Tieing RPG Session "Success" to Real World Time

[Zonware]

One thing I have thought long and hard about is how linking games to real life can bring people closer to an in game world.

People dress up as their characters, Dread creates stress with a Jenga tower, Ten Candles with... Candles. I think things happening in the "real" world not only decide things in our games, but they also link us to them.

In Discworld, an absurd pantheon of gods are high above, rolling dice to effect the characters, the Discworld inhabitants, below. They don't make all the decisions, some things are even out of their hands. They are linked, and they are having a jolly good time of it. (Shout out to crocodile god Offler)

Alright what am I on about... Right! How do we link games and our world in more ways? In Grum Hall I implemented Down-Time, where characters actions are pre-recorded and occur between game sessions. This doesn't make players want to play longer, it makes them want to play again. It also adds a thing that happens as soon as a session starts (their Down-Time activity completing) and I think that gets players into the groove even faster.

I think Roleplayers number one conversation topic is "our schedules never line up / we haven't played in a while." So what if we flirted with the idea of schedules themselves affecting the game?

My two thoughts are;

• Time between games, affects the game.

• If a session ends, an adventure / Job fails, or complicates.

For both of these, can we use the very downsides of the game, to link the players to the game in a way that draws them to it, or makes their lives feel linked to the game.

For the first, perhaps each week that is cancelled, a Game master can push the world on. The player characters have been absent, and time stalls for no one. What did their neglect cause in their game world? This doesnt have to be drastic. Small things, alliances made, characters in need, things breaking. Stories that happened without them.

Second, having sessions that are linked to in game time can be interesting. Perhaps not every game night, but for time sensitive missions. I'm not saying to bring out a timer, no one likes a timer. If the characters don't finish the Job, find the bad guy, fix the machine.... if the players go home because its 11pm, what if the characters failed? They return to the Bar, time moves on.

Frankly, I don't think anyone likes coming back to a game after two months, and trying to pickup where we left off in the middle of some chaotic mission. So what if we didn't?

[Elledritch]

Thoughts: I don't disagree with the idea that there should be something to support a hiatus in play, but I think I disagree with making real-life affect the success of play!

Down-Time, where characters actions are pre-recorded and occur between game sessions.

So: let's talk about Triangle Agency.

TA has actual downtime/in-between session things for the GM to do as well as the players/characters, and those scenes actually do show up at the beginning of each mission. Remember the bits where you've gotten your missions delivered to your places of work, or had your character's outside lives come into play? The game is set up to encourage you to remember those ties, and encourages the GM to have those circumstances change as the characters make decisions in the game. It's a pretty cool setup, and is mechanically bookended by the tracks in the character's REALITY aspect.

If a session ends, an adventure / Job fails, or complicates.

In TA, minor spoiler, but if you fuck up a mission, the GM can actually send you through the exact same mission again - with some differences, but I do think a system that allows for fixing mistakes would allow it to feel less punitive to have an in-game failure based on adults having scheduling issues.

___

I do think that having some kind of consensus at the table around 'how do we deal with long hiatuses between sessions' is a good thing, as well as having a conversation about what you do if people can't make it to the table for a session - what happens to their characters, what counts as a quorum, do you have an alternative game to play if people can't make it.

A caveat about my opinions and thoughts here - everything I am talking about assumes that a group has a good notetaker. If you don't have someone consistently keeping track of what's going on for the characters in game, I do think the best thing for longer breaks would be to start a fresh mission/adventure/job and have the characters suffer the consequences of the failure - maybe more gently than an actual in-game muckup, but yeah.

But! Overall, unless the game is explicitly the kind that is built for you to fail (Bluebeard's Bride, Blades in the Dark, etc), players want to succeed! And I don't know if having a setup that penalizes characters/story for things that just happen in real life (scheduling, getting sick, work travel, whoops this session took longer than we thought and it's a two-parter) is the best response.

My suggestions would be:
First, a game could have some charts or options for 'resolutions when there wasn't a resolution'. It gives the system a way to be narratively consistent (a TPK makes sense in DH, where the hotel can bring you back; in D&D it's a bit more of an issue!) and takes some of the mental load off the GM by offering suggestions. I'm envisioning things like 'another team cleared the nest before you got there, so when you arrived it was already done', 'your rivals got there first and helped out', 'the situation was way worse so you have to regroup' - things that would provide additional storytelling potential without needing a lot of lift so the GM/players can get right back into a fresh session.

Second, the GM asks, "What do you guys think happened, given XYZ that we didn't get to play?" This would make more sense, I think, with an arc that was nearing an end and just didn't have its final few scenes, where most of the information and play was already set, and it was down to just a few choices.

Third, drastic, but the group has a conversation about timing, scheduling, and considers whether their lives allow for a game consistent enough to satisfy everyone's calendar. Even just a check-in of 'are we still interested in this particular game' can do a lot to refresh people's focus!

I'm lucky that I have players I trust and good documancers, which helps how I can frame approaching this - but overall, I'd say I lean towards erring on the side of not penalizing characters for things out of their players' control.

[moxshpox]

i once played in a west marches style game that took place in approximately real time. at the end of every session we had to travel back to an area of safety. this led to most of the sessions being following a structure of -> walking to where we were last we left off -> trying to find something new -> walking back. we did end up discovering some cool things and the need to return made any opportunities we found to improve infrastructure feel meaningful (we at one point made a bridge as an alternate crossing for a river to save time). betwixt sessions our characters would have 2 weeks of rest in which we could do downtime activities for character advancement. the downtime activities weren't handled the best which contributed the gm eventual getting burned out, but they were really engaging from a player perspective so i think the idea has potential. "
idk if anything i've said has much value but it exists anyways so *shrugs*
~ moxshpox

[Zonware]

Ooooh fantastic ideas all around.

First, a game could have some charts or options for 'resolutions when there wasn't a resolution'.

Elle I think this is like, exactly what I was getting at!! I don't think we should penalize people for schedule conflicts or anything, those are GOING to happen, we all know that. I guess maybe more like encouraging coming back? Maybe the view should be more "How do I benefit players on coming back to the table with a very small clear -thing-'.

In Dead Halt, more Jobs are benefits, the more you play the better you get. But, everyone likes a fun little bonus RIGHT at the beginning of session when they sit down.... Maybe its something silly? Give 'em a gold star for sitting down at the table! (Metaphorically)

Also Moxsshpox,

the need to return made any opportunities we found to improve infrastructure feel meaningful (we at one point made a bridge as an alternate crossing for a river to save time).

This is super interesting to me... I completely understand how this sort of stuff and downtime activities could put lots of stress on the GM, which I think is what I'm looking for here. Ways to bonus the players, continue the world, AND make the GM's job easier. There are LOTS of games that go "hey, continue the world outside of the player characters" but this is a MASSIVE ask, despite seeming small. Mechanics are what make these things easier. Roll tables, charts as Elle said, things that a GM could look at and go, "oh, neat sure!" for whats happening between games, or in the world.

I think Downtime in Grum Hall was exactly this purpose, it does a similar thing but puts the action on the players, gives them a thing to do "outside" of game time and make the game feel like its continuing while not at the table.

As for your westmarches game, I have always been drawn to that game style, but it is a big undertaking as well. Dead Halt, at it's core, is essentially a Westmarches game (although vertical!). The 'going and returning' can be super interesting and I love the idea of your characters improving your environment like this bridge example. Now thats world building!