Tracking time

[drsoggy]

I’ looking for advice from some seasoned GMa. I read the guide for running old school games. I found it very helpful and it talks about the importance of tracking time for resource depletion. What’s the easiest way to track time in the game?

[nemolomen]

We've had two sessions now and I've used the following 2 forms, designed in LibreOffice, for both sessions.

1st form: Turn Tracker - this form contains square boxes for each turn which are grouped into 1 hour, 4 hour, 12 hour and 1 day increments. The sheet (single sided) covers 5 days worth of boxes, which in our campaign is 1 week.

I can use it to easily mark off one or more turns, hours or days at a time. I also use the boxes to indicate when things will happen in the future, like torches burning out in 1d4+4 turns or something the players/monsters/scenario set(s) in motion.

The 2nd form: Round Tracker - I use this form to keep track of initiative during rounds in an encounter by marking the number for each character on the appropriate initiative line on the form. The monsters get an "m" on the form. Then I just run through the column for the current round from highest to lowest initiative value.

The numbers for each player are taken from the adventure record form on either the download or the showcase page.

I can add the forms to this message if anyone would like them.

[drsoggy]

Please add the forms. It would be helpful. Thanks!

[nemolomen]

Here are the forms. There are NO macros in these files.

The forms should be considered "works in progress", especially the Round Tracker (no negative initiative, probably can be broken up in to more encounters per page, possibly other issues). I hope you find them useful.

Oh, and the form I use for player numbers on the Round Tracker is the "BFRPG Adventure Log by Scott Abraham" on the Downloads page.

[nemolomen]

Here are examples of how I've used these forms.