Time in ALFA - Narrative

[I-KP]

I kid, but seriously I'd want to ask the 7 people why (please don't say 'because we don't want to log in and find it's midnight every time') they prefer time being as fast as it is currently.

FUD, I'd wager. Nothing wrong with being uncertain, but the only way to assuage such doubts is to air them and subject them to scrutiny.

Because the prophets brought our current time rules down from Sinai. Until the messiah comes there shall be no changes. Got it?

Got it.

[Ithildur]

[Wild Wombat]

I haven't been back enough to really have a strong opinion one way or another. Nor have I voted, since I really don't know how I feel.

However, having had my first level PC told (like I needed to be told) by a kindly monk in the BG post office: "The roads best not traveled at night. For morning you should wait." I piddled around in BG city for an hour RL waiting for daybreak. Yes, I didn't mind since a) I had the time and b) both my PC and I really needed to explore the city. However, it strikes me that slowing the passage of time would have made that an even longer wait.

So, this just has me wondering if doing this would make it even harder to be the player of low level PC? Note: I am asking that as a question. I realize that this is a two sided coin: if we do slow down the passage of time, then once a day starts it gives the lowbies much more RL time to get from safe place A to safe place B.

So, as you see, I really don't have an opinion. Just a random thought.

(OK, the monk really didn't talk like Yoda, I made that part up. But Galadorn, I think your RP of Bu would be enhanced if he talked like Yoda. )

[Galadorn]

(OK, the monk really didn't talk like Yoda, I made that part up. But Galadorn, I think your RP of Bu would be enhanced if he talked like Yoda. )

heeheeee you said monk. Cool.

[kid]

Ooc I'm not entirely sure there an actual diferance in the safety of the roads on bg between night and day. But it's a good question and if we do choose longer time comp it should be looked at.

[Galadorn]

From experience on more than One server in fact, area danger is not the same at night or day. And it was not about the roads... I think roads stay "safe" day and night.

Bu's warning was assuming whoever uses a road will eventually... Go off it

I didn't expect him to use a road... To get to another road...and then maybe come back...

[Zelknolf]

Ooc I'm not entirely sure there an actual diferance in the safety of the roads on bg between night and day. But it's a good question and if we do choose longer time comp it should be looked at.

Depends on the road.

The road connecting the Trade Way to The Silver Spires is more dangerous at night (Spires <-> Candlekeep is timid at all hours), and the road connecting Beregost to Gullykin is more dangerous at night-- though those roads are also dangerous during the day: just not as much so, because the stuff with light sensitivity doesn't spawn during the day. If you're a level 1 staring wide-eyed at the server, the premium advice is that those roads "are dangerous" instead of "are dangerous at night."

[t-ice]

From experience on more than One server in fact, area danger is not the same at night or day. And it was not about the roads... I think roads stay "safe" day and night.

the premium advice is that those roads "are dangerous" instead of "are dangerous at night.

And as we are talking about narrative time, it all doesn't make narrative sense. Because travel between any two population centers ICly should take more than 24 hours anyway. Prime example where IG reality actually hampers narrative IC time, adding to the false conception that travel on BGs roads happens as the game and module states.

[Swift]

Nobody role plays travel time properly anyway because it makes no sense.

Eg PC A is involved in a DM event that occurs in and around the city of Baldurs Gate. The DM states the event took 1 night.
PC B is not involved in the event, so does a mail run to nashkel, a journey of a couple of weeks or so.

Both PCs meet up and discuss what they did. They fudge time because it is essentially meaningless for RP purposes outside of DM events.

We tell players in the handbook (iirc) to try and avoid referring to specific time frames and to be vague as it is. From a narrative stand point, the time compression could be 30:1, 7:1, 1:1 or 0.1:1 and it would make little difference. If a DM says it took 1 night then that's what it took. If you do a static, it took a vague amount of time.

[Magile]

Nobody role plays travel time properly anyway because it makes no sense.

Eg PC A is involved in a DM event that occurs in and around the city of Baldurs Gate. The DM states the event took 1 night.
PC B is not involved in the event, so does a mail run to nashkel, a journey of a couple of weeks or so.

Both PCs meet up and discuss what they did. They fudge time because it is essentially meaningless for RP purposes outside of DM events.

We tell players in the handbook (iirc) to try and avoid referring to specific time frames and to be vague as it is. From a narrative stand point, the time compression could be 30:1, 7:1, 1:1 or 0.1:1 and it would make little difference. If a DM says it took 1 night then that's what it took. If you do a static, it took a vague amount of time.

I agree with Swift; however, that does not mean time compression shouldn't change. I do not like how a small chat with a PC on the road can lead from midnight into morning and we have to shrug it off and ignore it. I also do not like how a priest could never properly show devotion at a specific hour, because they would end up doing it so damn often that it becomes silly (and yes, I tried this with Louen Therin a long time ago, and having to go see to his 'matins' which felt like every hour, even though it wasn't, was very annoying and RP disruptive when it should never be the case).

I play a character right now who has spellcasting abilities. At this point, I don't care if the spells don't get changed to match the hours -- but I do care about time compression for the above reasons. Not everyone gets a DM (some of us few and far between, others not at all), so we'd like some semblance of the hour of day not flying by.