frankthedm
First Post
Reasonably strict.
Do you keep strict track of the date in your game world?
- Thread starter MerricB
- Start date
DonTadow
First Post
I kept detailed track of hte time in my game, not only to track world events but to make sure that world events made by the pcs were noted. A few months ago the pcs went to a land that kept track differenty and very slowly (only counting the seasons and the year). The pcs lost track of time and only knew the year they went. It made it all the more better when the pcs got back and realized that 10 years had passed and that several of their past events was now apart of history.
Baron Opal
First Post
Yes, but only at weekly intervals.
kigmatzomat
Legend
A campaign log/calendar helps immensely. The arrival of winter is predictable (and no longer DM arbitrary), the time between visits to a city can help flavor things ("It's been 2 years since your last visit and a new wall is going up around the city. Unfortunately your favorite inn burned down in last year's fire...."), and it gives information time to become rumor ("...and then they took down four dozen chimera!") or be forgotten ("We are the heroes who saved your city!" "Sorry, I've seen the folks who turned away the goblin horde and you ain't them." ".....goblin horde?").
IMC it is January 19th, 424 Post Fall and the game started mid September, 418PF. The humans have aged noticeably over the last five years, growing from snot-nosed punks (1st level) to rather frightening combatants (19th). Not so apparent for the other races.
IMC it is January 19th, 424 Post Fall and the game started mid September, 418PF. The humans have aged noticeably over the last five years, growing from snot-nosed punks (1st level) to rather frightening combatants (19th). Not so apparent for the other races.
Henry
Autoexreginated
I'm pretty strict about this, though the other DM in my group isn't as much a stickler as I am on it. I do it to (1) keep track of sensitive time tables in my games, and (2) to give the campaign a sense of age; I like it when the characters can actually see that months and years have passed, though I still haven't had a single 3.X game where the characters spent more than 9 months at a time actively adventuring.
Nyeshet
First Post
I'm really surprised that a third of the DMs that have of yet posted do not keep track of time in their campaign world. The world does not revolve around the adventurers, however much they may wish and strive to make it so.
Between campaign I often, almost regularly, roll (or handwave) problems developing, being dealt with, etc for most major locations. Entire adventure hooks may arrive - and be dealt with - prior to the adventurers moving into an area. I like to keep things consistent, and I like a nice, multi-year historical background prepared (even if only outlined) in case they happen to enter an area unexpectedly. This way there is always something going on somewhere. Even if they enter an area and little is occuring to interest them, rumors may have arrived with the caravan of troubles elsewhere in need of aid, and if they do not leave soon enough to deal with them, the troubles may either go away or become more than they can currently deal with. And often there are several possible areas of interest to them.
Keeping track of all this requires a calander system, requires keeping track of what the current day is for the adventurers. Of course, I actually tend to prefer world building and maintaining as much (and sometimes more) than GMing, so perhaps my view is a bit different from most.
Between campaign I often, almost regularly, roll (or handwave) problems developing, being dealt with, etc for most major locations. Entire adventure hooks may arrive - and be dealt with - prior to the adventurers moving into an area. I like to keep things consistent, and I like a nice, multi-year historical background prepared (even if only outlined) in case they happen to enter an area unexpectedly. This way there is always something going on somewhere. Even if they enter an area and little is occuring to interest them, rumors may have arrived with the caravan of troubles elsewhere in need of aid, and if they do not leave soon enough to deal with them, the troubles may either go away or become more than they can currently deal with. And often there are several possible areas of interest to them.
Keeping track of all this requires a calander system, requires keeping track of what the current day is for the adventurers. Of course, I actually tend to prefer world building and maintaining as much (and sometimes more) than GMing, so perhaps my view is a bit different from most.
FATDRAGONGAMES
First Post
Just out of curiosity, those of you who use a game calandar: Do you use a made up one or do you base it on an actual 12 month/365 day year?
shilsen
Adventurer
I track time very strictly in both of my Eberron games. Not only are there events in the outside world that affect and are affected by the PCs, but the events of one campaign affect the other (essentially I have two PC groups in action in the same world - and often, the same city - at the same time).
For example, an NPC left the PCs in one campaign to attend a party later that evening with the PCs in the other campaign, and ended up sleeping with one. That has ramifications for both campaigns, and it wouldn't work without me tracking time very carefully.
For example, an NPC left the PCs in one campaign to attend a party later that evening with the PCs in the other campaign, and ended up sleeping with one. That has ramifications for both campaigns, and it wouldn't work without me tracking time very carefully.
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