Keeping track of game time.

[StoneCipher]

How do you guys keep track of in game time? I am looking to figure out some sort of system since I can't mentally do it and manage everything else going on in my head at the same time. I've always done poorly on game time.

[Tohsaka Rin]

Have a notepad. Every time players do something that take more than a few minutes, jot down the time that takes.

Next time something happens that takes more than a few minutes, jot down that time, add it to the previous.

-Shopping, 1hr

(talking, 2-3 minutes)

-Search check 1hr

(interrogate cutpurse, 5 minutes)

-Overland travel, 8 hours

Just ballparking it should be enough.

[heavyfuel]

What Tohsaka said works fine for small scale time keeping (hours and days).

If you need help in the large scale department (months and years), giving them an arbitrary amount of downtime is what works for me.

Something along the lines of "After the incident with the ogre in the village, you were all able to rest for a few months without much happening. It is now the first day of the second moon of the Snow Month (aka, 8th of December, or whatever) and you blah blah blah <segment into next quest>"

By setting the day at a specific date regardless of how much time has passed, the need to keep track of how many months its been is greatly reduced. Just make sure the date you choose hasn't already passed and you're good.

[Milodiah]

One way to deal with this is to ask each player what they're doing when the party inevitably splits for errands, and then ask them how they plan on getting the party back together when everyone is done. Say the wizard is going off to the library for his new spells, the barbarian is purveying the grateful king's armory with his connoisseur's knowledge of hitty-sticks, and the cleric is going to go pray for the rogue's soul since the rogue is off pickpocketing orphans.

If you get them to say "We'll all meet at the Church of Great Whozit at sunset", then boom, it all wrapped itself up nicely there. As long as each individual's task can be completed within that timeframe, then it ties stuff together rather nicely, since each task is of different length and waiting for the last guy will happen anyway.