How do you keep track of time in your games?

[WayneLigon]

Generally I don't bother; unless they have something like marked candles or similar things the PC's have no real time perception other than '1 day'. They have no concept of what an 'hour' or 'minute' is, so time is generally broken up into 'sun rising', 'around noon', and 'night approaching'.

For things like searches, I just assume it takes about a half-hour and I keep track of the searches. 'You've been searching a really long time; you're getting pretty hungry'.

 

[Blue_Kryptonite]

Essentially, Digital Watches. But Aelfshire has a lot of 20th-century equivalent magical items available to those with the money to afford them. Sun Crystals are a fairly minor example.

 

[Desdichado]

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.

Bingo! You just described my system exactly!

 

[megamania]

Calendar for most events. Lose notes for something to track on a hourly basis.

 

[Liolel]

For our party we track time very informally. There isn't a lot of week long traveling and most days we are out of resources far before we would get tired from a long day.

So time is tracked mostly in days which either pass while traveling or when the party goes back to a safe place to rest.

 

[Wolfspirit]

One of the players in our group got everyone a collection of odd dice, including a 24 sided one. Usefull for a random hour

In one game I DMed, I used a year old calendar to keep track of dates

 

[grodog]

I usually play in Greyhawk, and use Clay Luther's GH calendar to run my games (see it on Canonfire! at http://www.canonfire.com/htmlnew/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=16).

I've also used the calendars from Dragon issue 123 mentioned by rounser: "Time Flies... but these tables will pin it down for you" by Lisa Cabala. They're useful in conjunction with setting-specific calendars, as well as for general campaign management.

With the advent of 3e, though, I'm not sure that timekeeping matters as much to campaign play as it did in previous editions: most spells are only useful for a single combat, and training time is optional (perhaps that happened in 2e also?). With most RL campaigns only lasting a year, and given the quicker advancement rates in 3e, I'm can definitely see how timekeeping may not be worth the extra hassle that its use enjoins....

 

[dmprata]

I use a shallow, inverted cardboard box. On the back I have spaces labeled (mind you I play 1E) "round", "turn", "hour", "day", "date", "month", and "year". I use pushpins to mark each unit, and can re-use them to my heart's content. I even use two different colors of pushpins for my two different campaigns. The box has lasted me about ten years now.

 

[Belbarrus]

In my current campaign I keep track of time for two reasons: Spell duration and because the PCs have 150 days to complete the "quest" I dont have a calender or seasons or anything like that because the campaign only takes place in two areas: the Dungeon and the nearby city.

I have a sheet of paper divided into 4 sections. The upper left section is where I keep track of minutes, the upper middle section is where I keep track of hours and the upper right section is where I keep track of days. The large, lower section is lined and numbered. This is where I write down the names of spells or effects and what PC has it. I then write the corresponding number in the "Minute" or "Hours" section to indicate when the spell/effect started.

Then I estimate time that has elapsed based on travelling and how much time the PCs spend in combat, talking, planning, exploring, etc. As time goes by I place "ticks" in either the minutes or hours section (depending on how much time passed). Then when the spells expire, I inform the players.

So far the players are on day 38 and have covered about 40% of the Dungeon.

B

 

[Zappo]

Eh, I DM Planescape, a lot of the action happens in places where there is no sun, no day, no night, no way to measure time, and occasionally not even time itself. The PCs have stopped bothering even before I did. We assume that the cleric has some mystical sense telling him when it's time to regain spells, though..