Heya, I'm trying to figure out a relatively simple way to know when a spell of longer duration (10 minutes, 60 minutes, 4 hours, 8 hours, etc) when the players are exploring, i.e. not in rounds. Players will sometimes want the DM to tell them when their spell expires so they can cast it again ("I want to keep Detect Magic running all the time.")
I think it depends on the time scale. Basically you have "fast forward time" during traveling, "real time" during exploration / social encounters and "slow time" during structured encounters (e.g. combat).
In combat it's quite easy: if the spell lasts more than a minute " ignore it, it's always on since most combats end after three to four rounds. Otherwise track it with one round being six seconds.
During social encounters you can assume real time if you RP them in-character. Otherwise see below.
For exploration encounters or social encounters where you just roll dice to determine something, you can use a system the "AngryDM" posted on his blog a while back. Basically you are using "combat rounds" but with longer times and no initiative. You ask all players what they want to do at the moment ("search for traps", "break open the door", "sharpen my sword", "eating my third breakfast"), then you do skill checks etc as required, tell everyone the result and ten minutes passed.
During travel you can assume that spells that last for 8 hours or more basically last the entire adventuring day.
If they last less, you will have to eyeball it a bit. If the spell could still be active when the group reaches an event, give the player the benefit of the doubt and say "it's still active", maybe adding "but it will wear off in a few minutes" if it's stretching the duration. That could be something like "Disguise Self" which lasts iirc an hour and has to be casted beforehand to be effective.
If there's no way the spell could still be active (e.g. lasts one hour and you just narrated "you spend 5 hours on the road") it should obviously not be active anymore. :-)
Heya, I'm trying to figure out a relatively simple way to know when a spell of longer duration (10 minutes, 60 minutes, 4 hours, 8 hours, etc) when the players are exploring, i.e. not in rounds. Players will sometimes want the DM to tell them when their spell expires so they can cast it again ("I want to keep Detect Magic running all the time.")
Any handy tips?
Thanks.
I think it depends on the time scale. Basically you have "fast forward time" during traveling, "real time" during exploration / social encounters and "slow time" during structured encounters (e.g. combat).
In combat it's quite easy: if the spell lasts more than a minute " ignore it, it's always on since most combats end after three to four rounds. Otherwise track it with one round being six seconds.
During social encounters you can assume real time if you RP them in-character. Otherwise see below.
For exploration encounters or social encounters where you just roll dice to determine something, you can use a system the "AngryDM" posted on his blog a while back. Basically you are using "combat rounds" but with longer times and no initiative. You ask all players what they want to do at the moment ("search for traps", "break open the door", "sharpen my sword", "eating my third breakfast"), then you do skill checks etc as required, tell everyone the result and ten minutes passed.
During travel you can assume that spells that last for 8 hours or more basically last the entire adventuring day.
If they last less, you will have to eyeball it a bit. If the spell could still be active when the group reaches an event, give the player the benefit of the doubt and say "it's still active", maybe adding "but it will wear off in a few minutes" if it's stretching the duration. That could be something like "Disguise Self" which lasts iirc an hour and has to be casted beforehand to be effective.
If there's no way the spell could still be active (e.g. lasts one hour and you just narrated "you spend 5 hours on the road") it should obviously not be active anymore. :-)
I prefer to think of spells this way:
Rounds
Combat (Minute)
Puzzle Room Encounter/ exploration (10 minutes)
Section/Area - without a rest (1 hour)
Days
I use https://www.dmsguild.com/product/253286/Time-Tracker. It's based on the AngryGM's Time/Tension Pool.