Time in ALFA - Narrative

[FoamBats4All]

We have pretty overwhelming community desire to change time at the Time in ALFA poll. However, a few people have requested that we have two discussions/polls -- one for spell durations, one for narrative time. That seems like the next logical step, so here you go.

[Xanthea]

This is a total no brainer.

[shad0wfax]

Absolutely a no-brainer.


While we do have a need to ensure that all players from all time zones are not stuck in only a night or day cycle while they play, the current time progression is by far too fast.

We could make it so that 1 hour in game = 15 minutes RL and that would be quite nice, giving us a full 24 hour in game cycle 4 times per day.

To me, this seems ideal.

1 hour in game = 12 minutes RL would give us 5 day/night cycles per day and still be a very viable alternative.


Regardless, the current time scale is, in my opinion, ludicrous.

[Xanthea]

27 RL minutes to an hour.

That gives a real day/night cycle while not shrouding one time zone in eternal darkness and it allows the time to rotate gradually so everyone gets a fair chance at having different time periods anyway.

[Castano]

currently an RP conversation can cover 2 days. pls lengthen

[Regas]

Six members so far are against the idea. I know there seems to be a strong majority asking for this to be reviewed but I'd like to hear from those not in support of making the change...

I'm betting that some of you have good reasons why you don't want to see time compression change and I really want to have a detailed look at the pros and cons.

Thanks

Reg

[Veilan]

I have not even grasped yet what "narrative" time is, so I find it hard to cast a vote.

Is that supposed to be our out of game time progression? That already progresses at 1:1; each Faerûn year spans one of our RL years.

Or are there going to be two different rates at which the server clock moves forward... while people are casting / wearing spells and why not? This seems rather impossible, but since the other time being discussed is "spell time"...

Cheers and thanks for your explanation,

[Swift]

We happily suspend disbelief to play the game, we are more than happy to do "comic book" time on weekly DM sessions so players can do other stuff during the week, but we have our panties in a twist because a RPed conversation in a tavern takes hours or days of in game time?

If players are happy to comic book time DM events, why is comic book timing on non DMed RP so difficult to accept?

It just feels to me that the mechanical reason that people always bring up (ie spell durations) had not been enough to force change so we need to try and come up with other reasons to do it.

[Xanthea]

Because comic book timing events serves a valuable purpose where being forced to ignore the time of day at all times for RP purposes does not.

[Adanu]

We happily suspend disbelief to play the game, we are more than happy to do "comic book" time on weekly DM sessions so players can do other stuff during the week, but we have our panties in a twist because a RPed conversation in a tavern takes hours or days of in game time?

If players are happy to comic book time DM events, why is comic book timing on non DMed RP so difficult to accept?

It just feels to me that the mechanical reason that people always bring up (ie spell durations) had not been enough to force change so we need to try and come up with other reasons to do it.

A bit more immersion. We do comic book time because it's a useful concept; this argument is basically along the lines of 'Why go to a LARP when you can just play tabletop cheaper?'

Because LARPs give an added sense of immersion for those who enjoy it.

[t-ice]

Slowing down time to maybe about half of what it is now I think would be somewhat for the better. Allows for some RP to happen without it taking all day (or night). Obviously the time should not be a multiple of real time, so the same RL hour doesn't correspond to always the same hour IG.

Far more important, however, would be for DMs to have a good tool on our disposal to make the day/night cycle on the server be what it should be for the event at hand (or to show the sky and sun/moonlight as the appropriate time of day/night, regardless what the server clock says). With minimal disruption to other things.

[FoamBats4All]

Or are there going to be two different rates at which the server clock moves forward... while people are casting / wearing spells and why not? This seems rather impossible, but since the other time being discussed is "spell time"...

Sorry, had assumed people would get context from the first poll, should have been clearer.

By 'narrative' time I meant the time progression in the module. E.g., making it so that 2 hours pass in a casual conversation instead of 4.

It just feels to me that the mechanical reason that people always bring up (ie spell durations) had not been enough to force change so we need to try and come up with other reasons to do it.

There's specifically two polls about this, with overwhelming support for each. And the first poll was created with both views presented. So... no?

[Ithildur]

33 to 4 in favor of the hour/lvl duration tweak, 27 to 7 in favor of slowing narrative time down... huh. 3 of the 7 are obviously PGers who care nothing about narrative cohesion!

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.

[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.

[Castano]

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?