On Timekeeping in the Flooded Realms

Contention is the spice of life

For my current ACKS campaign, I am employing these time keeping rules:
1. I keep strict records of in game time.
2. When no play is happening, 1 day in real life is 1 day in game
3. When play is happening time passes as it does in the session

So far so good, it’s just 1:1 time. But there is more
4. Players may pause their play in dungeons or places of danger. However, they may not pick that group up again the next session UNLESS all players of that session are present. If they are not all present, the remaining players must play different characters. This only applies for characters currently on an adventure. Some leeway is given for hostage taking or unusualy circumstances. A character will get downgraded to henchmen status in those cases.
5. Players may get up to around a month ahead of the real world date (this is subject to change in the future as more methods of overland travel is unlocked).
6. Characters who lag behind may catch up to the date by returning to town and paying basic living expenses times the number of weeks to the date.
7. Adventures may be back dated in certain circumstances, so long as they wouldn’t change established events.
8. Possible paradoxes are adjudicated on a case by case basis. But in general, the earliest real world date takes precedence.

I use these rules primarily because I have a relatively small group of players that meet in person regularly. I have a larger online pool that meet semi-regularly. Using this time set-up allows dedicated players who are invested in a set of characters get further ahead and continue playing that party, while not punishing those who want a more open table experience. If someone show up and wants to join it isn’t hard, but they might lose their character if they have a pattern of stranding parties they join. So far that hasn’t been necessary. These rules allow me to synchronize multiple groups of player characters without undue restriction on where they are allowed to go and how long they can stay there.

Anyway, that’s all for now
Sail On!