Do you have clocks in your game?

[The Grumpy Celt]

Wht the lack of love for the common clock?

 

[JimAde]

In my case it's just that the necessary ability to do fine machining isn't available. A craftsman could hand-build a mechanical pendulum clock, I suppose, but if somebody is going to spend that kind of money they can get a more reliable magic item.

Also, I just like the idea of clocks without faces. I thought it was very original until I read the link in Zander's post above.

 

[Odhanan]

Are clocks a common feature in your game? Or do you just realy on the old methods of telling time?

Yes.
That is, for civilized, urban areas, usually, since you've got to have the craft(men) available.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

...the link in Zander's post above.

I could not get it to work.

 

[jerichothebard]

Sundials are the norm - it's a sun-god based society.

Also, clerics of the sun god, and others with the turn undead ability, are mystically aware of the exact moment of sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight.

 

[spyscribe]

Reallly, I'm not sure how our party keeps track of time overnight. We must do it because we sit watches in shifts and the party's main cleric prays for his spells at midnight.

Maybe his god *pings* him.

Honestly though, it's not something anyone in the party loses sleep over.

 

[eris404]

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

Wildly off-topic:

Hey! You wrote those? Can I say that the Banking Guild PDF was one of the inspirations for my new campaign? You rock!

Edit: Yes, I have clocks in my game and some magical clockwork as well. I have big love for the steampunk.

 

[JimAde]

I could not get it to work.

It's working for me. Here's the text of the article. I've bolded the part that made me realize I can't have an original idea to save my life

In 1386, a large mechanical clock was installed at Salisbury Cathedral. It is the oldest surviving mechanical clock in Britain and probably anywhere. Bishop Erghum moved from Salisbury to Wells in 1388, four years before the Wells Cathedral Clock is thought to have been constructed. It seems likely that he had the two clocks made by the same people.
The Salisbury Clock is not as advanced as the one at Wells. It has no face and only strikes the hours. Like the Wells Cathedral clock, it originally used a foliot balance with a verge escapement. At the end of the 17th century, these were replaced by a pendulum and a recoil escapement. Holes on the clock's frame show that these were later replaced again. In the 18th century, the bell tower which had housed the clock was demolished so the clock was moved to the Cathedral's central tower. In 1884, a new clock was installed and the old one was forgotten. It was re-discovered in the tower in 1929 and put on display in the Cathedral's North transept. In 1956, the clock was restored to its original condition and made to work again. Its pendulum and recoil escapement were replaced by a new foliot balance and verge escapement.

 

[Ibram]

It largely depends on where you are in my campaing world...

In the more advanced countries clocks are present, mostly water clocks though some purely mechanical systems exist. though only two human countries have the wealth and resources to build huge clock towers.

All major Dwarf and Gnome cities have large mechanical clocks, as it can be hard to tell time underground.

Pocket watches are exceptionaly rare, and are more curiosities then usefull tools.

Timekeeping is important outside of the advanced nations, priests of Solarus need to know the time for their prayers (dawn, midmorning, noon, midafternoon, sunset, midnight).

Calendars are more important, and most major temples are built around astronomical calandars.

Only one race, the Kataros, has the skill to make navigational clocks (clocks that function on the open sea) and those clocks are kept secret. Through those clocks they rival the Elves as master sailors (the elves use incredibly complex charts of the ocean and wind currents)