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ideasmith
2010-11-17, 08:21 PM
TIME COLLAPSE QUESTIONS

In hopes of sparking discussion on realtime/gametime interaction:

Question 1. (Assume one or more fantasy-setting campaigns you have been involved in.) Assume a gameday in which the PC’s spend 12 hours walking, 8 hours sleeping, 2 hours preparing and eating food, 1 hour telling tales by the campfire, ½ an hour eliminating wastes, and ½ an hour fighting monsters. How much time would the players and GM spend roleplaying each of these activities?

Question 2. Given the above gameday, what do you consider a good amount or real time to spend roleplaying each activity.

Question 3. (Assume one or more campaigns of any setting you are or have been involved in.) Describe a typical gameday. List the activities engaged in by the PC’s during the day, the amount of game time the PC’s spend on each activity, and the amount of real time spent by the players and GM roleplaying each activity.

Question 4. What do you consider a good selection of gameday types in a campaign? Describe it as above.

Question 5. What do you consider a good method of describing the relationship between gametime and realtime in a campaign?

Question 6. Describe one or more campaigns which you are or have been involved in using the method you described in question 5.

Question 7. Describe a hypothetical campaign with what you consider to be a good gametime to realtime relationship, using the method you described in question 5.

JaronK
2010-11-17, 09:12 PM
Does it actually effect the story? Play it. Does it not? Don't.

JaronK

2-HeadedGiraffe
2010-11-17, 09:45 PM
Normally in games I've run or been involved in, we roleplay the actual adventuring portion of the game, decide who's on watch while we sleep, and, unless we're attacked during the night or our characters are just interacting, we get on to the next day. Generally, we play as much downtime as players have stuff for their characters to do during. The majority of the game session is usually spent on the actual traveling, dungeon exploring, evil killing, stuff taking, etc.

KillianHawkeye
2010-11-17, 11:01 PM
Half an hour of combat? That's 300 rounds! I hope you've got the whole weekend free for that session!

EDIT: I was really hoping this was going to be a thread about a D&D campaign in which time literally collapsed. :smallsigh:

The Big Dice
2010-11-17, 11:07 PM
I was really hoping this was going to be a thread about a D&D campaign in which time literally collapsed. :smallsigh:
I was kind of hoping that too...

But if you're really interested in how to break down the week into who does what in a given time, then I suggest you check out the GURPS Time Use Sheet (http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/resources/NPCandTimeUse.pdf).

2-HeadedGiraffe
2010-11-18, 09:00 AM
EDIT: I was really hoping this was going to be a thread about a D&D campaign in which time literally collapsed. :smallsigh:

Yeah, the first thing that occurred to me on seeing the title was some sort of D&D take on Final Fantasy VIII.

Ormur
2010-11-18, 03:31 PM
If nothing interesting seems to be happening we tend to fast-forward until something happens unless the players want to do something specific. We just describe what happens in the meantime.

I'd be interested in some ideas on how to prompt characters to interact and roleplay a bit, both as a player and a DM. You feel that on a week's trek something other than descriptions of the environment and battles should happen.