Keeping track of time?

[Amheirchion]

Hello, I'm new here. I signed up the other day after taking time out to read around some threads on D&D 5th edition.


Today while reading some posts on short rests I got to thinking how I would track time in a game. I haven't been playing D&D long, I joined a D&D 3rd/3.5 (not sure which) game a couple of months ago and found I really enjoyed it. Another friend has expressed an interest in playing, so I have offered to try DMing, so I'm reading up as much as possible to try and ensure I don't screw things up.


Back to my question, how do people track time in their games, and does anyone have any good tips on how to do this? I'm not sure whether to wing it, or try and keep semi detailed notes. I know that in the campaign we're playing my knowledge of time comes down to asking if it's daylight or not.


As a DM though I should probably be a bit more accurate, so is it worth tallying up how long people are taking; you set out at 08.00am, an hour of travelling, 20 rounds of combat, 20 minutes kicking over the bodies, an hours rest to recover from the fight, another hour of travel and we're now at about 11.30am and you've missed the messenger you were meant to intercept.


How do you keep track of things? A note pad, dedicated app, cardboard clock or something else? Is it massively critical, if they travel for three days and nothing happens (or is meant to happen) then does it matter that they know what time to stop for lunch?


Apologies if that rambled a bit, I'm still trying to sort things out in my head.

 

[JamesonCourage]

Hello, I'm new here. I signed up the other day after taking time out to read around some threads on D&D 5th edition.

Welcome to EN World!

How do you keep track of things? A note pad, dedicated app, cardboard clock or something else? Is it massively critical, if they travel for three days and nothing happens (or is meant to happen) then does it matter that they know what time to stop for lunch?

Apologies if that rambled a bit, I'm still trying to sort things out in my head.

Different people have different methods, so I'll just tell you what I do, and let you determine which answer appeals to you the most.

Alright, so, for most time, I just wing it, and then tally up time if necessary. For example, if people say "what time of day is it?" I'll say "about two hours after noon" if that's what I feel is appropriate. If there's no reason to look into the precise time any more than that, I just react to what the players do next ("oh, so the shops should still be open, then; I'll head to the blacksmith").

If there's something important tied to time, I'll stop to add up the time with my players (as you did in your example). "Well, you were told that the messenger was heading towards the castle, and would reach there in two hours on foot. You talked about things for about ten minutes, traveled to the capital in another hour, spent fifteen minutes waiting to talk to the captain of the guard, spent five minutes filling him in, and then spent another ten navigating the streets to cut him off at the gates to the inner keep. That's should put you there with about twenty minutes to spare, if the information you were told about the messenger was correct."

I do pay very close attention to the date, though. I mark each day as it passes (well, I just update the calendar), so that I can keep an eye on the seasons, weather, etc. I've found that paying attention to this helped improved my ability to run the game over some time (instead of things being eternally spring until a storm happens, and then somebody asks what time of year it is). It helps the PCs plan for events, gives interesting hooks (now you're traveling through bad weather [my PCs almost all died to a blizzard at one point], fighting in high winds, or whatever), and makes the setting feel more realistic. All wins, in my opinion.

Hope some of that helps. You'll figure out what works for you, though, so even if you take some of the answers you get as inspiration, tweak it to fit what's most intuitive for you. That'll make things easier and more fun for you, and that will spill over to your players most of the time. If the DM ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

 

[Jesauce]

My methods are very similar to Jameson. Time of day is a fairly malleable thing for me. It tends to be about whatever time it needs to be, give or take the situation. I'll give the party the option of 'Well, you've just woken up, do you want to do anything in town?' If they have shopping or investigating to do, then they do so. I generally just jump ahead a few hours depending on what they do. My party doesn't really need to know 'Okay, the walk to the shop took 23 minutes, you spent 14 minutes haggling and then spent 7 minutes loading the supplies onto the cart." It just seems a waste of time to me. We do the RPing and then afterwards I'll let them know it took about an hour, or however long seems reasonable. Like Jameson, I do keep careful track of the date. My bad guys have their own schedules, and if my party decides to spend a few days in town dicking around, they might very well find themselves in the middle of a development they didn't see coming since they weren't paying attention.

 

[Amheirchion]

Thanks for the replies. I might make myself a little cardboard clock to keep a quick track of time to start with, as I will probably lose myself horribly otherwise. That said, it may transpire that I manage to keep track of things anyway.

I must admit that I hadn't even thought about keeping track of the date, so thanks for bringing that up. I'll look in to it, and have a look at the calendar for The Forgotten Realms.

 

[GMMichael]

Count three things: combats, miles, and rests.

Each combat adds 10 minutes to your clock.

Each mile: depends on mode of travel.

Each rest: by PC decision. Or the ambushers'...

 

[Amheirchion]

A nice concise list, thanks. I think that, combined with a general feel of how long things things like shopping, drinking etc. take, should help me out to start with.

 

[howandwhy99]

Back to my question, how do people track time in their games, and does anyone have any good tips on how to do this? I'm not sure whether to wing it, or try and keep semi detailed notes. I know that in the campaign we're playing my knowledge of time comes down to asking if it's daylight or not.

A game module is basically a calendar map which when generated into a session scenario includes a breadth of time for players to investigate in. Just use that scenario calendar to note current time in the game (like a game piece on a map) for days, weeks, months, and so on.

For time periods within a day I like to use a dice clock. A d12 (or d24) for hours, d6 for Turns in an hour (10-minutes), and d10 for Rounds (1-minute). Other dice can be used as special cases dictate.

A nice thing about dice clocks is you can set other dice down next to it for Time-Based Effects. For example, a spell in combat may last 5 rounds. You can set a different colored 1d10 next to the clock's with the appropriate finishing round number face up.

Effects lasting in Turns and Hours are simple too. If stopped short just check how much time is remaining, like for a 1 hour torch, and note it next to the item.

As a DM though I should probably be a bit more accurate, so is it worth tallying up how long people are taking; you set out at 08.00am, an hour of travelling, 20 rounds of combat, 20 minutes kicking over the bodies, an hours rest to recover from the fight, another hour of travel and we're now at about 11.30am and you've missed the messenger you were meant to intercept.

Exactly. It's a game. The players can screw things according to their actions. Or can actually save the day. It's why it's also a good idea to track location on a map too.

How do you keep track of things? A note pad, dedicated app, cardboard clock or something else? Is it massively critical, if they travel for three days and nothing happens (or is meant to happen) then does it matter that they know what time to stop for lunch?

Unless players own (and carry around) those massive water clocks they basically don't know what time it is. The referee can only ever tell them what their characters can sense. They know the sun and moon in the sky. But maybe they've studied the stars turning at night? Have measured the lengths of shadows and have access to a sun dial. Or maybe they make their own shadow clock?

Accurate time tracking is essential to refereeing. Allow the Players to game with their ability being rewarded for at tracking time is the same as when they map or log something. Or not when they judge it's not important.