Although The Blood of Dawnwalker was only just released late Wednesday this week, it’s already spurred mods (because of course it has) – one of which controversially alters what’s arguably the vampire RPG’s core mechanic.

In case you’re not yet familiar with the game, The Blood of Dawnwalker features a pretty unforgiving time mechanic. You get 30 days and 30 nights, essentially, to wrap up all of the questing and exploration you’d like to do – and, for many folks, that’s simply not enough.

So, how did players respond to the time lock? Well, by simply modding it away… with “Better Story Timer,” as it’s so aptly dubbed over on Nexus Mods, to be more specific.

The Blood of Dawnwalker mod allows you a whopping 90 days instead of the base 30 to do what you’d like with, makes it so that perks have no time cost, and increases the number of time segments in a day or night from eight to 32.

That’s quite a lot, seeing as it basically flips the RPG’s restrictive mechanic on its head – a restrictive mechanic that’s meant to make your choices feel more meaningful, and adds a healthy layer of “what do I do” to the game.

Due to all this, it’s not proving popular with everyone. Sure, it’s already racked up a good 20,000 downloads and then some, but folks online are discouraging players from using it, saying it takes away The Blood of Dawnwalker’s essence.

Over on X, one fan says it’s a “bit strange to do… considering that it completely defeats the whole purpose of the game’s design.” A commenter adds, “People are too scared to make hard decisions.”

A separate thread sees someone sharing in on the sentiment, writing, “People often complain about modern games being handholdy or too easy, and this is exactly why. The modern ‘gamer’ doesn’t want to engage with the slightest bit of friction or discomfort.”

Another post echoes this, too, with its author stating, “I can see why people want it, but doesn’t this defeat the whole point of the time system?” Not everyone agrees entirely, though.

Over on Reddit, some people argue that Rebel Wolves, the studio behind the RPG (and the studio headed by CD Projekt Red veterans with credits on bangers like The Witcher 3), should officially implement some sort of choice in the game: “I think the obvious and easily implementable happy medium would be to have people play the game as RW intended in their first run, then have skills unlocked during that run carry over to the next in NG+.”

They add, “That would sate both those dissatisfied with the nominal sense of progression and the completionist-brained of us.”

That makes sense to me – playing it as intended the first time around and then having more freedom? Not a bad idea at all. Will Rebel Wolves do it? Who knows… but I know I’ll be keeping my own fingers crossed.

I’ve only been playing a couple of days now, but the FOMO has been so, so real.

Read our The Blood of Dawnwalker review to see why the “time system for quests creates odd pacing,” if you’re thinking about playing one of this year’s biggest new games yourself.