The World of Avlis

This has probably been addressed somewhere but every search I made produced LOTS of hits and I haven't been able to find anything relating to my question which is:
How is time measured i Avlis? I don't mean like how many hours in the day but rather does it make sense to refer to last month or weekdays? Does summer and winter make any sense to anyone or is time just floating by without any special reference?
Are there special occasions like midsummer or festivities connected to spring or harvest?
Enough babbling - I think you get my point and once again - sorry if this has been clarified somewhere else.

I usually take every night as one week, even though that is far from true... actually, each day RL time is more like 1 month of ingame time. During a session, we usually stick to the day/night cycles, but then again, you can then have conversations that last days...

as was discussed somewhere else (in an unrelated thread I think), I mentioned that I tend to use time as in RL time (so when Aradan says something happened "yesterday", it happend on the 3rd August. This just seems to make things much much clearer to everyone.


So, assuming everyone's happy with it - I think we should go with time and days being as they are in RL, and the Avlis rising and setting of it's sun as irrelvant to that.

(I think the other discussion mentioned more than one sun, but that's probably overly complicating things)

The last discussion I saw on this reported what Aradan said.

The reason being that if we don't use RL time, everyone will be confused. So when I was gone for 5 weeks RL, I RPed at 5 weeks Avlis time.

If we used real NWN cloak, 48 mins to a day, all the human characters would die of old age in a month.

verg~

Maybe not a month, except some deadly illness is around:

24 hours real time is 720 hours game time (30 days)
30 days real time is 900 days game time (2.465 years)
1 year real time is 30 years game time

Is it possible change the Avlis time to be equal with real time?

~WR

added: One round is 6 sec real time? Should a change of time mess up the spells and other effects?

Game time is faster than real time, depending on who you are it either doesnt make sense to have them be 1:1 me (me) or it does (Aradan).

My original mp character has *lived* for 13 months r/l. Ingame she is twice-married, served as a judge in another land for many years, had many adventures and reached the peak of her power once even. To me it just doesnt make sense that she has done all that and yet is only 1 year older than when she started. That would make her 17 years old.

For me the solution would be to either start characters at an age that ideally you would like them to retire at (Level 1 octogenarians just dont do it for me though) or do as I do, while she/he learns they age pretty rapidly in relation to game time - doesnt have to be strictly game time - then once theyre at an age you can live with to explain all their adventures then begin to use real life time if you need to use any at all.

Amazing just how many 18 year old level 20 characters there are out there. *shakes head in disbelief*

Changing Avlis time to be the same as real time would bite... it would mean that if you play at the same time each day IRL, you'd always be fixed at a certain point in time of the game. e.g. You're only ever seen in the Avlis morning, because that corresponds to your timezone.
Would suck if you had lycanthropy!

Speaking of which...

Cheers,
kRo

Pharik wrote: Amazing just how many 18 year old level 20 characters there are out there. *shakes head in disbelief*

Yep, child prodigies

White-Raven wrote: Is it possible change the Avlis time to be equal with real time?

I'm not proposing that we do this - just that when time is talked about IC (or OOC for that matter) it is referred to in the equivalent of RL time.

As to people aging and whatever ... I think that should be roleplayed out by the person themselves, and could be different for each person, depending on how long they are actually "in" Avlis for ..... ie your character only ages when they are actually in the world.

Example : Aradan, whom I've been playing for about 7 months (at roughly 10 hours a week), I kinda feel that he has aged about 4 years in that time. However, say Pharik's character (Kari??) is played for 13 months at *plucks figure from air* 25 hours per week, could have aged 12 years. People can then basically judge how much their character has aged. Just an idea. Bear in mind that I favour fun and enjoyment over realism ... others don't.

If people want an IC reason for two lots of time (one for spells, combat etc .... and one that people use as a reference point), I refer you back to the two suns idea.

Aradan Kir wrote:

White-Raven wrote: Is it possible change the Avlis time to be equal with real time?

I'm not proposing that we do this - just that when time is talked about IC (or OOC for that matter) it is referred to in the equivalent of RL time.

That idea I agree with and am already using (too confusing otherwise). "What we did yesterday" (real life days) as opposed to "What we did 30... er.. 31? .. um.. 28? days ago?" (avlis days)
So that proposal has the Holy Symbol of kRo Stamp Of Approval!

I just read White-Raven's suggestion to be slowing down the days/nights (and hence time) to match RL. Kinda cool, but only briefly. Rereading it, the suggestion may just have been about changing the way people work with it, as per your suggestion, or changing just the clock and not the days/nights (not sure if that's possible or if they're linked)... breaking the Mikona-Elysia ship..

Cheers,
kRo

(Kari??) is played for 13 months at *plucks figure from air* 25 hours per week, could have aged 12 years

Aradan youre such a sweetie..yeh I can go with Kari being 29 years old (again)

I myself use RL time when i play, talking like, in 7 hours we will... etc, but when waiting for the ship in docks, it is the only time i myself look what time it is IC when i play. It confused me, i was thinking, what i do 3 hours in Mikona docks..? hmm, then i realized that it is just a few minutes i needed stay hidden

I see the problem changing the sun raise and sun set and use a RL time clock, will make some players only have night when they play... but i am sure some would just love that.

<-- WR --<
27+ Years in Avlis

I'm sure the two suns thing solves all this.

One sun which provides light (and therefore day and night)

and the other sun which is used to measure time. This doesn't necessarily have to be a sun, could be an orbiting moon, which ancient Avlisians used as a way of measuring time, and it coincidentaly happens to orbit Avlis at exactly 24 hours RL time.

or something ....


PS Although fixing the time in Avlis to the time in RL does through up some interesting ideas, I think it would break too many other things. For example .... imagine a Time Stop that froze your game for 3 hours !!!

I think your idea of two celestial bodies to mark game and RL time by is great. I'm going to use that.

Xiaou wrote:I think your idea of two celestial bodies to mark game and RL time by is great. I'm going to use that.

You probably ought to get Orl's approval before you actually start using this in game mind you.

Seasons would be such great thing to have for Avlis! Not sure how much work would be involved and I know the team's got priorities, but I would love it for one.

It opens up possibilities. Does T'Nanshi and M'Chek, for example, have a temperate climate? So spring would arrive, with it rains and new plant growth, days would gradually lengthen. Summer, and lots of long, hot sunny days and short nights. The plants would be very healthy and thrive, animals would be less hungry. Then we would have autumn (fall) with a bountiful harvest of fruits and it would be time for collecting plants, the days would be getting gradually shorter. Then, winter would set in, the plants would stop growing, animals get hungry, harsh conditions would rule for three months and days would be very short. It would be often rainy and cold. Perhaps snow? Different animals could also signify these seasons. I notice we have a 'winter wolf' recently (maybe we always did, but I didnt find it before). Some animals might only come to forest in particular seasons.

How would these seasons impact on M'Chek? Would M'Chek have a more arid type regime, with a long, hot dry period and short rainy season?

just some ideas....

diddeecoy

ps i did do a 'search' on climate and weather before posting, but I couldnt find anything I wanted. apologies if this has been talked about before. *runs off to do a search on 'seasons'*

AHA! I just found this now ...

viewtopic.php?t=16256&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=25

Why do you think my geography is unrealistic? How much do you know about geography that you are qualified to say that? If you have a landmass that exists on the border between two tectonic plates that are moving into one another, you'll get a mountain range in the middle. The volcanic activity generated by it will tend to spread the land around it a bit producing big delta's like M'Check. Also if you assume a west to east weather pattern like on Earth, you'll get a drier west coast and a wetter east coast as the air is lifted by the mountain range and cooled. Hence you have jungles and swamps on the east coast near Jechran.

The planet that Avlis sits on is Earth sized. Tyedu sits at about 20 degrees north lattitude at its very tip, which puts M'Chek at about 50 degrees roughly. The weather patterns in M"Chek should make sense as is, and if you estimate a current of warm water coming up from the south off the coast of Drotid, you'll be able to explain the warmer wet jungle areas in that place without much of a problem.