Time

Tactical time

1 Hour = 60 Minutes = 6 Turns

1 Turn = 10 minutes = 10 Rounds

1 Round = 1 Minute = 10 Segments

1 Segment = 6 Seconds

In adventuring below ground, a “turn” in the “dungeon” lasts 10 minutes.

In combat, the turn is further divided into 10 combat rounds, or simply “rounds”. Rounds are subdivided into 10 segments, for purposes of determining initiative and order of attacks.

Thus a turn is 10 minutes, a round 1 minute, and a segment 6 seconds.

Outdoors, time is measured in days, usually subdivided into daylight (movement) and night (rest) periods. Thus, while actual time playing is about the same for a dungeon adventure, the game time spent is much greater in the case of outdoor adventures.

Game Time

Game time is of utmost importance. Failure to keep careful track of time expenditure by player characters will result in many anomalies in the game. The stricture of time is what makes recovery of hit points meaningful.

Likewise, the time spent adventuring in wilderness areas removes concerned characters from their bases of operation - be they rented chambers or battlemented strongholds. Certainly the most important time stricture pertains to the manufacture of magic items, for during the period of such activity no adventuring can be done.

Time is also considered in gaining levels and learning new languages and more. All of these demands upon game time force choices upon player characters, and likewise number their days of game life. The DM cannot have a meaningful campaign if strict time records are not recorded.

The DM should use whatever grouping of days they find desirable for their milieu. There is nothing wrong with 7 day weeks and 31, 30 and 28/29 day months which exactly correspond to our real system. On the other hand, there is nothing to prevent the DM from using some other system if it pleases them and they can keep it straight. What is important to the campaign is that the DM does, in fact, maintain a time record which logs the activities and whereabouts of player characters and their henchmen.

For the sake of example, let us assume that the DM begin the campaign on Day 1 of the Year 1,000. There are four player characters who begin initially, and they have adventures which last a total of 50 days—6 days of actual adventuring and 44 days of resting and other activity.

At this point in time, two new players join the game, one of the original group decides to go to seek the advice of an oracle after hiring an elven henchman, and the remaining three “old boys” decide they will not go with the newcomers. So on Day 51 player A’s character is off on a journey, those of B, C, and D are resting on their laurels, and E and F enter a dungeon.

The latter pair spend the better part of the day surviving, but do well enough to rest a couple of game days and return for another try on Day 54—where they stumble upon the worst monster on the first level, surprise it, and manage to slay it and come out with a handsome treasure.

The DM calls it a night. Four actual days later (and it is best to use 1 actual day = 1 game day when no play is happening), on Day 55, player characters B, C, and D enter the dungeon and find that the area they selected has already been cleaned out by player characters E and F. Had they come the day after the previous game session, game Day 52, and done the same thing, they would have found the monster and possibly gotten the goodies!

What to do about that? And what about old A and his pointy-eared chum off to see the oracle? Some penalty must accrue to the non-active, but on the other hand, the over-active can not be given the world on a silver platter. Despite time differences, the activities of the newcomers to the campaign should be allowed to stand, as Destiny has decreed that the monster in question could not fall to the characters B, C, and D. Therefore, the creature was obviously elsewhere (not dead) when they visited its lair on Day 52, but it had returned on Day 56. Being aware of time differences between groups of player characters will enable the DM to prevent the BIG problems.

The DM will know when the adventuring of one such group has gone far enough ahead in game time to call a halt. This is particularly true with regard to town/dungeon adventures.

Returning to player character A and his trek to visit a far off source of supernatural lore, he and his elven companion set off on Day 51, journey across the land for 11 days, visit the oracle and remain 3 days, then come back in another 11 days (wonder of wonders!). This comes to a total of 25 days all told, counting Day 51, so they come “home” on Day 75 and are set to adventure on Day 77, let us suppose, as a brief rest is in order.

Allowing that activity to be not unusual for a single session of play, then player character A and his henchman are ready to play about the same actual time as the other players—only A is at Day 77, B, C, and D are at Day 54, and E and F are at Day 58. The middle group must go first, and alone, or it can opt to “sit around’ waiting for A or for E and F or for both parties, or they can operate alone for another short adventure in terms of game time, thus taking advantage of their temporal position. Other options include any of the players singly or in time-related groups going off on outdoor adventures.

In the case of players so segregating their characters, it then becomes necessary for the DM to inform prospective participants in a game session that there is a hiatus which will necessitate only certain members of their number playing together, as their respective characters cannot locate the others of the separated groups.

At this juncture they should be informed of their options, and if players B, C, and D do not choose to take advantage of their favored position, then game time will pass more swiftly for them, as the other participants must be allowed to adventure - in the dungeon if they so desire Thus, players E and F would have the choice of awaiting the return of A or of going on adventures which involved only the two characters. In effect, player character A is out of it until game time in the central playing area reaches Day 75, when communications can be made- or until other player characters contact him on his return from the oracle, let us say, assuming nothing important transpired during the return trip.

In effect, the key is the relative import of the player characters’ actions in the time frame Generally, time passes day-for-day, or turn for x number of real minutes during active play. Players who choose to remove their characters from the center of dungeon activity will find that “a lot has happened while they were away”, as adventures in the wilderness certainly use up game days with rapidity, while the shorter time scale of dungeon adventuring allows many game sessions during a month or two of game time. Of course, this might mean that the players involved in the outdoors someplace will either have to come home to “sit around” or continue adventuring in wildernesses and perhaps in some distant dungeon as well (if the DM is kind); Otherwise, they will perforce be excluded from game sessions which are taking place during a period of game time in which they were wandering about in the countryside doing other things. This latter sanction most certainly applies to characters learning a new language, studying and training for promotion in level, or off someplace manufacturing magic items.

At some point, even the stay-at-homes will be forced to venture forth into the wilderness due to need, geas, quest, or possibly to escape the wrath of something better avoided. The time lines of various player characters will diverge, meet, and diverge again over the course of game years.

This makes for interesting campaigns and helps form the history of the milieu. Groups of players tend to segregate themselves for a time, some never returning to the ken of the rest, most eventually coming back to reform into different bands. As characters acquire henchmen, the better players will express a desire to operate some of theirs independently while they, or their liege lord, are away. This is a perfectly acceptable device, for it tends to even out characters and the game. Henchmen tend to become associates - or rivals - this way, although a few will remain as colorless servitors.

You may ask why time is so important if it causes such difficulties with record-keeping, dictates who can or can not go adventuring during a game session, and disperses player characters to the four winds by its strictures.

Well, as initially pointed out, it is a necessary penalty imposed upon characters for certain activities. Beyond that, it also gives players yet another interesting set of choices and consequences. The latter tends to bring more true-to-life quality to the game, as some characters will use precious time to the utmost advantage, some will treat it lightly, and some will be constantly wasting it to their complete detriment. Time is yet another facet which helps to separate the superior players from the lesser ones. If time-keeping is a must from a penalty standpoint, it is also an interesting addition from the standpoint of running a campaign.

Time in the Dungeon

Keeping track of time in the dungeon (or on any other type of adventure) is sometimes difficult, but it is at least as important as the accurate recording of time in the campaign. As has been mentioned above, the standard time breakdown is ten one-minute rounds to the turn, and six turns to the hour. All referees should keep a side record of time on a separate sheet of paper, marking off the turns as they pass (melees or other actions which result in fractional turns should be rounded up to make complete turns). It is essential that an accurate time record be kept so that the DM can determine when to check for wandering monsters, and in order to keep a strict check on the duration of some spells (such as bless, haste, strength, etc.). The DM must also know how long it has been since the last time the party took a rest.

Resting

A party should be required to rest at least one turn in six.

...(remember, the average party packs a lot of equipment), and in addition, they should rest a turn after every time they engage in combat or any other strenuous activities.

On occasion, a party may wish to cease movement and “hole up” for a long period, perhaps overnight, resting and recuperating, or recovering spells. This does not exempt them from occasional checks for wandering monsters, though the frequency may be moderated somewhat, depending on conditions. Too-frequent interruptions may make spell recovery impossible. Keeping correct records of duration of these periods is absolutely essential.