I started using 1:1 time in my D&D campaigns – both online and solo – but I realised that it wasn’t working as I hoped.
So, I developed this hybrid model that I am currently testing out.
There are actually two models I am using:
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- For my 2-player online campaign
- For my solo campaigns
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Why two different ones? I will explain below, but they are very similar.
The Issue with 1:1 Time
Using 1:1 time is fantastic!
It really propels your campaign along and makes the campaign come alive as players think about what their characters are going to do between sessions during downtime.
Side: If you have ever wanted to bring downtime front and centre into your campaign, 1:1 time is a great way to do it.
The problem isn’t so much with 1:1 time itself, but on how regularly you play.
1:1 time is excellent if you play regularly without fail.
My 2-Player Online Campaign
This is why I adopted it for my group campaign in the first place.
With my online 2-player campaign, we were playing each and every Monday night, and so advancing the campaign time equal to real world time between sessions made a lot of sense.
Unfortunately (and you can probably see where this is heading), we didn’t play every week.
Due to illness, I could only play two week out of three, which left a two week gap between some session.
This could have been delt with, but some sessions were cancelled on top of this due to illness (other than mine) or holidays/life.
This left 1:1 time being unworkable.
Which is a damn shame as it’s a great way to run time in your campaigns.
The Solution
I still wanted to progress time in a natural and unrelenting way, as I wanted my campaign world to feel alive and lived-in – and always marching time forward is a great way to do this.
So, I came up with a hybrid system.
After every session we play, the calendar advances one week.
So, instead of progressing the calendar every week without fail, this progresses time in a manageable way.
And, the players, can let me know what their characters do during their downtime during the week (or fortnight in some cases) between sessions.
Solo Campaigns
While the above works well for my 2-player campaign, where we have 3-4 hours sessions, it doesn’t work for me with my solo campaigns.
The Issue
The issue in my solo campaigns is how I tend to play.
Most of my solo sessions are run in 30-60 minute sessions, which don’t allow a huge amount of time to get things done.
In a 3-4 hours session, you can get a lot done, but when you are playing for 45 minutes, you aren’t going to be getting all that much completed.
The Solution
This is why I developed a similar system to the above, which I call the There-And-Back-Again system.
It’s similar to my group campaign system for advancing time, but instead of advancing time after just one longer session, it allows me to bundle up several sessions together before progressing the calendar.
In most of my adventures in both my main solo campaigns (one running OSE and the other running D&D 3.0), the characters are involved in missions that take them away from their home town and out into the wilderness or down into a dungeon.
The There-And-Back-Again system allows me to complete this mission before time advances.
So, I may play 5-6 sessions to complete a particular mission for the town and once the PCs return (assuming they do!), I move the calendar forward one week, like above.
I think this is pretty realistic as it allows me to complete an adventure (incorporating any travel time into the time the adventure takes), and upon returning, the PCs get time to rest – after all, travelling through the wilderness or delving dungeons is hard work!
And then they get downtime where they can perform any activities they want.
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