I've been using Encounter Timer for a few months, I have thoughts

By JimmiWazEre

Opinionated Tabletop Gaming Chap

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A few months back I made an Android app called 'Encounter Timer'. It was the first app I've ever made and I was so chuffed with it that I decided to make it available to my subscribers for free.

You're welcome mum!

Since then, I've been using it in play at every opportunity in sessions of Mothership, GOZR, and D&D. So much that the Metal Gear Solid style "!" alert sound the app plays has become something of a meme in my games now.

Now, Domain of Many Things was very much still a baby blog when I first released the app. Readership was very low, so I think we’re long overdue an article revisiting Encounter Timer.

You can read all the details, including operational instructions here. However, if you just want the basic gist: It’s a countdown timer that starts at a random number within a range (default: 5–15 minutes). Once it hits zero, that’s your cue to roll on your encounter table.
No more remembering dungeon turns. Just tap, forget, and play.

Encounter Timer Demonstration

What I like About It

The Core functionality just works

The whole reason Encounter Timer exists is because I suck at remembering dungeon turns. Years of 5e's free-flowing narrative left me untrained in structured time tracking outside of combat.

So, having a simple countdown that automates this? Absolutely perfect.

Helpful usability features

In the real world, as a GM, you're going to want to adjust the timer in response to events at the table.

Encounter Timer has you covered there too, as you’re able to easily reduce the remaining timer by a chunk simply by tapping the countdown after the PCs have done something to draw attention to themselves.

It’s a nifty bit of useful functionality even if I say so myself.

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There’s also a “High Danger” toggle which halves the countdown, letting you quickly increase encounter frequency for tense environments.

What I think it's missing

More Encounter Details, Faster

As cool as it is, unfortunately it remains a bit of a badger to have to manually do reaction, specific monster, and distance rolls. Encounter Timer could easily streamline the process further by making these further random rolls for you. The only thing I want to leave out of hardcoding into the app is the specific thing you’re encountering, so perhaps in that case Encounter Timer could use return a d6 value for me to quickly cross check against my own prewritten table.

Support for Systems with Motion Tracker style Mechanics (AlienRPG)

I also quite like the idea of using this timer in games of AlienRpg, however, in that system the PCs often have a motion tracker, which tells them the distance and direction of any threat at whatever point in the game that they decide to use it.

By rules as written, the GM is supposed to be moving their NPCs around the area on a map hidden from the PCs, so the idea of a motion tracker can easily be resolved by the GM consulting their hidden map and relaying the results back to the PCs.

But how would this work with no hidden map, relying instead upon Encounter Timer driven NPCs?

Well, here’s a fact for you: The exact, specific location of the NPCs, whilst it is not known to the PC’s, is totally unimportant. If we can accept that, then it removes the need to be running NPCs around on a hidden map for a start. But it does underline the problem we have with motion trackers, because I hate GM Conflict of Interest, and I don’t want the responsibility to have to decide the details of every encounter using GM fiat.

So, what if, when the encounter timer is running, it also presents the following information to the GM: The direction of the current location of the encounter, and the abstract distance of the location of the current encounter. For example, we might have the following information on screen prior to the alert sounding:

67 seconds (counting down - existing Encounter Timer functionality)

North West (randomly determined, stays static)

Near (Near, Medium, Far - This should update dynamically as the clock runs down past certain milestones)

As GM, what we should infer from this is that the encounter will trigger in just over a minute, the cause of the encounter is currently NW of the PCs position, and right now, it’s in the next area in that direction.

So assuming they’d whipped out their motion tracker and had all that information fed back to them - what would the players want to do with that?

Avoid the Encounter by going in the opposite direction

If they go in a different direction then we could delay the encounter - In terms of app functionality this means we need to be able to add time to it rather than simply remove it.

Avoid the encounter by hiding

If the PCs chose to hide, as GM we can cancel the timer and skip forward in time to the point where the encounter is in the same room as them and then make our checks to see if they’re discovered or not. If not, the encounter moves on and we can reset the timer to start counting down again.

Prepare an Ambush

Similar to hiding above - except the result of failing to detect the presence of the PCs will result in the PCs getting the drop on the NPC.

Cunning Shenanigans, like venting the airlock in the room to the NW

Assuming the PCs are able to do this prior to the encounter timer ticking down far enough to change the abstract distance, then I’d simply cancel the timer and the encounter has been resolved.

Conclusion

After months of real-world use, I’m still thrilled with Encounter Timer. It works exactly as intended, and I’ve got ideas to push it even further, especially for sci-fi TTRPGs.

Have I missed anything? Got an idea you’d love to see added? Drop it in the comments.

Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials, and maybe think about subscribing to the Mailer of Many Things! Either way, catch you later.

*This article contains affiliate links

I Have Single Handedly Revoloutionised Random Encounters. Maybe

Arguably, this post IS an advert, but it’s for something cool that I made myself and that I’m giving away to you for free.

Alternate title options for this post included:

• “I am the greatest and biggliesty minded GM app developer that the world has ever seen!”

• “Your random encounters suck! I am Batman.”

• “Yes, I know, I feel it too.”

Ha, I’m feeling pretty self satisfied today, I’ve finished developing an app to help GMs remember to run random encounters at the table, and I want to tell you all about it.

Ain’t Nobody Got Time For ‘Dungeon Turns’

Man alive I am so bad at remembering to run random encounters. I think they’re a great idea because as long as the possible range of encounters has been curated in a sensible way, they make the given environment seem alive, and stop environments from becoming this static place that only reacts to the presence of PCs when they trigger location based events. Buuuuut the old school method of tracking “dungeon turns” on a piece of paper, and then rolling a d6 after every turn to see if you get a 1 to trigger an encounter has two major problems for me:

• Enforcing “turns” during exploration feels like it detracts too much from my free flow style of play. Arbitrarily saying “OK you’ve all done a thing, and I’ve decided that was 10 dungeon minutes - time to run some dungeon checks”, always felt quite forced at my table.

• Crucially, I always forget to track dungeon turns and roll for encounters. I’m too busy reacting to the players and following the gameplay to remember to stop everything and trigger a dungeon turn. Maybe I’m just old and my memory is failing me!

Blatantly inspired by Shadowdark’s use of real timers for tracking torch light - my app enables the GM to ‘set it and forget it’ so an appropriate but “random” timer starts ticking down towards an encounter trigger.

The best way to understand its purpose is just as with manually rolling d6s to check for encounters, you know an encounter WILL happen eventually, it’s just a matter of HOW LONG will it take, which is information that’s hidden from the players. My app just means that the GM doesn’t have to think about it or track it manually mid game.

How Does the Encounter Timer App Work?

When the app boots up you’ll be presented with the main screen which gives you a number of options to engage with.

Encounter Frequency Range:

Enter in the lowest and highest value in seconds that you want the next encounter to activate between. By default these values are set to 300 and 900 (5 and 15 minutes).

Encounter Countdown Timer:

When the timer is running, this will countdown to zero then trigger an audible alert to remind GMs to activate their encounter.

During the countdown, if the player characters actions are drawing lots of attention to themselves you can tap the timer to reduce the countdown by 25% with each tap. You cannot take the timer below 10 seconds this way.

Mid:

Tap to have the app pick a random number in seconds between your Encounter Frequency Range, and commence the countdown.

Good for exploring areas of normal danger levels.

High:

As with Mid, but halves the random number generated.

For exploring areas with a higher likelihood of encounter.

||:

Pause and play the current timer.

X:

Cancel the timer and return it to zero (without triggering the alarm).

Encounter Timer in action

What Else Do You Need To Know?

1. It’s Android 5.0 and over only - sorry Apple people, but I have a Google Pixel 7a and I don’t have the knowledge to create this for non android architecture. If any Fruit based developers out there want to remake it, that’s cool with me.

2. It’s exclusively available to subscribers of the Mailer of Many Things as a free reward. It is not available on app stores.

3. At time of writing, the app is free, and is completely unmonitised. No ads, trackers, or any other shady money grabbing behaviour. I have no intention of this ever changing.

4. It’s an APK file, which is an executable installation file that you should run from your Android phone. By default, many phones don’t let you install things manually like this because the app has not been verified by Google, and instead prompt you to enable this functionality in your settings.

5. I am a backend cloud database developer by trade with limited front end programming skills, so I created and compiled this app using Kodular. I accept no responsibility for anything unexpected that happens when installing or using this software. To the very best of my knowledge, the app is safe and functions only as described.

6. The app works best in conjunction with preprepared encounter tables that have been tailored by the GM to the player characters current environment. The apps only purpose is to remind you that it’s time for an encounter - what the encounter is remains entirely up to you.

7. I may actually be Batman.

conclusion

I can’t wait to run a game using this, and I’ve already got some ideas about additional functionality. If you end up trying it out, please, please, please let me know how you got on and if you have any suggestions.

Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed reading this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials, and maybe think about subscribing to the Mailer of Many Things! Either way, catch you later.