How much value do you place on Time

[JamesonCourage]

I keep track of time for a ton of reasons. How long it takes to get from one place to another (for armies, riders, information to spread, etc.), seasons (and thus weather), time of year (the players have already had to react to a ritual that was mechanically going to be tied to the winter solstice), what NPCs do in the meantime (which is a ton of stuff, like many sandbox GMs), what happens to nations (there's a mechanic for tracking economy, events, etc), what happens to organizations (there's a mechanic for tracking wealth, events, etc), what happens to PC organizations or businesses (one PC owns a pirate-hunting ship that he mainly uses for transportation), etc.

I'm a sandbox GM, and my campaigns typically take years to play out in-game, not weeks or months. So the world progresses, national politics evolve, wars are waged, demonic cults rise and fall, the Church calls out for missions, international militias form and evolve and get broken down, etc.

Time passing is necessary for the style of game I want. A setting that feels real, that my players can get lost in. So, yeah, I keep track. I have to.

 

[Grogg of the North]

It depends. One adventure may have the PCs clearing out an old fort at their leisure. Another may involve them racing against the clock to stop the cultists from completing their ritual. So time is a resource just like any other. Sometimes you have to worry about it; other times not.