Time Passes...

[AaronLoeb]

A question for the mighty ENWorld community:

In your games, how often do you let large chunks of time pass? How long? Over the course of your campaigns, does age play any role whatsoever?

Just curious...

AJL

 

[Umbran]

I haven't run any campaigns in which age becomes an issue. Mind you, by the core rules, that still means that a campaign can span 15 or 20 years.

I have, when the players, allow time to slip past - if they have no plans, and my next plan comes to fruition only much later, time can pass. I have allowed weeks and months pass while training or major projects were working in the background.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

I have allowed weeks and months pass while training or major projects were working in the background.

This is currently what I am doing, but it still has lead to rapid a rapid gain of levels- in-character time.

In a future campeign, I am considering having the characters have outside responsibility - for examples: nobles who have land, officials in court, or something along those lines. They will only be able to go on adventures sparingly- and sometimes a few years may go by between adventures.

Of course, this would mean giving up my geographic event campeigns *chuckle*, but I think I could manage.

FD

 

[National Acrobat]

Age has never really played a major role in any of the numerous campaigns that I have run through the years. About the only thing that has ever come close was the dusting off of some characters from a high level (14-17th) group that we decided to run for nostalgia's sake. The group decided to advance the characters many years, they all had families and I changed the history of the setting to reflect what had passed. It was pretty cool. They were needed to once again save the world.

 

[Xarlen]

Considering how, in my game, people have went 5 levels in half a year Ingame, age shouldn't really reflect anything about leveling up.

 

[Piratecat]

My game is (in real time) ten and a half years old. In game, time, about 12 years have passed. One PC is in the elderly age category, and his physical stats have taken a big hit!

After one major plot arc, we fast-forwarded almost 2 years. It let everyone establish their academies/strongholds, and let me advance the political plot nicely.

 

[Grazzt]

My 1e campaign (which still runs sometimes...we switched our main game to 3e) has been going (real time) since about 1983 or so.

In about 19 years (real time) in my 1e campaign, we had two characters die of old age, and most of the others retired. Two of the retirees had children that have since taken up the mantle of adventuring.

And just to stay on topic, I've let large amounts of time pass in the background when the characters were engaged in certain things (days, months, and at one point a few years passed).

 

[thundershot]

We've done a couple time jumps, but nothing to cause people to retire...

Out of the original four characters, both sets produced offspring, one of which became evil, the other grew to be a mighty Fighter. SHE eventually had a child as well, but this one was magically aged for a plot of mine, and ended up becoming a demoness... She hasn't appeared yet in 3E.

The original characters became Immortals (the last adventures of Basic D&D before time jumping to 2E), but have since been thrust back into mortal bodies. They live in the past though, and it's kinda funny. "What class are you guys, anyway?" "I am a Fighter! And my friend here is an Elf!" They haven't appeared yet in 3E though...

I plan on doing periodic time jumps in the future, though...


Chris

 

[Xarlen]

As for the question, I've jumped months.

 

[Dinkeldog]

I just advanced mine 17 years. It let me do a lot of background stuff and let the PCs create some magic items to get them up to speed.