Keeping Time Consistent Between Multiple Groups

[Mr. Mask]

In games, time is often relative to what you need the players to experience. They can go to bed and eight hours will pass in the blink of an eye in the game. They can say they travel half way around the world, the journey passing with a one-sentence description. Years can pass in a single sitting.


Now, if the game is multiplayer... problems may arise. Time paradoxes can occur with ridiculous ease.

You play with Tommy at the in-game time of April 3rd, he breaks granny's vase. Then, you play with Susie at the in-game time of April 2nd, and she wants to break granny's vase.... so what happens? "No, you can't break granny's vase, because Tommy does that later in the game's timeline"? Allow her to break the vase, but make sure a replacement is organized for Tommy to have broken? Tell Tommy that his adventure breaking the vase has been vetoed, because Susie of the past got to it first?

If you think it's bad in the case of an event, think of how bad it can be in a competitive game.



This is a problem best avoided, because it is hard or perhaps impossible to make this work. However, with some brilliant minds on it, I think this will be a fun challenge to puzzle.

Let's be a bit flexible in facing this problem, since I'm not sure you can come to a reasonable answer if you want to keep a perfect timeline. The important point is for players' actions to not cause paradoxes, especially in competitive context. It also is important that players don't get an advantage for being ahead or behind in time (assuming time is tracked at all).

[HolyCouncilMagi]

First of all, multi-group games happening at different times in the same setting should never be in the same physical location at a given time. If they are, the groups should meet on the same day that time and try to re-separate ASAP.

Other than that? Ideally, require that each session be an in-game day (unless you're playing 24 d20 of course, but that's just an insanely weird system) and issue "obligatory character rest day skips" if you need to stretch something out over multiple sessions.

[The Random NPC]

If it's competitive, make it a part of the game. "Hey Tommy, you take 1 point of temporal damage, for breaking a vase that doesn't exist."

[W3bDragon]

How about working backwards? You start by setting a scenario for everyone, then work your way backwards separately for each group. For example, you could set the following scenario for everyone:

The super duper unstoppable villain and his 100 strong crew are just about to enact the evil ritual of doom. Not a moment too soon, Group A bursts down the front door with a large battering ram carved with a smiling dwarf head on it (or is it a real dwarf's head?). At the same time, Group B appears out of thin air on the opposite side of the room! For some reason, they're all dressed in nun's outfits. This sudden entrance of the two groups prompts the back row of the villain's lackeys to reveal themselves as Group C in disguise. All of the groups, and villain, are surprised to see each other. A monumentally confused fight ensues.


The key is to only introduce the scenario, but not run it. Everything described in the scenario is set in stone and cannot be changed. You now run a game for the groups separately, starting say a week prior to this scenario. Its each group's objective to attempt to enter this final scenario in as close a manner to your original description as possible, while having it all make sense. Using The Random NPC's awesome idea, you could assign temporal point bonuses or penalties based on how close to the original the groups are.

For example, if group B uses Dimension Door or Mass invisibility to be at the stated position at the right time, effectively "appearing out of thin air", they get mucho temporal points. If they simply stroll through the burst down door behind group A however, they get massive temporal penalties. Its in everyone's interest that temporal penalties are avoided, and temporal bonuses are collected.

Once you're done running this for all the groups and each group has entered the initial scenario, now you run it for everyone together in a large one session fight, but you turn the temporal bonuses and penalties accumulated by each group into combat bonuses or penalties. Once this scenario is resolved, you introduce the next one, that occurs say in a month's time. Rinse and repeat.