The Culture: Showing The Value Of Timekeeping By Doing It

In light of the pants-on-head retarded anklebiting going on, I offer last night's livestream from Jon Mollison.

Do take note of the length of time spent on 1:1 Time and its value.

Look at what proper timekeeping does:

• Regular upkeep costs actually have teeth and thus achieve their effects.
• Aging means something because time passing has its effects.
• NPCs move around, replenish numbers, etc. as upkeep costs are (or are not) paid and regular checks are passed or failed.
• Spell Research and Item Creation have their intended effects via their costs meaning something.
• Training (required to level up) has its intended effect via its cost meaning something.
• Chances for getting ill or picking up parasites actually means something, which can impose further costs to treat and recover.
• Changing seasons actually happen, impose their effects.
• Traveling characters (locked into Time Jail) pass through to their destinations, and become available to play.

There is one more thing I can add to this, something that naturally follows from all of the above: people MAKING NEW THINGS TO ADD TO THE CAMPAIGN have to spend time putting in the work required to make the thing. Spells, Items, and level gains are already hard-coded; changing classes (for Dual Class procedures) follow from that easily, and the Bard is a step further.

Making a new Class? The player should be spending time building it up as he goes, working with the Referee as required for his man (who will be the first to assume the new Class) to acquire its core elements and then undergo a lengthy (self-)Training period to change over to the new Class.

Making new monsters? Similar; the player has to have his man do the things (putting him in Time Jail, as this is derivative of Spell Research and Item Creation, using things like Golem Creation as a baseline to iterate upon) required to bring the man to life.

Building a stronghold? You're going to be doing more than hustling for the gold to pay for it.

Oh, and every time you choose any one of these things that man is locked out of all other options- that's Opportunity Cost in action.

No, he can't go on the dungeon delve. He can't travel to Big Sana's Cosmic Castle. He can't participate in the battle between The Lusty Pirate Queen and the Tyrant of Pippakistan. He can't train other characters so they can level up. He can't gin up some new brews, hire more help, or spend time with the Bestest Doggos in the Universe.

Yet Cargo Cultists and Tourists, because they presume (knowingly or not) Narrative Logic applies, object to all of that.

This is why they suck at D&D, why they suck at RPGs, and why they can't comprehend that they have no future on the tabletop- especially after Magic-Users By The Water takes Current Edition and decamps from tabletop to vidya.

And yeah, it is that easy: map the time spent at the table (etc.) to a calendar, synch that to real life on a 1-to-1 ratio measured in days, and while that man is in Time Jail (and not available to play, and also untouchable by others) you can play another man or do something else entirely- like enjoy Christmas and New Year's with your friends and family (i.e. touching grass, as the kids say).

Now imagine this happening in a clubhouse environment, where there can be a dozen, a score, or even more players playing in the same campaign- each playing multiple mans.

Conventional Play cannot even begin to approach this level of power. That's why 1:1 Time is fundamental to proper tabletop adventure gaming.