Perhaps a thread about the ways time is handled in different campaigns could
become interesting ...
In our campaign the player characters are colonists on a remote and slightly
hostile desert world.
Most of the year they work in their professions. Agroengineers raise animals
and grow crops, engineers design and construct new facilities, scientists work
on their research projects, and so on.
Since the characters are members of the colony's elected council, they have
to make more or less important decisions now and then, for example how to
spend the colony's meagre finances, what kind of facilities to build next, or
how to structure the education of the colony's children (= determine the pla-
net's available background skills).
Up to three times each game time year there is an "axis event", something im-
portant enough to play it out as an adventure, for example an unexpected vi-
sit by an unknown alien species, a murder case in the colony, or whatever is
interesting enough to turn it into an adventure.
In order to handle the "off time", we continue the four year terms of the cha-
racter generation throughout the campaign.
At the beginning of each term, the GM (secretly) rolls for the events that will
"hit" a character during those four years, and then introduces these events
into the game wherever they seem to fit well.
Characters can use the "off time" for skill training, but only if the player comes
up with a good explanation of how the character is doing it - for example, if
he describes a scientist character's research project.
The basic idea is similar to AD&D's Birthright campaign, or to the way the life
of a noble is played in Pendragon, a bit of a mix of a "traditional" roleplaying
campaign and a low level simulation of the development of the colony, inclu-
ding the option to play different generations of the same colonist family.
become interesting ...
In our campaign the player characters are colonists on a remote and slightly
hostile desert world.
Most of the year they work in their professions. Agroengineers raise animals
and grow crops, engineers design and construct new facilities, scientists work
on their research projects, and so on.
Since the characters are members of the colony's elected council, they have
to make more or less important decisions now and then, for example how to
spend the colony's meagre finances, what kind of facilities to build next, or
how to structure the education of the colony's children (= determine the pla-
net's available background skills).
Up to three times each game time year there is an "axis event", something im-
portant enough to play it out as an adventure, for example an unexpected vi-
sit by an unknown alien species, a murder case in the colony, or whatever is
interesting enough to turn it into an adventure.
In order to handle the "off time", we continue the four year terms of the cha-
racter generation throughout the campaign.
At the beginning of each term, the GM (secretly) rolls for the events that will
"hit" a character during those four years, and then introduces these events
into the game wherever they seem to fit well.
Characters can use the "off time" for skill training, but only if the player comes
up with a good explanation of how the character is doing it - for example, if
he describes a scientist character's research project.
The basic idea is similar to AD&D's Birthright campaign, or to the way the life
of a noble is played in Pendragon, a bit of a mix of a "traditional" roleplaying
campaign and a low level simulation of the development of the colony, inclu-
ding the option to play different generations of the same colonist family.
