Character Activity and Calendar Timeline

Let me start off by saying that I have been really excited about the success of the campaign. It appears that both DMs and players are having a lot of fun and that is the primary objective of this campaign. With that being said, understand that I would not want to implement any rules that would deter from a great gaming experience.  There have been a few issues with timeline and character activity and the purpose of this thread is to introduce solutions. Before going on, I will explain why it is necessary to address continuity issues. Some characters currently involved in ongoing adventures have been leveling up or inheriting items from other adventures. This can create difficulties for DMs that have spent time to create balance in their adventures. While DMs should expect to do some scaling to accommodate the pool of available PCs, it has also caused some disruption to the story line. The original idea was to run one-shots that would prevent having these issues, however I am sure that you would all agree that we do not want to abolish the experience of playing in ongoing adventures either.  There have also been instances of PCs seeming to time-warp back and forth in time which also creates an undesirable history of our heroes and how they are shaping the world around them.  I cannot emphasize enough that we want players to continue to show up and play at their leisure and again... HAVE FUN. It is for this reason I have created some simple resolve that will enhance the experience for both players and DMs. Here are some simple guidelines to follow by when joining games: 1. A PC cannot participate in an event that takes him/her back in time.  2. A PC cannot participate in more than one event on any given calendar date. To keep things simple, we are including the game calendar dates in the  Game Log . We are leaving it up to the players to check your PC's history before using it in a session. I dare not add more accounting to the DMs lest I suffer their wrath which could come with every monster in the manual. I recommend that every player have at least 2 PCs available; more if you are a very active player. Having a separate PC for each ongoing adventure you are involved in will ensure that you have a PC available in that timeline and make things easier on your DM. Thanks everyone! P.S. I have updated most of the journal entry dates to create continuity. All of the previous issues have been fixed. Some of the entry dates in the journal may still need to be changed to match the Experience Log. 

UPDATE: I just realized that the Experience Log is not editable to others without me upgrading the account. That explains why no one else has updated it yet. lol  I am going to look for a different online program to use. I will update it when I can.

Hi there this is Michael and I have a request in this matter. Could the GMs in charge of certain campaigns list the starting date of their session in game. I get confused with my two characters and their downtime activities. I don't know if that will help out a little and that makes the players know if their character might be able to join or not.

Michael S. said: Hi there this is Michael and I have a request in this matter. Could the GMs in charge of certain campaigns list the starting date of their session in game. I get confused with my two characters and their downtime activities. I don't know if that will help out a little and that makes the players know if their character might be able to join or not. Good suggestion. I added an entry on the DM Schedule and Sessions TBA forum for putting the game calendar dates that will be involved. 

Mark, <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/" rel="nofollow">https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/</a> you can have different links, DM with write access, and player with read only.

I can create one, in fact I would love the oportunity because I am taking ia spreadsheets class and would like some practice, if you wouldn't mind telling me exactly what you want on there I can have one up in a couple days? it could be VERY useful to decide who is available or not.

Arenlor said: Mark, <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/" rel="nofollow">https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/</a> you can have different links, DM with write access, and player with read only. Thanks Arenlor! I haven't had time to look into this. Meanwhile more games are filling the timeline.

JJ B. said: I can create one, in fact I would love the oportunity because I am taking ia spreadsheets class and would like some practice, if you wouldn't mind telling me exactly what you want on there I can have one up in a couple days? it could be VERY useful to decide who is available or not. This would be awesome as I was not sure when I would have the time to get this set up. What we need should be pretty basic but certainly should get you some practice with spreadsheets. Here is basically what the sheet needs to do: Adds each column to display each PCs total experience. Allow read-only access to players so they can see how much experience they have earned with each character and see what FR Calendar dates that their characters have been active. Allow editable/write access to DMs only so they can add columns for new PCs, rows for new sessions, and move the columns to keep character names in alphabetical order.&nbsp; The Experience Log link in the OP gives a great example of how it should look. You can also transfer the information that you see in that sheet to the new sheet if you have the time. Your offer to set this up is HIGHLY appreciated. It may have taken me until next week some time to get it going. Of course by then there would be a lot of games that DMs would not have been able to record.&nbsp; You can PM me with the editable/write link and I will place it in a GM visible handout.

Link to the new&nbsp; Log Sheet .&nbsp; DMs need to provide JJ B. with your gmail so you can edit and update the log.

The logs are pretty much ready, just need to add the data and any more features you guys request I can impliment later on, DMs pm me your gmail acount username and I will give you edit permissions. Thanks for the opportunity, I hope this helps, and tell me all suggestions/requests.

JJ B. said: The logs are pretty much ready, just need to add the data and any more features you guys request I can impliment later on, DMs pm me your gmail acount username and I will give you edit permissions. Thanks for the opportunity, I hope this helps, and tell me all suggestions/requests. This is awesome. Thanks so much for doing this. I spent a bit of time updating information and tweaking some of the formatting. All we need now is for the last 2-3 sessions to get added and we are all set.

Really excited about the new worksheet. During its creation I discovered that it is really useful for tracking character downtime. Players can now check the Downtime Log tab on the bottom of the sheet to see the the total downtime that they have earned. If anyone is interested in spending any of their downtime, feel free to PM me or another DM.

Just updated the new log. JJ did a pretty good job. Thanks for the work and saving us some time.&nbsp;

I just made a new character Alyvin Garrik, wizard, would someone check him off for me. He's deep gnome. I was trying to add the spells that go with his race but the sheet keeps putting them under level two and 3 instead of catrip and level 1. Which means it will probably mess up my spell slots when I use them. 🙄 If someone could check it for me that would be great.

What you where trying to do was add a feat to your character. you will not be able to do that until level 4 so i removed it from your sheet until then.

Ah got it. Thanks

I have been getting some PMs about the Downtime Log lately.&nbsp; There have been multiple cases of the same date appearing more than once on the table. This should not be happening and is causing a lot of confusion. Many of the entries on time spans are also incorrect and there are new characters not being added or added out of alphabetical order.&nbsp; DMs, please take care to update the log for the players.&nbsp; If you need some help on this, please ask.

Transferred data from duplicate entry for Draggs and deleted the duplicate.

I am unsure whether Archaeus can attend the Cirque de la lune campaign and the Guide to Kobolds one shot? The dates are not there last I checked.

Guide to Kobolds is not a oneshot, my friend. Expect to have to put up with me for 3-4 sessions.

ahh lol ok

Do PCs get downtime at the end of each session or when they complete the adventure? Also how do I calculate the amount of downtime I need to give?

Neither, they earn downtime when they are not involved in a game but the timeline in our group keeps adding days to the timeline from other games being played. Think of it as a second exp track that you earn exp for doing nothing. You then get to spend those down time days between games if you have enough.&nbsp;

so if a game takes place one month later in game everyone gets 30 downtime days?

Yes

so Hoard of the dragon occured on Hammer 5 which is 7 days after the last recorded date so ALL characters get one week of downtime?

Every character should have a running total of their downtime on the experience log , if GMs are updating as they should.&nbsp; (That's now the third time this log has been referenced in this thread, btw).

The problem is as a new GM I have no clue as to the downtime to put in.

Here are the basics... A PC never earns downtime until after its first session. That session should be the first X in that PCs column. You put an X whenever a PC was busy on an adventure. Each time you run an adventure, you put an X for each PC that was busy adventuring during that time. This could be any number of days depending on your adventure. The time periods between the Xs shows the amount of time that the PC was not adventuring. Each day is a one point of downtime. This represents what PCs are working on between adventures. If you look at the Downtime Log sheet, you will see this represented.

Btw... since yours is in the future, all you have to do is put an X for each PC that was busy with your adventure that day. The rest of us DMs will put the downtime in when we get to that time period.

FYI: You entered Hammer 5. That is one day. So you would typically enter a 1 in the box for every PC not in your group. They will have earned 1 downtime that day unless they adventure at that time in which case, their DM will change the 1 to an X.

oh thanks

Merging this thread with Character Creation, Advancement, and Inactivity and closing this thread.