D&D General The nitty gritty

[DrJawaPhD]

IMO if you are going to track time, it should be accurate. Otherwise, why bother?

Well I mean I did say TRY to be accurate, it's not like I said to purposely be wrong. But it doesn't have to be perfect to be worth doing. I'm fine with it being approximate (which is easy to do) and not codified with detailed rules (which can be done but is more work than I'd want to bother with).

I may be dim, but I don't understand how you can not track time. It doesn't need to be exacting but doesn't it just kind of happen?

I've played with DMs who definitely did not track time, where events kind of unfolded as everyone being everywhere all at once. It still works fine although I don't prefer that style.

 

[Brotton Goodfellow]

If anyone is looking for a way to track ammo that isn’t bean counting, I suggest a little game called “Stay Frosty.” It’s a rules lite TTRPG about being a space marine. It uses ammo dice.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The groups I’ve been in have universally tracked ammo, regardless of RPG. Tracking of everything else was variable.

When I GM, if tracking something besides ammo matters, I let the players know. I also assume they’re basically fully stocked before the resource tracking begins.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Rest is the only one I care about on this list. Most of the others are really not fun to deal with.

 

[GrimCo]

To add a bit why we stopped counting stuff. First off, i played with very pedantic DM back in HS days. If it wasn't written on your equipment list, you didn't have. So i had long list of cheap and light items like chalk, string, compass, wax, charcoal and such. It was PITA.

Second, we moved away from dungeon delving, exploration based games into more urban centered, faction vs faction political intrigue fueled, character driven games. In setting like that, mostly urban metropolitan, you can buy, beg, borrow or steal anything that you need. Also, almost everyone has darkvision and at least one character, if not more of them, have light or dancing lights cantrip.

Encumberance rules are just silly. We stopped with encumberance RAW when my friends character starting hauling around portable alchemist lab with him. It's a fricking cabinet. But, RAW, he can haul it around, it was light enough for him. Now, we use common sense. No, you don't walk around like walking armory with maul, greatsword, short sword, dagger, bow and long spear, even if you have str 20.

For time keeping, we use rough approximations, if it's relevant for story. It's not like our characters have watches. We go by what time of day is it ( FE it's early morning, so with our travel pace, we will came to destination by mid afternoon).

 

[Lanefan]

IMO if you are going to track time, it should br accurate. Otherwise, why bother?

There's a practical limit to how accurate you can get; and for most non-combat purposes close enough is good enough.

If I-as-DM estimate it'll take them half an hour to fully search the room I'm usually not going to sweat over whether it in fact ends up taking them 25 minutes or 35 minutes or 32 minutes 17 seconds. Instead I'll just tell 'em it took half an hour, with the exception being if-when they're working to a very tight deadline and every minute counts, in which case I'll keep much tighter track of time (I rarely-if-ever run that type of adventure).

Combat is different, in that initiative pips (or "segments" in 1e) serve as a built-in timing mechanism within each round, and rounds serve as the more general timer.

 

[Lanefan]

To add a bit why we stopped counting stuff. First off, i played with very pedantic DM back in HS days. If it wasn't written on your equipment list, you didn't have. So i had long list of cheap and light items like chalk, string, compass, wax, charcoal and such. It was PITA.

The bolded is still the rule around here.

Second, we moved away from dungeon delving, exploration based games into more urban centered, faction vs faction political intrigue fueled, character driven games. In setting like that, mostly urban metropolitan, you can buy, beg, borrow or steal anything that you need.

Indeed, if the PCs are always at or near a convenient supply centre, tracking supplies becomes almost irrelevant other than specialty stuff they wouldn't normally have.

For time keeping, we use rough approximations, if it's relevant for story. It's not like our characters have watches. We go by what time of day is it ( FE it's early morning, so with our travel pace, we will came to destination by mid afternoon).

Yes, travel is another example of where close-enough timepeeking is good enough. You're walking 15 miles from one village to the next and your average walking speed is a shade under 3 miles an hour? Then assuming occasional "pit stops" and otherwise good travel conditions and weather, you'll get there in about 5-and-a-half hours; six if you stop for lunch on the way.

 

[GrimCo]

The bolded is still the rule around here.

Oh, but i was petty. I bought type 1 bag of holding. Xeroxed page from phb with list of all adventuring gear. And just wrote on the page - my adventuring gear, with notations of how many of said items are in my Bag. Good old 3.5. Bag of holding and wand of cure light wounds were among first items we would buy.

Indeed, if the PCs are always at or near a convenient supply centre, tracking supplies becomes almost irrelevant other than specialty stuff they wouldn't normally have.

Yup. Even if our pc-s go out, we just write down - adventuring pack, food and water for X days. Logistic tracking of items makes sense in some types of campaigns (ones where resources are scarce). I usually only do this when i run Dark Sun.

Yes, travel is another example of where close-enough timepeeking is good enough. You're walking 15 miles from one village to the next and your average walking speed is a shade under 3 miles an hour? Then assuming occasional "pit stops" and otherwise good travel conditions and weather, you'll get there in about 5-and-a-half hours; six if you stop for lunch on the way.

Yes. IMHO, for most things, close enough is good enough, unless story contains time sensitive parts.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Wow! 42 people voted for "time".

I've always found that difficult to do. How do you do it?

For me?

The sun eventually sets. Durations run out. Deadlines come up. That's about it.

 

[Lanefan]

Oh, but i was petty. I bought type 1 bag of holding. Xeroxed page from phb with list of all adventuring gear. And just wrote on the page - my adventuring gear, with notations of how many of said items are in my Bag. Good old 3.5. Bag of holding and wand of cure light wounds were among first items we would buy.

Good old 3.5, where any item you wanted was easily available and pricing was often out to lunch.

Bags of holding should be a) fairly rare and more importantly b) hella expensive.