Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 blake_marlowe Jan 19, 2015 17:18:28	i'm writing the session summary for my game and i realized as i was writing that i couldn't think of any in-world equivalent for an hour. and that got me thinking. i mean, it's only once timekeeping devices become ubiquitous that actual times and precision in the passage of time matters, so in your typical D&D world, people wouldn't speak of hours or minutes.    what are some of your favorite ways to express a unit of time in-game?
#2 AaronOfBarbaria Jan 19, 2015 17:23:38	Hours have existed since people noticed shadows move at a constant rate throughout the day. Typical d&d worlds are more advanced than the cultures that invented sun dials, and water clocks and hour glasses are standard d&d equipment.
#3 ankiyavon Jan 19, 2015 17:37:52	AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
#4 blake_marlowe Jan 19, 2015 18:47:51	aaron: those items are far from ubiquitous. plate armor is also fairly standard equipment--but nobody can freaking afford it. keeping time is a hobby for the independently wealthy of a D&D world.
#5 AaronOfBarbaria Jan 19, 2015 22:50:42	An hourglass is no more expensive than a dog. Are dogs also "a hobby for the independently wealthy of a D&D world"?   I think not - and again, sun dails - you take a thing with a predictable shadow shape, you set it in a clear flat area that the sun shines on, and you put evenly spaced radial marks around it (12 is enough) and boom, you can tell time.   Characters should even be able to tell time through a Wisdom (Survival) or even Intellgence (Nature) check.   No need to have the expensive time telling equipment to do it.
#6 Ath-kethin Jan 20, 2015 2:47:52	The characters might not call the time units "hours," but most cultures in the real world use the same time units. There is no reason to overcomplicate things in game, in my opinion. If you like, pop "hour" into Google Translate and pick a random language that gives you a term that sounds better to you.
#7 Leugren Jan 20, 2015 4:21:49	In cities and monasteries, I often use time units that are based on the tolling of a bell (e.g. "he supposed to arrive at third bell").   Cheers!   Leugren
#8 Nevvur Jan 20, 2015 15:34:59	It could certainly add flavor to give alternate names for chronological units, but it could also get really tedious. For my setting, I gave unique names to the days of the week, months and seasons within a solar year. IMO, renaming hours, minutes and seconds is just asking more for the reader/player to memorize without much return in immersion. You can get into the same trap easily with units of distance.    Still, if you wanted to go that route, the best renames I can think of would probably be linked to common activities that take about that amount of time. You could replace a second with a Shrug. How about a minute becomes a Pyssing?    More abstractly, hour could be Slice... Given the cyclical nature of days, they are often represented as circles, thus one section of the circle is a slice, like a slice of pie.
#9 BRJN Jan 21, 2015 15:34:35	If you are near a port city: One Bell, Two Bells, &c.  Somebody on shore (maybe the same people who keep the lighthouse lit?) has an hourglass and is supposed to ring this big bell when the sand runs out.  Repeat, well, hourly.  (Except ring the bell softly at night so as to not wake everybody up.)
#10 DarthMacho Jan 21, 2015 16:01:53	Perhaps for humans, like the "common" language, you could stick with the basics for time-keeping, such as terms like "hours", "days", "weeks", "months", etc., that are measure by the movement of the sun and the moon, and then go with something different for races like elves, dwarves, and even more so, Underdark creatures that are far removed from these celestial bodies? Good luck!
#11 Archon007 Jan 21, 2015 22:57:16	I use hours, but not like 2 o'clock. I'll say "you arrive an hour after midday" or "it's 2 hours after sunset", etc
#12 Greenstone.Walker Jan 22, 2015 17:36:32	I've used "Hands", in the context of "how long it takes the sun to move one handswidth across the sky".   I've often used "bells" in places where there are actual bells. In town, you might meet someone for dinner at "3rd night bell". On a ship, you might have an appointment with the captain at "10th bell".
#13 ThreeofSwords Jan 22, 2015 21:52:26	Synonyms for Hour: Bell(s) Glass (as in the time it takes for the sand in an HOURglass to run out) Turn (similar to above) Synonyms for a time-unit close to a second: Beat (as in heartbeat) Pulse (similar to above) Minutes would not normally be tracked, so terms for them would probably not exist.
#14 ArcShot Jan 23, 2015 3:00:19	I am thinking while writing this. How about breaking one day into four colors? Each color comprises 6 hours, ie 1st to 6th Black - 12mn to 5am Amber - 6am to 11am Red - 12pm to 5pm Blue - 6pm to 11pm So, the guests will arrive at the Merchant Hall at 3rd Red tomorrow, means 2pm the next day.
#15 DemoMonkey Jan 23, 2015 10:42:40	All time is measured is Centons and Centars, of course.
#16 7he_professor Jan 23, 2015 11:18:37	I my games, we really only use the following conventions for time-telling:   Dawn   Mid-morn   Highsun (noon)   Afternoon   Dusk   Night   Granted, it's not very specific, but time-telling devices do not abound in my world, thus making accuracy less relevant.  We've managed quite well thus far.
#17 Archon007 Jan 26, 2015 21:17:44	7he_professor wrote:
#18 Melend Jan 27, 2015 19:59:51	In a world where astrology is significant, the Sun might move from one 'location' defined by its occult properties and associations to another.  So a length of time would be a 'House', as in "the Sun is in the House of the Rooster" now.
#19 cowleymen Jan 27, 2015 21:34:12	I acutally hate these. Not the names themselves, but the concept. Its way to much work to memorize all those, espically when it comes to a different name for weeks, months and a year. They just dont do much for me, even when going for what I feel is a tiny reward with the amount of inmersion it gives to a setting. When I read a book with these changes, Tamoria Pierce is one of my favorite authors, but GOD!!!!! I have to filp to an Index of special words every time its used, and breaks me out of reading the book.
(Reply to #19) Nevvur	cowleymen wrote: