Post/Author/DateTime	Post
elange99 06-21-07, 11:18 PM	A little bit of backstory. I used to play D&D many many years ago and was quite often the DM. The group I played with never really worried about some of the aspects of the game such as encumbrance or time. Recently a group of us have gotten together to start playing again, some are recent players, some are new, and some of us haven't played in years. I have been selected to DM this group and am fine with doing this. However, I am not sure how to manage time. I understand that a round of combat is 6 seconds and I believe that 10 rounds makes a turn. Where I am unsure of is how long is an hour? In reading the wandering monster section of the DM guide it suggests making these checks every hour. Is this one hour of game time or one hour of real time? When the magic users need to study their spells after a night of sleep how do I determine that the day has ended and it is time for camp? Any advice the experienced DMer's can provide would be very helpful. Thanks in advance.
Anathema 06-21-07, 11:25 PM	Play it fast and loose for excitements sake. If someone patrols by an area every hour, and your players are in that area, decide right then if the patrol comes by. If they decide to hole up there and rest for a while then the chances increase greatly. I wouldn't try to mark the time down to an exactness; you'll go mad just trying to keep up with time, not to mention all the other stuff a DM has to come up with.
Wraithcat* 06-22-07, 12:38 AM	I agree and must admit that I don't know a single DM who keeps an accurate track of time. With respect to random encounters, just decide if it fits into the game you are running and the situation at that point. If you want a random encounter it happens when you want it. With timed spells, for the most part I just occationally remind the players how long they have on thier spells, based on my best guestimate of how long it has been since the spell was cast. Yes, certainly you could get anally retentive and clock every second and minute, but for the most part it doesn't add anything to the gameplay.
Kaldric 06-22-07, 03:22 AM	You use "compressed" time. This is the time between combats when there's no non-combat encounters going on. This is compressed because you don't actually play it out. You say something like "Later that evening..." or "After an uneventful day of travel, you stop at nightfall to set up camp." Basically, "compressed" time happens when you ask the players what they plan to do, and nothing particularly interesting happens while they do it. You keep track of this time, but you don't play it out. Example: DM: You wake up in the city after a refreshing night's sleep. What are you doing today? Players: We memorize spells, pack up our gear, and mount our horses. We're going to leave the city and travel to City X. We'll take the plains road, and travel as long as it's daylight. We'll make our usual camping arrangments, and use our usual watch schedule. Marching order is standard. DM: *checks the map* Okay, it's going to take you 4 days to get to City X. Will you be doing anything out of the ordinary? Players: Nope, not unless we see something weird. DM: *checks the map, sees no special obstacles on the way, or significant landmarks. Notes that the terrain calls for 1 random encounter check per day. Rolls an encounter check for the first day, the second day, and the third day, no encounters. On the fourth day he gets an encounter, checks on the table for that terrain figures the encounter distance, turns to the monster page in the DMG. Decides from the information about the encounter distance and the monster type if the encounter is going to be an ambush, a distant sighting, a surprise encounter, or possibly a friendly or at least neutral crossing of paths* DM: Alright. After gathering your equipment and buying feed for the horses and rations for yourselves (mark off that money, Steve!), you set out. Spot checks. Okay. For the first three days, you travel uneventfully across the rolling plains, seeing only waves and waves of grass, undulating in the wind.(feel free to embellish here, but remember not to put in anything that will slow down the game unless you WANT to slow it down - only put in interesting stuff if you want the players to investigate it) On the fourth day, as you are riding along the road around noon, you see a dust cloud to the rear. Horse-Raiders are attacking! They're about a thousand feet back when you see them come over the crest of a hill. Roll initiative. Thus, you skip over the days when nothing is going on, but you do keep track of that time, and roll checks when it goes by. Works the same when you're in a dungeon and making random encounter checks every hour. You ask the PCs what they are planning to do, then fast forward it as seems appropriate until their activities are complete or something happens to interrupt them. If the PCs want to sleep in a secured room in the dungeon, then get their plans, roll the checks every hour or whatever, and use the example above.
Generic_NPC 06-22-07, 04:45 AM	As soon as I saw this thread, all I could think about was this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5SpA-THE8M).
GrondGala 06-22-07, 07:33 AM	As soon as I saw this thread, all I could think about was this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5SpA-THE8M). Please... Never do that again.