Passage of Time

This is something I have been agonising about, and have not yet really come to a conclusion so was hoping that perhaps you guys would be able to help.

As yet we have no reliable method by which to simulate time passing - remember we have to cover 25 years of activity before PoP4, and I don't want to have to wait so long before releasing the next version of Pendor! Now we need to keep in mind advancement in time, not only so that the political spectrum changes, but also to reflect your ageing characters (I know some of you already have plans for this) but also undertaking missions that take time, for instance training your men in different ways, completing construction or concluding trades.

So... ideas?

Between the events time could pass in intervals whose length may range from weeks to years. Each order posts its orders and actions for such an interval of time, the GM's calculate the consequences and update the status quo, then there is some talk about it in the throne room (like annual meetings of the royal council) and then next interval begins and so on and on and on and....

As you can see I have began doing that.

My character is now 26 years old, so he'll be 51 when the Amala thing starts(and still be GM of the order if he doesn't die before it)

Petty please?

Mine is now 22, and will be 47 when PoP 4 Starts?

Still can be a good warrior

23 meaning he would be 48... I liked Iskar's idea, a meeting of all of us in the throne room at-least once a year.

Then what is one IC year?

A day?

probably a month?

I just hope that Blaze will last that long without getting killed/assasinated for his weakness in political field

I do not think RPG time should be in any way directly proportional to RL time. The passage of RPG time should be determined by the passage of events and the issuing of orders and calculation of their consequences.

Btw, your signature leads to severe eye diseases, SimplePlan

Iskar wrote:

I do not think RPG time should be in any way directly proportional to RL time. The passage of RPG time should be determined by the passage of events and the issuing of orders and calculation of their consequences.

Btw, your signature leads to severe eye diseases, SimplePlan

Once again i agree, as if we really set real life limits on things and with us all mainly being in different timezones some people may not be able to play or even if we set it to be a month events may just start end up being rushed in some cases of larger events. This way events proceed at just the right pace and everyone can contribute.

I like the setting orders following each major event (or mini's too?) in which we then calculate what happened. I was thinking that between 2 and 5 years should pass after each major event.

I'd say if we're covering 25 years, 3 years between each major event works well.

Perhaps it should me metioned at the beginning of each event, how much time has passed since the start of the first event?

Then we need a general overview how much time is required for different action.
E.g. a scouting mission will last three month, gaining influence in a village half a year, getting to control a castle two years, training troops even longer perhaps, etc.

This way you can give several orders for one group of knights/rangers to be carried out one after the other in the respective interval of time.

Wow. My character is in his late 30's when he starts, so he'll end looking a lot like Fredrick.

Perhaps we can add some things about the prince's personality (adventurous, courageous, like his dad etc.). and can the gm's have families and start dynasties?

@Simpleplan

Hey Buddy, seriously that's probably getting a little overboard with the Sig there, can please change that, it feels out of place overall, especially seeing all that when you RP ..

thanks,

MP

My character is somewhere around 20, so hopefully I'll be around in PoP4

My characters 30. So hell be around 55.

I'll apply for the old, grizzled adviser position in PoP4.

Sir Aranor wrote:

Perhaps we can add some things about the prince's personality (adventurous, courageous, like his dad etc.). and can the gm's have families and start dynasties?

That's the plan.

I hope our characters will be included into PoP IV as NPCs, sitting in the taverns, drinking and telling stories of auld Pendor

Anyway, in order to sum it up, the suggestion is as follows:

Between each major (and minor) event lies the time of three role play years. The GMs (or anyone else tasked with this) keep track of the passage of total time.
There are annual council meetings at the throne room during this time. After each event/throne room meeting the grandmasters can issue orders which will be carried out in the time until the next meeting (or even longer if required).

The different actions require different amounts of time units (yet to be defined, a month perhaps or half a year?) and different numbers of troops.

There are several actions whose troop requirements are proportional to the size of the respective order: (basically all actions that affect the whole order, like:) training, upgrading, roster, ...

Then there are actions with fixed troop requirements: recruitment and building

Finally some actions depend not on the number but the total strength of the troops despatched: gaining influence and fighting missions. This means that they require a certain strength which could e.g. be calculated by multiplying the number of troops with the sum of all fighting skills/armour values. If required the weighting of numbers and skills can be changed by applying e.g. the squareroot to one of the two factors before multiplying.

In general you can also send less troops on a mission than actually required, resulting in an increase of the required time in such a way that the product of troops (strength resp.) and time units remains the same. E.g.: Instead of sending 100 men for the duration of 5 TU you can also send 50 men for the duration of 10 TU.

As the years go by, when we are old, can we like appoint a heir and retire? doesnt have to be family, just anyone you want...

My character is young too, in principle there should be no problem.

But people didn't live long in the middle ages. It's highly unlikely that any or us soldiers will be alive in 20 years. Roland is the proof that even elite fighters die. The king and the lords might have protection and avoid battles, but even the most skilled grandmasters would eventually die in the field.

about the heir thing: Could we then try to get in touch with the lord of a castle or such and then persuade his daughter to like me. Just like i imagine roleplay, you can do everything you want, but you have to suffer the consequences.

sounds great =)

saerossaeros wrote:

My character is young too, in principle there should be no problem.

But people didn't live long in the middle ages. It's highly unlikely that any or us soldiers will be alive in 20 years. Roland is the proof that even elite fighters die. The king and the lords might have protection and avoid battles, but even the most skilled grandmasters would eventually die in the field.

Any statistics you see saying people only lived that long don't take into account the very real issue of child mortality. Yes, they often do infant mortality, but not very often mortality from the 5-16 range when you're still very vulnerable to disease and quite likely to die. The truth is if you made it to adulthood and didn't get the Plague, or some form of bad injury and infection, or war or whatever. You'd be able to expect to live into your 60s. Nobility potentially even to close to modern standards, not quite, but good diet and being reasonably in shape gave them a very good chance of doing so. By that same token, Royalty and the high nobility, well, they might have had lesser lifespans than many peasants and lower nobility because they ate too well and were more likely as a result to have diabetes or gout because of being overweight (and all the other issues that went with this).