Please help- trouble with time tracking in game

[IceBear]

I think it's in Excel Format (might be Lotus 1-2-3 - I work for IBM so I tend to use Lotus products now that we own them).

If I get a chance I'll mail it to you. It's really pretty basic.

IceBear

 

[dkilgo]

Thanks either way.

I don't use lotus, but maybe I could create one of mine own in excel if yours is in lotus.

 

[IceBear]

I'll just cut and paste it into a RTF document.

Seriously, it's just something like this:

ROUNDS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

MINUTES
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

HOURS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

DAYS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31

MONTH: __________

YEAR: ___________

NOTES:

Basically, I fill in the month and year and circle the appropriate value in the other sections. So after the party had been in the dungeon for 1 hour, 3 minutes and 2 rounds, HOUR 1 would be circled, MINUTES 1, 2, and 3 would be circled, and I'd be on the fourth row in the ROUNDS section with 1 and 2 circled.

I put a mark like (a) next to the round in which the spell was cast, and in NOTES I'd put (a) Shield spell - ends in 2 minutes

IceBear

 

[dkilgo]

Thanks, I will make great use out of this.

 

[Drawmack]

Wow - real time for time in dungeon seems too generous. Someone Taking 20 on a search check just used 2 minutes of game time (spell durations, etc) while that probably only took a couple of seconds of game time.

Any time my party is on a dungeon crawl they are on a time limit for one reason or another. This means that they normally don't take 20. However, if someone does take a 20 then the rest of the party will probably continue on. However I'm not a douche bag about it, something like that and I'd be like okay, time lapse 2 minutes. However in general it is live time. As you're walking I'm explaining what you see, you come to a challenge and while you're trying to solve it you are in real time. So on and so forth.

Mind that I run a thieves campaign so it's many more riddles and challenges with political intrigue then it is fighting. My party is much more likely to have to infiltrate the thieve's guild or the slaver's hideout then they are to go hunting down the harpy's in the swamp. IMC the real time for dungeon crawl works very well. Any time you want to impress being in a hurry on the PCs do real time = game time and inform them that on a take 20 everyone has to sit around and do nothing for two minutes. They'll be playing like they are racing in no time.

 

[IceBear]

Oh, I agree. It's just that there have been some people complaining about spells being too powerful with the counter that the duration was the main limitation to some of these spells, but I could envision circumstances where several minutes of game time had passed and only seconds of real time, so I was wondering if maybe this was why there were some comments like this.

I pretty much do game time = real time for everything outside of physical dungeon crawling (moving down corridors, searching for traps, etc) and combat. Everything else is real time.

IceBear

 

[dkilgo]

Normally, when my players decide to take a 20 to search for traps, or loot, I make a listen check for any creatures that might be near by. If the creatures make their listen checks then the charcters are interrupted. I make the die roll every six seconds until a creature makes its listen check. Generally my players are sitting around for about two minutes while this is happening. They usually don't notice because they are talking about what is going on, and how they are going to get through this. If there are no creatures near the characters at that time, then nothing happens, and the characters complete whatever they were attempting to do. Depending on the result of the 20 + skill mod.

 

[IceBear]

Yup same here

IceBear