Do you have clocks in your game?

[The Grumpy Celt]

Yes, there are a number of clocks in my game. See the sig.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Very rarely are there clocks, most people use the sun. Only for very few people does exact time matter, the first group that comes to my mind is the military, so instead of trying to coordinate attacks based off of time I suppose they'd use signals and messengers weather mundane or magical. For pretty much anybody else time isn't a life or death matter. You get up in the morning eat breakfast and then go work in the fields all day then you eat dinner and go to bed.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I had a giant clock tower in my homebrew world. It was on the pirate island, as an homage to Captain Hook. But other than that, no.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Most of the buildings IMC don't even use nails, why would I have clocks?

And besides, why would dwarves or gnomes invent a device to tell time when you could make a better crossbow, alchemical item, etc.?

 

[Wombat]

Sundials? All over the place! Marked candles? You betcha!

Clocks? Well each city has one or two in a big tower near the major market(s) and a few rich people own them.

That's about it.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

My current games are late medieval/early rennaissance in style, and do have clocks. Small personal sized clocks like you'd put on a mantlepiece have been around for a couple of centuries, but are still expensive and rare. In fact, a set of magical clocks is a key part of one of my current campaigns... They open portals to various locations...

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Most of the buildings IMC don't even use nails, why would I have clocks?

And besides, why would dwarves or gnomes invent a device to tell time when you could make a better crossbow, alchemical item, etc.?

Better navigation.

Better metal working.

Sales of clock work.

Synchronized shifts in factories.

Next question?

The Auld Grump

 

[Hand of Evil]

Most of the buildings IMC don't even use nails, why would I have clocks?

And besides, why would dwarves or gnomes invent a device to tell time when you could make a better crossbow, alchemical item, etc.?

longitude is dependent on a clock, rather an interesting story for it too.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

longitude is dependent on a clock, rather an interesting story for it too.

(Grumpy Celt gets up on his soapbox…)

I did some research into this issue for the Mechamancy book.

In terms of sailing, once the vessel is out of sight of land, the lack of fix objects was an obstacle for purposes of determining the position of the vessel, which was vital for reliable navigation.

Before latitude was developed as a concept, the North Star was used for determining the relative North-South position of the vessel – at least for vessels in the northern hemisphere. The North Star is relatively fixed in position, unlike most other celestial bodies.

However, it was traditionally very difficult to determine longitude, or relative west-east position, because of that very lack of fix objects.

This remained an issue until the 18th century, when John Harrison developed a marintime clock. Before this reliable clocks had largly depended on the pendilum to regulate the the consistant and regular action of the mechanism of the clock. The problem was the rolling of ship in the ocean distrupted the action of the pendimulm

Harrison’s clock, through a number of technical innovations, was able to avoid this issue and thus provide reliable measure of time passing on the ship. This, coupled with an a measure of the vessels speed, allowed for more reliable longitude calculations than had before been possible.

There were other methods – such as the Lunar Distances – but they were often more complicated and less accurate than Harrison’s clocks.

For more information, refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison

In terms of manufacturing, clocks – and thermometers – did not necessarily improve the function of a crossbow or tell people when the best time to build a castle. However, again, accurate measurements facilitated improvements to metallurgy and other technologies.

As such, properly using a clock could offer a bonus when crafting masterwork weapons, armors and other such items.

 

[JimAde]

There are no mechanical clocks in my campaign, but there are magical ones. They just ring a bell on the hour and half-hour (some at quarter-hour intervals if needed). No hands or anything. The only one the PCs have really dealt with is the clock in the South Tower of the citadel in Linnburg (the big city they keep finding themselves in). It chimes the hour (three for three o'clock, etc.) and chimes again once on the half-hour.