almost always inflict a condition when they hit you.
- Announcement calls tell players who hear them information about something going on, they are never attached to attacks.
Categories: Basic Rules | Time Stop Calls | Calls
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