How 1:1 Downtime Pacesetting Works in this Campaign

 YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN

IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT.

Gary Gygax, 1st Edition DMG

I use a method of strict, uniform timekeeping in this campaign. It is tied to the real-world calendar. This video gives practical examples from actual player activities. I call this 1:1 Downtime Pacesetting to avoid any confusion with the idea that time is measured on a 1:1 basis IN A GAME SESSION. 

IT IS NOT.

Time will flow at whatever pace is needed during a session, and I try to avoid having any players get more than about two weeks "into the future". 

An Example

A friend asked a question on a discord conversation:

Calendar Timekeeping

When tying your campaign calendar to a real world calendar - what is preventing the players, if one of them is in time jail, from Simply goofing off or forming other downtime activities to break them out of time jail?

That is, if my Fighter is in training through next Tuesday, why can't my Cleric carouse for a few days and my MU scribe a scroll, such that our session tonight effectively begins next Wednesday? Simply pushing the calendar forward within reason?

Thoughts?

I replied as follows:

You certainly can, that is within the letter of the concept, though not within the spirit. 

If the fighter is in time jail from May 1st until 7th for training, and you have a session on the 3rd, the other characters should be doing some other downtime stuff as well all the way through the 10th. (The next session) 

So, while you could play on the 3rd, deeming it to be the 10th, you're just putting your party further ahead of the calendar synchronization. 

If you really really wanted to do that instead of play a different batch of characters on the 3rd, I would take a brief pause in the session to look up what the Patron/Faction activities were for the week of the 10th in order to be able to properly move things along for everyone else. 

That being said, because you knew this was coming up as a situation for the session on the 3rd, the players should have had other/newly-rolled characters prepared to adventure on the 3rd.

Playing a stable of characters is what breaks the paradigm of the monoParty, makes the world seem more alive and in motion, and gives players a chance to experience different kinds of characters/adventures they might not normally play.

As an example, when your dungeon-delving party is in training jail, you can use your Urban Thieves to do some cool Fafrd & Gray Mouser stuff in town.

Another Question

Have I get you correctly, on the sessions the time is not 1:1, just the flow the game need, not necessarily 1:1

My reply:

Correct, in session time is fluid and you can use it as needed. If the thief and the magic user spend 45 minutes of session time to open a lock on a chest which takes one turn of game time, or if the party is traveling for 3 days through the forest and you don't roll any encounters and they don't take any detours, you can do that in 10 minutes of session time. 

The key part is that when the session ends you look at the calendar and see what day it is in-game. Those characters from that session will not be able to play again until the real life calendar catches up to the game day calendar. 

So if you have a session on May 3rd and they travel for 5 days, do a dungeon delve, then travel home for 5 days it's now May 14th for the characters.

Everyone knows the next session is on May 10th, and the first batch of dungeon delvers will not be available, so they need to roll up a new set of characters to use for the session on the 10th. 

The really fun part comes when the characters from the 10th do an urban adventure that lasts for 3 days so they are done and home resting by the 14th. 

When May 17th rolls around and it's time for the next session, players can choose which character they want to use for that session!

Notes on Comments and further examinations of the 1:1 Pacing concept are found below the embedded video.

 Please share any comments or question below, I will be glad to elaborate further if needed.

THIS POST IS STILL UNDER DEVELOPMENT. I will be adding more examples and descriptions to illustrate the principles I am talking about.

 

Why Use 1:1 Downtime Pacing?

I advocate playing D&D as a Wargame Campaign & survival horror RPG.

It's my sincere belief that if people alter their perspective, away from the method-acting, self-insert style that is most prominent, they might discover previously unimaginable possibilities for the hobby.

It does say "medieval wargames campaigns" right on the cover...

My purpose and goal is to discern the Core Principles of the "Wargame Approach" and experiment with ways to incorporate them with other RPG systems and procedures. It's my belief that 1:1 pacing is necessary to create (i.e., provide suitable conditions to mechanically facilitate) opportunities for an expanded type of RPG. A real "old-school" RPG, with:

... different player/character groups operating in the same area.

... armies, bandit groups, and tribes of humanoids/nomads moving around the map all at the same time.

... characters performing Spy missions in downtime between sessions,

... prepping for a Heist in downtime between sessions, 

... chasing down rumors and secrets of treasure hoards.

Some RPG enthusiasts claim 1:1 Pacing is NOT necessary, because they don't do these sort of activities in their games. I think a lot of these people look at timekeeping as a function of the campaign rules, rather than the campaign becomes a function of the timekeeping rules.

For me it's not a question of, "1:1 pacing can work IF you play this one particular way", it's addressing the timekeeping from the perspective that we're using 1:1 pacing for the specific purpose of intentionally playing this one particular way.

What About the Story?

The game was indeed glommed by Theater Kids from the beginning. That's not meant to be disparaging, that's what they called themselves. Arguments about Method-acting vs Wargame Campaigns are in the earliest issues of Dragon magazine.

Played as intended, and originally approached, the players get to participate in a creative endeavor, where "The Story" is observed, not scripted. It emerges from the choices made by the players, and by their responses to random events.

Today many games do high-fantasy Heroplay much better than the older versions of D&D. They also do it better than the latest edition of D&D, which is marketed and supported as a story game. My sincere recommendation, for those gamers who prefer a more scripted, narrative (or "collaborative storytelling"-style) game is to try one of the others & see if it works better.

In fact, that is the essence of what I am doing with this campaign, testing ideas and gaming theories in an ongoing, actual-play environment. The concepts discussed in these pages are not "theory crafting". The players in the two sessions are actively involved in testing out these ideas and seeing just how far they can go!

1:1 Downtime Pacing solves many problems and creates many opportunities, that pause-time gamers might not be aware of, or accept as simply part of the game.

Before we go too much further, I recommend that you get this book (Tony Bath's Ancient Wargaming) as an additional reference manual. 

It is a valuable resource for best practices:

• for learning the basic, fundamental procedures of Mass Combat
• for Logistics and Resource Management
• for an example of how a Wargame Campaign can be played

This book is a large part of the source material for the gaming traditions Gygax used to create AD&D. In fact, he considered these principles so basic and ubiquitous, that he glossed over many of them in writing the rules. For example, principles of formations in massed combat, or the effects of morale on large units of troops.

The Hyborian Campaign session reports are a valuable example of what kind of game is possible.

CORE PRINCIPLES

Multiple Characters for each  Player

The STRUCTURE of 1:1 time ENCOURAGES the creation of multiple characters & participation in multiple groups. It offers the opportunity for characters to participate in activities between sessions such as spying, training, trading, shopping for special items, and more. These activities can devour valuable session time, and take away from the experience of other players at the table. When you move these activities out of the session, and into the time between sessions, it makes the table time more productive and rewarding.

"...each character as a faction itself" is a core principle, not a side effect, of playing D&D, or other RPGs, as a wargame campaign. There is a reason the older versions of the game have extensive rules for attracting Hirelings, Henchmen, and men at arms: because this is how a Player Character develops a Faction of their own, starting with session one!

A first-level Fighter can act as a Sergeant, commanding up to 10 men at arms. This is a massive force multiplier for small or beginning character groups. Many players view the Magic-User as a one-trick pony at low levels, bemoaning the fact that they only have one spell at first level and when it's gone the character is dead weight. Nothing could be further from the truth when the game is played as it is described in the rules! A first-level Magic-User gets their spell book for free, included as part of their character class. this would otherwise be an enormous expense. The starting MU does not need to buy weapons or armor for themselves. This means they can recruit and equip men at arms to help do their fighting for them! A couple of men with spears, swords, and bows in light armor are extremely versatile in terms of aiding the party in combat or overcoming other obstacles.

Prime Requisites and XP bonuses

Characters with high Ability Scores gain bonuses to gained experience. This bonus is 5% or 10%, which does not seem like much, and I have seen blog posts where people have done the math and determined the effect of the bonus to be negligible, based on a regular schedule of session play.

In the 1:1 Downtime Pacing, multi-player-character style of play, some PCs will be active in more game sessions than others. Some players will be more active than others as some might participate every week, while others every other week., or less

A PC with a 10% bonus who adventures twice as often as a PC without a bonus will advance quite a bit faster! A player who shows up every week, and only runs his PC out <7 days, gets to adventure (earn XP) every week. Somebody that takes longer trips in-game, and maybe only shows up to play once or twice a month or so, is going to get left way behind.

Long Trips are an Opportunity for Further Play

Some people have been asking about specifically how you handle long journeys with 1:1 Pacing, while others, well, seem to misunderstand:

Week 1: we get on the boat to far-away-land YAY!

Week 2: do we get to play this week - Nope you are on a boat that is all you do, go home.

Week 3 - 8: do we get to play this week - Nope you are still on a boat that is all you do, go home.

Week 9: you can now play your character - Oh man, I can't even remember what we were doing 2 months ago!

People can play like this, but, I personally do not want to play vs. a freezing time wall where I am forced to stop.

This is an incorrect view of the procedure, and of the Wargame Campaign mindset.

EXAMPLE: If a party embarks on a ship for a long journey, say 6 weeks, I would get them started with some encounter checks for the first week. This can be done in a short time, in-session.

then, at each successive weekly session, use 10-15 mins to check in with the players for those characters:

• Resolve encounter checks (that you notified them of prior to the next session)
• disease/illness checks,
• random maladies, etc.

If an encounter seems particularly challenging, or just interesting, the PCs may want to detour or spend a larger portion of a session on it.

In the meantime, the rest of each session is spent with the Players' other characters, doing whatever they want to do, and pursuing their own goals.