It's December 5, 1479 in our game world, and it's a clear, cold morning in our part of it: 34° F with 4% cloud cover and winds 7 knots out of the northwest. I mention this because today's "tips & tricks" is about the 1:1 time-keeping in our game.
PLAYERS & CHARACTERS
The characters are somewhat less widely scattered than they have been at other times.
- Killarney
- Eoin Sweeney (John S)
- Frang MacSiradh (Andy O)
- Granuille (Liam S)
- Jonathan McSplaine (Adam M)
- Malcolm Reynolds (Barry F)
- Mallow
- Calvis Mulroney (Andy O)
- Shay McFarland (Barry F)
- Mont-Saint-Michel
- Tybolt Gueribout (Cole W)
- Tralee
- Nicole Connery (Andy O)
- wilderness
- Finnan Fitzpatrick (Cole W)
SCHEDULE
The October Saturday game at Footbridge which would normally be played tomorrow, Oct 25, has been canceled. Our next game will be on Tuesday, Nov 6, when it will be December 18, 1479. Please RSVP to let me know whether or not you plan to attend. As always, I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE those of you playing to discuss your plans and prepare for your expedition in advance of the session in order to make the most effective use of the session time.
TIPS & TRICKS
The "Always On" Game
One of the things about our 1:1 time-keeping game that I sometimes find tricky to keep in mind, is that the game is "always on." Any player could send instructions for any of his characters to the ref at any time. The clock ticks in the game world at the same rate as the clock in the real world, but the players and referee are not actively playing the game every minute of the day. So how is that handled?
There are two mechanisms operating to support this. As referee, I consider player instructions as being executed starting at the time the instructions were issued, regardless of when I read them. The execution of those instructions takes game world time as defined by the rules of the game, by the logic of the setting, and by the judgement of the referee (in that order of preference). It's possible players' orders meet resistance from the setting or conflict with another player's orders. Sometimes that will necessitate asking for input from the players. Ideally though, the orders contain instructions that anticipate the resistance or conflict. If the orders don't explicitly say how to deal with a problem the character encounters, and I'm unable to get a timely response from the player or players involved, I'll fall back on their character's agency. Whenever a player is drafting orders (I'm using "orders" and "instructions" interchangeably), including some description about the character's approach or attitude would be helpful for me to apply the character's agency more closely to how the player would have handled the character if present to do so.
Characters below 9th level are likely merely exchanging coin for gems, buying equipment, hiring mercenaries, hiring NPCs to train characters or cast spells for them, gathering information, and so on during downtime. It's pretty easy for the ref to manage those activities without troubling the players. Once characters are building castles, moving troops, building roads and ships, attacking weak neighbors, and so on, it may get a bit more complex, we may find ourselves with things we need to resolve jointly between sessions. I'm not really worried about managing it then, and I'm definitely not worried about managing it now.
Skillful players make the best use of their characters' time in the world both during and between sessions.