The Passage of Time

[archimedes 13]

There was a thread that may have been deleted in which people chimed in on developing a Vast calendar that in some way coincided with ours. (So we could rp seasons, festivals, etc) Nothing was ever really settled upon, I don't believe. In many ways my question stems from that, though I'm looking for nothing so concrete as a calendar.

What I am interested is the progression of time and roleplaying someone as ageing and developing. Most characters start fairly young, and it would be nice to be able to have them age. But what is a month? What is a year? If we do it by technical NWN terms, then every 48 minutes is a day, every 24 hours is a Vast month, making every Month 2 years of Vast time (assuming they use a similar calendar).

Obviously this seems a bit quick. For those who started in 2003, their character has aged 48 years. For elves and others this may not be much, but for Humans, half-orcs and other short life-span individuals that's nearly a lifetime. (And in the day and age this takes place, that may well be over the average lifespan).

So would we arbitrarily just choose something like 6 of our months equals 1 Vast year? That would be fine, but seems a bit slow. So perhaps 4 months equals 1 vast year? (And 3 years to our 1). This seems closer, but I'd be interested in hearing what others think, or if this even matters to them. How much do you see your charactering ageing in the time he or she has been here?

[Kenneth Proudmane]

Well I don't believe anything was exactly decided on, like you said, but I tend to RP the seasons and such as they are in RL. I remember the DM team seeding some of the rock piles with "holiday rings" around Christmas just for a little extra flavor. <br>


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[tenshiglen]

Thanks for bringing this subject back, archimedes. I've been thinking about this for a long time as well. (Well only the 2 months I've been on but that's 4 yrs Vast time. :-) ). I remember a post about a pesistant clock that would not reset on server reset. Pesonally, I think that would be great. It's not a realism killer, but it would be a great addition.<br>
Also, I pesonally think the clock moves too quickly in the Vast, but I also understand the complications and aggravations associated with slowing it down. Shutting up now, not really having contributed anything. *walks away slowly, shaking his head*

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[Algernon's Ghost]

We use the server clock for pretty much just timing spell effects, and other things that have durations, and for some realism when travelling distances. You can ignore the long-term passage of time as represented by the game clock.

<p><!--EZCODE HR START--><hr /><!--EZCODE HR END--><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>The ends don't justify the means. The means shape the ends; you become what you do.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><!--EZCODE HR START--><hr /><!--EZCODE HR END--><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security."<br>
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[archimedes 13]

*nods* I know we can and do ignore the clock for keeping track of time any more than just a few days (in game), but I would like to be able to determine some sort of longer time frame, that fits loosely with the Vast. *shrugs* For example, if someone were to ask how long Matyas has been in the Dale, I would not know how to respond. A year, 2 years? Or just 10 months (if we are to use our calendar). It really doesn't matter, I suppose...but it was something I had been wondering about.

As for ageing, I personally don't want Matyas to be 18 (or whatever age he began at, I can't remember) forever. If we are to match our time for ageing it does seem a little slow in comparison to Vast (a lot of these events that occur would realistically span months, but they often are much shorter because of the abbreviated game time). However, that's fine as well (and certainly is the simplest solution).

[Reason]

*bumped for reference after a recent offline discussion of this topic*

[sarah petite]

*ponders deeply* This was another 'lost' thread, yes. I think the proposed time-line would be 1/4, so one week RL equals 4 weeks IG, but the thread sort of bled dead. (Been a long while, so I'm very much not certain anymore, mind you) I think the main idea was to have certain seasonal feasts pricked per occasion, but not pinning a firm time-line. (This was also due to non-availability of players during certain periods, so having a 'loose' time-line is preferrable)

As for the 1/6 time-line, I guess that's a bit fast for players, yes (We used that speed in PnP for a few years, but that meant lots of back-track sessions just to get our characters in the same time-line again, one of my chars had aged 36 years between two sessions:( ).

Biggest problem is the limits on distance. Many characters already solve this by giving hints IC that they've spent 'some' time in the Dale-woods, or up north, or went south along the Vesper to visit friends/family/temple.

[Dabaro Viloufin]

I came across a website where one person linked real life days to the forgotten realms calender, it didn't matter which year we were in in real life, a few days were skipped or combined to make match one day of the Faerun calander. I'll try to find it once again, I thought I bookmarked it.

Assuming any would like to move Vast years closer to our years, I know of a few PCs that use our real seasons and portray them in game as well. We can also use such for those specials days in the various religions.

[Vind]

Yeah, seasons would be nice...as would changing weather (such as snow instead of rain, leaves that turn colors and fall of the trees, etc.) but I think it's just a limitation of the game. Perhaps it'll be in NWN2. One can always hope.

[Dracharla]

for me personally I tend to keep specific dates somewhat fuzzy for the purposes of rp " A few seasons past was when he left" "I was in the mountains for a fortnight" "The goblins have been gathering supplies for several moons" as its harder to create contradictions this way since the day to day time flux can be so flighty. For long term I Tend to be one of those folks that TImo mentioned and RP seasons in relation to our own. thats just me and if we came to some sort of consensus I think it would be great, but I personally kind of enjoy the freedom of fuzzy time.

[archimedes 13]

The problem with RPing seasons based on where you live is that seasons aren't the same across the world.

Unless we were to determine a calendar which we agreed to follow, I simply don't RP the weather, unless its graphically represented or DM stated (for example, when there was a drought going on north of the Vineyard).

Of course, I don't see any harm in commenting on the chilly night, or something, occasionally, either.

[Dracharla]

good point Arch didn't think about the fact that my winter is an aussies summer. I'm just an evil ameri-centric american.