Time Zones in Eberron (I'm such a geek)

[diaglo]

E-mail me at henrythelesser AT yahoo DOT com and give me an e-mail address of who to pass it on to.

Henry,

Your English teacher would be ashamed.

 

[Henry]

Henry,

Your English teacher would be ashamed.

She aint gotta no, does she.

 

[Quasqueton]

Not to knock what you've done, Henry, but maybe timezones isn't the way to go. Real-World timezones didn't come about till the 19th century. Before the railroads organized it, each locality used their own time.

Perhaps instead of demarked timezones, make a scale showing the distance of one hour difference -- sort of like a scale that shows how far 100 miles is on the map.

Something about timezones that has always flipped my brain: When you move from the middle of one timezone to the middle of the next, your watch is one hour wrong. Even if it takes you 10 years to travel the distance, your watch will still be one hour off. Even though it takes so long you can't tell the difference in the sun's travel during your journey, your watch will still say the wrong time.

Quasqueton

 

[drothgery]

Not to knock what you've done, Henry, but maybe timezones isn't the way to go. Real-World timezones didn't come about till the 19th century. Before the railroads organized it, each locality used their own time.

It's quite plausible to say that the Dragonmark houses that control magically-aided transportation and communication in Eberron would have done the same thing in Khorvaire that the railroads did in the United States.

 

[Henry]

Perhaps instead of demarked timezones, make a scale showing the distance of one hour difference -- sort of like a scale that shows how far 100 miles is on the map.

When I started playing with the map, I divided it up into 730-mile wide slices (of which there are 24 at 17.5K circumference), and you can actually see these on the map I posted, at the topmost and bottommost edges - the parts that are parallel to one another. If you take those parallel marks at top and bottom and connect a line straight down, you should get the actual meridians, rather than my funky political time zones.

If someone ever does an accurate continental map, I may go back over and do the same thing planetwide, which would be more accurate.

Also, if anyone notices a fundamental flaw (like, that's not really the way to divide up time on a globe or something) please let me know.

I would have put the prime meridian through the island that was the capitol of the old empire- Thronehold is it?

That's equally plausible, too - I just used Korranberg because someone on the WotC Forums brought up those information-obsessed and egocentric gnomes, and it seemed like something they'd do and publish. However, if one saw the time zones as something that Galifar would have done - after all, they did fund the Lightning Rail - then it would probably be run through Thronehold. I may change this later, in fact.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Actually, I think Thronehold would be a better centerpeice for the 0%.

Thronehold was the political center of Garland for Hundreds of years, and was the location of the peace treaty to end the war. It makes sense that the Palace of the Continental Nation would have been the center of the time scale.

Would you care to try a second map with throne hold at the center?

As for the Korranberg Chronical. Some of their contributors and admins stop by my Eberron IRC channel. In fact, you'll note that the Chronical hasmy channel linked. (Its kinda become the official chatroom of the Eberron fanbase, weeeeeeee).

I dont talk to them directly though. I have more involvement with the Breland Ledger.

 

[Henry]

Since my map is at work (I'm a bad man), I'll do a revision and get back to you tomorrow.

 

[Torm]

I like the concept, Henry. One suggestion though - throw in a few eccentricities in some of the zones. Heck, REAL time zone lines don't make any bloody sense, daylight-wise, in some of their zigs and zags. And of course, you have to have that poor little hamlet that has the danged time zone line running smack through the middle of town.

One other thing - not a suggestion, just a curiosity. Diaglo mentioned effects (like spell recovery) that take 24hrs, or happen at specific times. Not that you'd probably be moving fast enough to worry about it most of the time, but what's your take on the effect time zones would have on that sort of thing? Would a spell set to last 24 hrs LAST 24hrs, or would it stop at 22 if the area of effect around the caster had moved someplace where its two hours "later"?

It definitely could make an interesting game component, especially for anyone with Teleport.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

24 hours means 24 actual hours, not 24 percieved hours.

 

[Henry]

I like the concept, Henry.

Thanks, bro'!

One suggestion though - throw in a few eccentricities in some of the zones. Heck, REAL time zone lines don't make any bloody sense, daylight-wise, in some of their zigs and zags.

I actually did this in my map - tried to keep the nations for the most part all in the same time zone. Though I tried to be a little more sensible than the real world.

...what's your take on the effect time zones would have on that sort of thing? Would a spell set to last 24 hrs LAST 24hrs, or would it stop at 22 if the area of effect around the caster had moved someplace where its two hours "later"?

I think in terms of subjective relativity - in other words, it lasts however long it is to the object or creature it's cast on. So the closer you move towards the speed of light, the longer the spell is going to last.

Thanks for the comments, all.