Timezones in D&D

[AFGNCAAP]

Depending on the distance teleported, I'd say the big thing to focus on is the perceptible time difference for the PCs.

Due to potent teleportation magics/portals, perhaps the PCs travel from the dayside of the glore to the nightside instantaniously. This may be surprising to them, potentially expecting for it to still be daytime.

Also, trying to achieve a certain event by a certain time (say, noon or sunset) may have its twists. Sure, the PCs need to travel to a far-away land and stop the evil ritual that day before its sunset, and they think that teleporting there that morning will give them plenty of time. However, the distance travelled is so great that it's actually an hour or 2 before sunset instead of a few hours past dawn (as it was where they were).

Along similar lines, consider crossing vast distances equatorially—going from a sweltering summer to the depths of winter in an instant....

 

[Beginning of the End]

Jet lag is basically the result of your sleep schedule being screwed with due to the shift in timezones. Ergo, I would say that:

(1) You would need rules for lack of sleep. These don't actually exist. Justin Alexander created these rules for our 3E campaigns:

If you get less than eight hours of sleep in a night, you must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 20 - the number of hours you slept) or become fatigued.
If you get less than four hours of sleep in a night, you are automatically fatigued and must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 20 - the number of hours you slept) or become exhausted.

Elves only require four hours of meditation in a night. If they get less than four hours of meditation, they must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 20 - twice the number of hours they meditated) or become fatigued. If they get less than two hours of meditation, they are automatically fatigued and must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 20 - twice the number of hours they meditated) or become exhausted.

If a character's rest is interrupted by movement, combat, spellcasting, skill use, conversation, or any other fairly demanding physical or mental task, subtract 1 hour for each period of interruption from the amount of rest that they received.

(2) You would then need to modify these rules to reflect the fact the effect a disrupted circadian rhythm has on your ability to rest. This might be as easy as requiring the Fortitude save for lack of sleep even if the character sleeps for 8 hours or more (using the same 20 - the number of hours spent resting calculation for the DC). Once the character succeeds at two consecutive Fortitude saves, their circadian rhythm has acclimated to the new time zone and they are no longer affected by the jet lag.

EDIT: You might also consider that magical aids -- like a sleep spell -- could be used to force a rest period. It also seems circadian effector could be an interesting cantrip (both for counteracting the effects of jetlag AND disrupting another person's circadian rhythm as if they were suffering from jetlag).

 

[Merkuri]

...I think jet lag as we experience it has something to do with dehydration/compression/decompression, stress with making connections and all that, and lack of quality sleep. Though I've noticed west to east travel (i.e., wake up earlier/lose time) is more exhausting than east to west (i.e., stay up late/gain time), I think you guys are exaggerating the circadian thing, honestly...

I'm not saying there aren't other factors involved with fatigue after a long flight, but the definition of jet lag almost always mentions circadian rhythms.

Jet lag medically referred to as "desynchronosis" is a physiological condition which is a consequence of alterations to circadian rhythms; it is classified as one of the circadian rhythm sleep disorders. Jet lag results from rapid long-distance transmeridian (east-west or west-east) travel, as on a jet plane.

My point is that it is very possible to experience "jet lag" per the dictionary definition with instantaneous travel, like teleporting. In fact, the faster the travel the more likely you are to experience jet lag.

It's possible that people who already have screwed up circadian rhythms won't feel as much of an effect of jet lag, but I'd argue that's because they're already feeling the effects of their messed up rhythms and have just become used to it. Most people who are on a reverse or near-reverse schedule (sleeping in the day and being active at night) need more sleep to feel rested. It's also very common in America (and maybe Europe, too, I'm not sure) for people to get less sleep than they need and spend all day in a state of fatigue they say they have gotten used to or think is normal, so people with messed up circadian rhythms have plenty of company.

 

[Zustiur]

As several posters have hinted, it should really depend upon the setting. Is your world flat or not?
If the world is flat, there should be no perceptible difference in time to create timezones.

 

[Hand of Evil]

If by JET LAG you mean holding the player in limbo to the conditions they pictured are met, yes. If you mean, just getting use to the clock change, yes, also.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I think it is a neat idea. If in your campaign world you wanted to restrict the use of long distance teleports for some reason, having 'port-lag' as a known problem seems fun and flavourful to me; I prefer having a system which says "yes, but with consequences" rather than "no", and it is one that is easy to understand.

Of course, in a campaign which wasn't going to have those kind of restrictions I'd use the same answer I do to questions of relative velocity and potential energy when teleporting - which is to say that the wizards who refined the current version of greater teleport (or whatever) took that into consideration and so personal velocity, energy and temporal conditions are all reset appropriate to the target destination by the magic of the spell.

Cheers

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted

 

[Aberzanzorax]

From another perspective:

I've never penalized players for "Jet lag" in an underdark campaign where there is no day or night...nor in any dungeon.

Do you keep track of when/how often/etc they sleep beyond the rough "no you can't sleep 10 mins after you just woke up"

Adventurers, in almost every campaign I've ever seen, have very irregular schedules. They sleep on the ground...in a cave...with enemies nearbyish.


In my opinion, the mundane things like jet lag, blisters from long marches, potty issues from eating iron rations every day etc. are not to be meant to be added as additional penalties.

I think there's an assumed "adventurer hardiness level" that these mundane things (along with stubbed toes, kricks in the neck for sleeping on a stone floor, etc) just don't bother them. Their lives are hard enough as is.

 

[Morrus]

Goodness, no. That doesn't sound like it would be fun to me.

I don't give "tiredness" penalties for anything generally, either.

 

[Celebrim]

I think there's an assumed "adventurer hardiness level" that these mundane things (along with stubbed toes, kricks in the neck for sleeping on a stone floor, etc) just don't bother them. Their lives are hard enough as is.

I agree. My assumption is that adventurers are mondo uncomfortable most of the time, and that there is no need to go into nit picky little penalties for blistered feet, random bug bites, sore backs, or having nits. I would apply a fatigue if they pushed themselves to go without sleep for an extensive time, but usually I don't worry about the small stuff. They are afterall, heroes. Unless the problem is bad enough that suffering through it is heroic (and cinematic?), there is no need to dwell on it.

That isn't to say that I don't think that 'mundane' hazards shouldn't happen to heroes, merely that when they do, they shouldn't be fiddly. You might get diseased by drinking tainted water, but it won't be a fiddly little disease - it will be a 'Oh no, can our hero survive?!?' sort of thing. You might be bitten by bugs, but it won't be mentioned unless its a flesh devouring swarm of bugs. You might get infested by parasites, but it won't get mentioned unless its a stomach turning, cringe inducing, horrow show of an infestation. You might get sun burned, but it won't be mentioned unless its a skin blistering sort of thing. If heroes face 'mundane' hazards, it I think ought to be of the sort, "A lesser man (woman/elf/dwarf/creepy insect thing) couldn't have survived that!" It won't be, "Oh no, can our hero overcome a case of jet lag?!?!?"