measuring time

[alsih2o]

i have been wondering what kinds of things i can do with one of my campaigns to visually demonstrate the passage of time to the characters. the main city in the state they serve is having a wall built around it and i think that this will be a good indicator, watching the wall rise and change as they enter and leave the city.

then hadrian's wall struck me- it took 4 years to build, it is 73 miles long, nearly 15 feet high and 6 feet thick. 16 forts 80 "mile cast;es" and a monster 9 foot deep 24 foot wide pit in front.

i figure something like this would be near p[erfect to show the passage of time in a world, has anyone come up with any other man-made ways of showing the passage of time in their world?

 

[diaglo]

NPCs. have the kids in the campaign grow up.

 

[Maldur]

In my last campaign I had a fresh "colony" slowly growing around the characters.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Seasons - Just the passing of winter into summer

Events - roads get made, bridges made, fires burn building down, they get rebuilt, woods getting clear cut around a town/city, strip mines.

Life and Death - NPC pass away, get married, have kids

 

[Gnarlo]

I use the change of seasons, harvest time, holidays, and changing weather. Even my players finally noticed that things were changing when they realized it was snowing out.

/em gnarlo

 

[Mercule]

Seasons are usually enough for me. Last campaign I ran, the players starting thinking way differently when I told them winter was coming and asked whether they were planning on continuing adventuring (it was based around the adventure path modules), hold up somewhere, or head south for the winter.

I also agree that having kids grow up and the like is a good way to go about it.