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From: Alex Schroeder <alex@alexschroeder.ch>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: 1:1 time between campaign and real world
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2024 20:48:08 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: Campaign Wiki
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In rec.games.frp.dnd smaug@ereborbbs.duckdns.org wrote:
> What do you think about using a straight up 1:1 time between real
> world and campaign in a game? We have been using some of this in the
> games I recently have been playing
> in, and it manages to make for some interesting interactions. 
> But on the other hand it also didn't quite interfere with the game as
> much as I though it could, mostly because there was a lull in games
> I think. 
> 
> I was thinking lately that esp. Traveller might have been intended to
> be used with something like that, as every jump between different
> worlds is
> exactly one week long. (allowing for players to jump into a system and 
> jump out at the end of the game, safely back on their ship)
> 
As one of the persons running a game with 1:1 time in a multi-referee
setup, I agree that there are sometimes very long breaks where you'd
think that people would do something. The party beats the Set cultists
and the session ends so there's no time to secure a power base and by
the time you get back, weeks have passed. Fair or unfai?

In another multi-referee setup, each referee is responsible for a region
of the setting, each region has a Discord channel and a bot keeps track
of the current in-game date for each channel. Advance the calendar as
you see fit, with the long term goals of both using 1:1 time if possible
, and catching up to the channel who's furthest ahead. Now the the
problem in AD&D is that training and travel to trainers takes more than
a week. In some cases, finding a high level magic user means travelling
to the magic university, the whole trip takes 29 in-game days. So next
session, there is a little pressure to just advance the calendar by +29
days. Do this once or twice and your region plays in the future of every
other region and travel of player characters between regions becomes
impossible, making the unique premise a problem.

So, what to do? In a best-effort hybrid approach I think we would prefer
1:1 time passing. Then there's no discussion between the referees of the
setting. In addition to that, in a particular location, a referee can "l
ock it up" by not advancing the time between sessions for an extended
dungeon exploration. The consequences are: the location is "off limits"
for other parties while this is happening. If, at a later date, the
first party "gives up" or is slain or imprisoned, any rescue attempts
must start in real-time, so many weeks later, even if that is also
problematic. Essentially the feature is: When the camera leaves the
dungeon, time catches up.

Such a setup might work better than the two variants I'm experiencing
right now.

Cheers
Alex