How do you keep track of time in your games?

[dreaded_beast]

I made a copy of the Forgotten Realms calendar, so it's pretty simple for me to keep track of what day of the week it is and what year it is.

However, when it comes down to hours, minutes, and seconds, I get a bit hazy. Any suggestions?

 

[DragonLancer]

I've never bothered. If as DM I say it takes 4 hours to get from A to B, then thats how long it takes. The same with nightfall and dawn. You don't need a timesheet to keep track, just so long as the calling you make is reasonable then you shouldn't have a problem.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I've never bothered. If as DM I say it takes 4 hours to get from A to B, then thats how long it takes. The same with nightfall and dawn. You don't need a timesheet to keep track, just so long as the calling you make is reasonable then you shouldn't have a problem.

the same. last two games I ran I kept a lunar callander to keep track of overall time as well as phases of the moon (very important to one of them in terms of tides and sauhagin attacks.) but unles something specific comes up where the exact number of hours of daylight left matter, it just doesn't. (if it did matter, you could use overland travel rates to determine how far the party got before spells ran out, I suppose...)

Kahuna Burger

 

[Buttercup]

Generally, I don't bother. But if one of the players asks me what time it is, then I just tell them a time of day that I want it to be. Also, if it's important to the story that the party arrive someplace at a particular time, like sunset for example, then that's when they arrive.

 

[rounser]

I believe an old Dragon magazine had a thing with boxes where you could mark off rounds, turns etc.

If you're using SKR's FR Calendar, and tracking minutes, may as well go for the trifecta and generate the weather, using either the Greyhawk boxed set, the Moonshaes supplement or Arr Kelaan Software's Random Weather Generator (http://www.paonline.com/zaikoski/ak/tools.htm) as well.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I use DMGenie...and since it has its own time tracker, plotting out weather, phases of the moon, etc etc, I've found its very very nice to use. Without it, though, I'd doubt I'd keep track of time other than moon phases.

 

[Gnarlo]

I use Weather Master for keeping track of the big picture, each day in it's log has the weather conditions broken into blocks of hours, sunrise/set, etc. All the info isn't alwasy needed but it's nice to have if it is (an early battle against the water mephit in the Sunless Citadel got nasty as it fled outside into the rain, healed itself, and came back over and over). The log allows me to type in all the events of the session as well.

For smaller time scales, I make notes in DM's Familiar which I run at the table or just on a scrap of paper to be entered into my notes in Familiar later. I need to go to the request board and ask for a time keeping module for Familiar

When most of my gaming was online using Klooge, it has a great time keeping feature built into it where you can simply click a button and advance time by minutes or hours, and shows the period of day graphically (dawn, daylight, dusk, night, etc.).

 

[Crothian]

I guestimate it, it's not that important. Same iwth time while traveling. I say it takes a few weeks to get there then just write down sopecific travel days in my notes. The PCS arte rarely concerend with what the date is in game.

 

[JesterPoet]

I've got this really easy system for keeping track of time that has worked really well for me so far.

I make it up as I go along, but I act as though I had been keeping track all along. My players have never called me on it.

 

[dreaded_beast]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

One of the reasons I have been asking for time is because my player was taking the time to bury her enemies, friends, taking 20 searching rooms, etc. I wanted to have a sense of realism, plus I always thought it would be cool to be able to have somewhat accurate time.

In regards to my player taking 20, according to the 3.5 rules, to search a 20 x 20 room would take roughly 30 minutes. During this adventure, there were no time constraints, but I want to get into the habit of keeping track of accurate time just in case there are. Plus, I think it would make some spells and abilities more meaningful, mainly the ones that last 1 minute per level.

Thanks everyone and more suggestions are still welcome.