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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7405493" data-attributes="member: 6778044">Well, we don't play every moment of every day. And in fact, we were just discussion how the passage of time is something that is often difficult to work into the game. Adventures in Middle Earth sets it up in a way that you typically have one large adventure, and then when the winter comes, adventuring season is over, and you move forward a year.Things like guard duty are typically near the beginning of a character's life, although not always, and is part of what ties them to the town and the setting. We don't run such a thing often, but every once and a while it's a good starting point that naturally brings together a group of PCs.My campaign itself has been essentially one continuous one since 1987 when the original Forgotten Realms set came out. Over the years, players come and go, and lots of PCs have "retired" to become pseudo NPCs. The players really enjoy that they actually "know" people in the world, rather than just NPCs that I create, whether on the fly or whatever. Such retired PCs can often come back to an active adventuring life if they wish. In fact, one player came to me yesterday to say that he thinks that one of his characters has reached that point. She is currently stuck underground, and she hates everything about it. She hates the risks, she hates being underground, pretty much everything. She just wants to get back to her farm and be a farmer. She's gotten some treasure over the course of about two or three adventures, almost all of which has ended with her being underground again, and this particular character "has decided" that it's not the life for her. She's basically won the lottery, and wants to move on with her life.The game itself is modeled after the old Gygax and Greenwood campaigns. Everybody has multiple characters, and there are many current plot threads in progress. Which one we pick up during a given session depends on who can make it that night. I'm also starting another night soon, and players can move between them, and they will continue to be interrelated. So from a worldbuilding perspective, the players are contributing a lot simply by having so many characters that are involved in the world. We jump ahead quite a bit, sometimes even a year or more, but that's all driven by what the players want to do. I often suggest it's a good place to jump ahead, but I've learned that what I think is a good place and what they think is one doesn't always coincide. The reality is, we kind of know as a group that this is a good place to move ahead. We also have no problem fast forwarding in the middle of a combat when it's clear what the outcome will be, even if it's going to take a bunch more rounds to slog through it. Also, while there may be considerable time spent in places like Moria, the purpose is almost never the dungeon. So they don't try to explore every passage, fight every monster, etc. In fact, in most cases they are trying to avoid as many of the dangers as possible, to get to whatever it is they are trying to accomplish. What they are interested in playing out is the process of accomplishing that. The MERP book for Moria is a great example of the sort of prep work that I find valuable. It details the sort of creature that you'll potentially find. It has sample common passages, residences, businesses, etc. But otherwise the maps are large scale, and it's up to you to place things as needed. So if the PCs are searching for a family heirloom they'll first search out a residential area, and hopefully have some sense as to how they'll identify they are in the right group of homes. The challenges and dangers of getting to that location would be played out, in addition to whatever they'll need to do to find the item, or determine this isn't the right set of homes, we need to go search someplace else. So it will fast forward, go back to normal, then fast forward, etc. It might still take several sessions to get to what they're looking for, but that passage of real time is part of what informs the play of the game itself, that it took us a lot of work and time to finally find this. In the meantime, the goal is for things to be interesting, exciting, challenging, etc. And some of that might speak to the character's motivations, and some may not. My point is that it's not really up to me alone, the DM, to decide what those weighty moments are. I guess I kind of think of it as living through the character's lives, and they tell me when it's time to stop fast-forwarding and experience this period, here. But the reward to us is usually the development of the character. Some of those characters might go slay a dragon, but others might just be involved in protecting the town. When we're in exploration mode, where time is moving at a certain slower pace, then I have to determine at what point enough exploring is enough. That's when I have more of an impact on the passage of time than them. But for most of the time, they are setting the pace.The other aspect that we try to avoid is when everything the DM puts in front of you is important. "The characters wouldn't be here if there isn't something important here too." By framing scenes too tightly, and focusing only on things that are "important' it takes away some of the players/character's ability (agency) to decide what's important to them. As for how long it takes, we always have multiple plots in progress at any point. So a major, life-defining plot like becoming a dragon slayer might take a year or two. But there are many other stories and plots with those characters along the way. That spending 3 or 4 sessions on determining the location of the legendary sword, and then setting off for 2-3 sessions of attempting to retrieve it, followed by another 3-4 sessions of hunting down the NPC who stole it, already takes up 3 months of game time. And that's just to get the sword. It's not a glacial pace, but it also feels right to us. That it takes time to happen. The pace of a TV show vs a movie, which provides more opportunity for development of the characters and pretty much everything else in the game. Usually, for a major plot point, 1 or 2 sessions seems too short, like it's too easy. Note that things also overlap. So there are other plots occuring at the same time. What usually happens is that the focus narrows as we get further along the process.Early in the life of a character, a considerable amount of time is taken as the player learns who this character is. That is, through their experiences, combined with their design. So time move slower, and it's more of a direct exploration mode. As the characters become defined, and the group goals narrowed, then the passage of time for those characters accelerates. We skip ahead more frequently because we have a better understanding of the characters. But overall, I think it's just the focus of our attention that's different. During the course of the adventures, the character might die. In which case his son picks up his cause. We're much more interested in the journey - how they got there, rather than the goal, and slaying the dragon. We also prefer a less heroic (or superheroic) approach than D&D often seems to promote. That is, a lesser reliance on abilities, and more on character and creativity. So you're right, there is nothing wrong with moving onto the key parts. But deciding what those key parts are, and how quickly to get to them, is what I think varies. Since many of the characters share similar group goals, the large goals will often come to a head, but after the passage of a considerable amount of time, and probably the deaths and/or retirements or heading off into other priorities by several of the characters.</blockquote>

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