The flow of time

[UncleBourbon]

From what I've seen, there seems and aversion to an overall time-schedule with goals planted firmly in some calandar. Additionally, I don't know that the IE is suited well for day/night living world sort of NPC schedules - or that even if it does, that it would be best suited for PE. I'll leave that discussion to the appropriate thread. But what I would like to see discussed is how people feel about fixed time-like trigger (think some games where you drop something off at a smithy, and he says come back later, and that "later" is whenever you get around to doing a couple of tasks) or simple chapter like time skips.

 

I think it is fair to say both have been implemented in the past with debatable results, in various forms of media. That said, do we want there to come a point in the story, where realistically, the next major story event wouldn't follow soon, and so we have a chance to finish things, then trigger a "x months later" transition? I've been fond of the sort of immediate, significant changes to the world in some cases. Catching up with companions again, seeing if they new shipment arrived at the weapon shop, that sort of thing.

 

In pen and paper, I've had some DMs who insisted on this, usually after four sessions he'd say "okay, so there are like three or five months you guys have, what're you doing?" and some characters went to work crafting, others hunting clues about their antagonist or becoming a regular down at the pub. But that sort of freedom can be tricky in some games. If it is implemented, I'd like to see a text box with a list of plausible options to pass the time, drawn from both actions in the game and character traits/class/race etc, with results - at least personal gains/rewards - being appropriate.

 

As a plot tool, I think time-skips can really help some adventures make more sense, but in terms of gameplay it can be frustrating, depending on implementation. I wouldn't like to see any "Oh well, too bad, your family went and got killed, no matter what" while time passes, unless it is somehow plausible.

[Haerski]

That system works in strictly linear games where developers know approximately how long it going to take from player to reach certain goals, but the more open ended the game becomes the less that system starts to make sense. Some days would take 4 hours and others 30 minutes. Time skips in other hand are never ok from role-playing perspective: Nothing breaks immersion better than taking control away from player. "Month passes and nothing happens..." for me that's just lazy writing. What's the point of having your character spent five months crafting, hunting clues or drinking in pub if you are not part of it? That sounds like cheating to me. "You crafted for five months. Here are your 10,000 iron swords." :D

 

If you want to craft go craft, if you want to hunt clues go hunt clues, if you want to drink go drink. That's what role-playing means to me.

Edited October 20, 2012 by Haerski

[UncleBourbon]

That system works in strictly linear games where developers know approximately how long it going to take from player to reach certain goals, but the more open ended the game becomes the less that system starts to make sense. Some days would take 4 hours and others 30 minutes. Time skips in other hand are never ok from role-playing perspective: Nothing breaks immersion better than taking control away from player. "Month passes and nothing happens..." for me that's just lazy writing. What's the point of having your character spent five months crafting, hunting clues or drinking in pub if you are not part of it? That sounds like cheating to me. "You crafted for five months. Here are your 10,000 iron swords." :D

 

If you want to craft go craft, if you want to hunt clues go hunt clues, if you want to drink go drink. That's what role-playing means to me.

 

Well, in the case I was talking about, we did, and I think they could do something like it. Basically, the DM we had would have something come up every month or so, and a session would be out of question - so each member would meet with him when we could, and talk through what exactly was happening. One of the best results of this was one guy going to join a church, and it turning out the priest was a follower of a dark god, and killed him (through a standard combat encounter between the two). He remained quiet at our next session, and we stumbled onto his reanimated corpse - good times.

 

What I would suggest, though, which would be a burden on the developers, would be a few prepared sort of sequences (I'm thinking like some of the NWN mini-modules with a single encounter at a pub, with a few solutions) like one in a pub, one in the player home, or one in town or something. The thing would be, on either end of this sequence, your character is out of your control for some period of time, letting events in the world happen, and then a sequence where "one day you're at the pub and ..." or "you're resting from the chaotic, recent events in your home when X knocks on your door," and you act/respond, but then more time passes. Basically, the classic time-skip broken up a bit by a singular activity.

 

A couple of reasons I would think this is a good idea is that the world shouldn't revolve completely around the player character - there should be a chance for things like uprisings, political movements, assaniations and large-scale events to occur (catalytic to the main plot or not) or occur, or even small scale ones like the local shop-keep passing away, and his irking, letcherous brother taking over. The second is that it gives the main plout a sort of pacing - I've played a good few RPGs and often I'm trouble saying "in character, that was what, 4-6 months? Is that really likely? Could a character go from village orphan to hero of Neverwinter?" Or taking care of potential plot inconsistancies regarding the raising of many foes, or gathering of forces. Heck, even long, drawn out rituals wouldn't need to be displayed as purely coincidental with the PC's arrival.

 

Haerski does bring up some good points, though, in that it lessens the player's, and his/her character's personalisation, as it would mean there are "canon" portions of the character, dictated and limited by the developer's creativity.

Edited October 20, 2012 by UncleBourbon