Please help- trouble with time tracking in game

[IceBear]

It's fairly simple to track time.

I just have a sheet that has the following sections:

Rounds, Minutes, Hours, and Days

In the rounds section, I have several lines with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 written on in.

Minutes I have 1-60

Hours 1-24

Days 1-31

Basically, if the characters are in a dungeon and are moving around, then I keep track of time by distance moved - 30ft per round normally. So after moving 30ft, I circle the number 1. If they use a skill with a time requirement of 1 round, then I circle 2. Move another 30ft - cirlce 3, etc

After I circle 10, I circle 1 in the minutes section.

Etc, etc.

Conversations are tracked in real time, and overland travel is normally tracked in days (or hours).

IceBear

 

[Drawmack]

I use a system that is complex to explain but easy in practice.

Real Time = Game Time) Talking to NPCs, Staying in one place, Dungeon Delving.

DM Discretion) Travel

Round = 6 seconds) anything with initative.

I make one session of role-playing = 1 day unless we're dungeon delving. I use the DM discretion time to make it up.

DM discretion can also come in for long travels. I decide that it take x amount of time to get there then we play a reasonable number of random ancounters on the way. The random encounters are like a stop time thing where the entire journey takes a month and we focus in on a couple of pieces of that month.

 

[dkilgo]

I too have time issues, particularly when it comes to the amount of time that it takes to search a room well, and things of that nature, I mean, how long does it take to search for secret passages, etc in a 20x30 room? or the equivalent, how long does it take for a thief to examine a door for traps...things like that. Large time I have no problem with, traveling etc, even combat time ie easy, have a sheet of graph paper I tick on, but its the other things that elude me.

It depends entirely on what method the player is using to check for the traps. Are they physically rolling the search check for every square? Are they taking a 10 on the skill check? Or, are they taking a 20 on the skill check? All mehtods are one round (6 second) acitons except for taking a 20. Taking a 20 is equivalent to 2 minutes in game time.

 

[IceBear]

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.

IceBear

 

[dkilgo]

Now that I think of it real time = dungeon crawl time really doesn't make any sense...huh!

 

[caudor]

Wow, there has been a lot of great feedback! A big thanks goes out to everyone who left a response. I see I'm not alone in needing a particular system in place to keep track of time.

IceBear's method of using a sheet with Round, Minutes, Hours, etc. is very interesting. I'll have to give that a try. Thanks for typing that up IceBear!

DM Genie was also mentioned. I'll have to take a look at DM Genie to see what it can do to ease some the overhead of being a DM.

Thanks again.

 

[IceBear]

Yeah, it's quite fast to put a circle around the appropriate number to determine the time.

I often put a note next to a number in order to keep track of when durations end so I can quickly look at the sheet and see all the ongoing spells and when they end.

IceBear

 

[Renaissance Man]

Timely topic (nyuk nyuk)

I recently came to the conclusion that I wasn't doing a decent enough job of tracking game time, so last Friday, I made a concerted effort.

I began the game by making notes of all spell and spell-like abilities currently in effect, as well as their durations. I then tracked the entire game, round by round, using check marks on graph paper.

My conclusions: it felt like more trouble than it was worth. The passage of time felt very "measured", and I didn't switch from "tactical mode" (6-second combat rounds) to "strategic mode" (minutes and hours) often enough.

I could have been better prepared. If and when I try this again, I'll make sure that larger blocks of time are outlined on the graph paper. But I will say this: running the game in this fashion ensured that all of my players got equal focus.

 

[IceBear]

Yeah, you can get too bogged down in tracking time if you let yourself. I've gotten to the point where I barely even notice I'm doing it anymore.

It does give more "structure" to things, I feel.

IceBear

 

[dkilgo]

Hey, Icebear, do you have that system in an excel format or something. Or, do you hand wright before every game. If it is an excel format I would love to get a hold of it to try it out. Thanks...

Damon