Time and Aging

[Blue]

This is one of those things that comes up when you first start a campaign, and I thought I'd see what most people do as far as the passing of time in a campaign. While I was at it I thought I'd add a poll (just because).

[Hermit]

I went with Surreal.
I try to keep up with the seasons, I gauge by major holidays for example, but other than that... I don't much worry if this is Tuesday, or why Saturday came so quickly if I just happened to need a weekend for the story.

[misterdeath]

Usually my games are set a couple of years in the past so it's not as much of an issue, but yeah, time is pretty darn flexible.

D

[Acroyear II]

Um, you didn't put a spot on the poll for those of us who use the passage as time normally. For example: my campaign was started in 1983 (not real world time) and has advanced 4-1/2 game years to 1988 in the last nine years of real time. Time is treated as a real factor, with characters aging, spending time in jail, children growing up, etc. We find this an accurate (if not slow) way to show the passage of time. During a real year possibly only about 4 months of game time will pass.

Does anyone else out there do this kind of time passage in their campaign?

Acroyear II

[keithcurtis]

Somewhere in between the last two. We duplicated comic book time. Years of play time pass, it is always the present, but no one ever ages.

Keith "Who wants to read about an 85 year old Superman?" Curtis

[Yogzilla]

I try to depict the passage of time as realistic, but with all the time travel, extra-dimensional travel, relativistic space travel, and alternate timeline "reboots" - - I think I'd have to go with surreal...

Sigh; well, I did tell the PCs I wanted a cosmicly-powered campaign - - they're just giving me what I wanted. :)

-Yogzilla

[zornwil]

Originally posted by Acroyear II
Um, you didn't put a spot on the poll for those of us who use the passage as time normally. For example: my campaign was started in 1983 (not real world time) and has advanced 4-1/2 game years to 1988 in the last nine years of real time. Time is treated as a real factor, with characters aging, spending time in jail, children growing up, etc. We find this an accurate (if not slow) way to show the passage of time. During a real year possibly only about 4 months of game time will pass.

Does anyone else out there do this kind of time passage in their campaign?

Acroyear II

Yeah, this is how I have been doing it as well. I didn't know how to answer this poll either.

[Thirdbase]

Originally posted by Acroyear II
Um, you didn't put a spot on the poll for those of us who use the passage as time normally. For example: my campaign was started in 1983 (not real world time) and has advanced 4-1/2 game years to 1988 in the last nine years of real time. Time is treated as a real factor, with characters aging, spending time in jail, children growing up, etc. We find this an accurate (if not slow) way to show the passage of time. During a real year possibly only about 4 months of game time will pass.

Does anyone else out there do this kind of time passage in their campaign?

Acroyear II

Yes the group I am with does it this way, which was interesting because at one time we had 4 campaigns going on on 4 different dates in 4 different years. We occasionally do a "time jump" in a campaign to bbring it up to now. This also allows female characters to have kids etc without having to deal with heroing while pregnant.

[Edsel]

I voted surreal. The longest run campaign that I have is my Omega Team campaign (Dark Champions vigilante). I keep a very detailed log/diary of that campaign. When it started I used actual dates and started the campaign on the same day that it was in the real world. Over time the campaign began to fall further and further behind the actual real world date. I eventually started keepinig track of the date using the G.Y. date. The campaign is currently in G.Y. 3 (meaning third year of the campaign). I can keep track of time this way and I can interject real world events as I feel inclined without worrying about a discrepancy between dates.