How to stop the game if things get too crazy…

Sometimes you need a moment to think.

As a DM your player may have just turned a NPC into a chair and the other one wants to light it on fire as the third player disagrees and wants to turn them into a T-rex.

Or maybe you’re a Player who’s characters just dropped to 0 HP, it’s your turn and everyone is talking and you NEED TO ASK A QUESTION or remind the DM that your character sold their soul to a Demon who was due to come collect.

The Pause system stops time for a moment to give everyone a break when needed, and can be used to go into slow-motion to sort out complex chains of events without needing a initiative roll.

To call PAUSE in a live game this can be done by the DM or player holding up their hand until everyone stops talking.
For online games this can be done by the DM clearly saying PAUSE
Players you can request a pause by typing the word PAUSE? or QUESTION? in the game window’s chatbox to notify the DM that they need a chance to speak.

Once called only the DM is allowed to speak and while the game is Paused only one person is allowed to speak at a time.
If someone else wants to speak this can be done by raising their hand or writing Question? – this should only be done if it relates to the events occurring in that moment of time.

The DM will then wait for everyone to* fall silent* before working though the series of events/questions or problems that have arised.
This will include asking the person who called for Pause or raised a Question to speak and giving everyone a chance to talk if they have something relating to the situation at hand.

The game can remain paused until all questions are resolved and everyone is ready to continue.

At this point the DM will call PLAY (or UN-PAUSE) – things go back to normal, the game can continue and events play out in normal time.