Ways for calendar to be a good tool, if at all?

[RoleforFun]

Hey everyone, it's your friendly neighborhood catalyst again. I would really like to use the in-game calendar (running 5e published adventures), but can't really think of anything that would make it useful and worth the extra setup/hassle... I know it could be particularly useful in scenarios with time requirements, such as ToA. I'm looking for some bardic inspiration here. How do you use your calendars to enhance your games? Tips/tricks/ideas/etc? BTW, I already don't use it, so if all you can offer is "I don't use it because..." then kindly don't clutter the thread please. Give me your inspiration!

[lostsanityreturned]

I use it as a sort of travel record / note taking device for the party.

I have the session number in the GM section as well as bullet point events sorted by morning, afternoon, night in the player section.

It is useful for keeping track of npcs met or certain important events in the DM's notes too. Not amazingly useful but I like having an easy reference for players and it is fun to see how time passes.

[damned]

Hey Catalyst20XX it would be great if it were a player editable resource but its not.
The best easy way to make it useful is to have a designated Chronicler each session and they can give you the notes and you can add them to the correct date.
This allows the players (and you) t have an accurate timeline and record of events.

[Trenloe]

Three ways to use it:
1) Historical log of what happened.
2) Tracking date/time as it is now - and occasionally pushing that data to the chat window with the click of a button.
3) Reminder of future important events and dates.

Point #3 may be important/useful in some campaigns that have a specific timeline and/or are deeply immersed in the game world (festivals/holidays, moon phases, etc.).

[Three of Swords]

I'm with Trenloe. It helps with immersion.

I can't imagine not using it. I had to write my own script in Roll20 to have a calendar. Far too many time-sensitive things going on in my campaigns not to have an accurate way to track the date. Also helps us remember holidays, marketdays, NPC birthdays, etc.

[Halfront]

I think it would also be nice to have a clickable table for weather that would get posted to the "day". I know you could load one of the extensions that does that then probably paste the results into the calendar, but having it built in would be nicer IMO.

[Oberoten]

Three ways to use it:
1) Historical log of what happened.
2) Tracking date/time as it is now - and occasionally pushing that data to the chat window with the click of a button.
3) Reminder of future important events and dates.

Point #3 may be important/useful in some campaigns that have a specific timeline and/or are deeply immersed in the game world (festivals/holidays, moon phases, etc.).

We tend to use it for the moon-tracking (currently out of comission) since we have a moon-bound caster. We run historical settings mostly with a mix of supernatural so before sessions I hit the relevant dates to make sure that the big RL-moments acualy end up where they belong. Especialy in the current campaign as WW1 sails up and parks all over europe like a drunk driver in a handicap spot. And of course, with some plots being time-critical I set down dates and times when it will be too late to stop them.

- Obe

[RoleforFun]

Great tips everyone, and thanks for the input. Please keep them coming!

[Three of Swords]

I think it would also be nice to have a clickable table for weather that would get posted to the "day". I know you could load one of the extensions that does that then probably paste the results into the calendar, but having it built in would be nicer IMO.

When I was setting up my Roll20 calendar script, I thought of doing this as well. Then I decided to keep the calendar and weather scripts separate. The reason being I knew they would do a lot of teleporting around the campaign world. So weather linked to the date would be a bad idea since it could change, based on their location.

In non-fantasy worlds, weather means even less. PCs might be in space, or travel to different worlds on the same day, and that could result in no weather or vastly different weather in a single day.

In FG, I have a story entry that has the weather by day based on location. It's all in 'quotable text', so I can just scroll to the day and click on it and it posts it to the chat log.

[Nylanfs]

Didn't somebody write a module or extension for weather? I vaguely remember seeing one.

[mattekure]

I used the calendar heavily during my previous campaign. That was largely due to the style of campaign I was running, where players were constantly running up against various deadlines. In many cases they knew what date something was going to happen and they knew they only had so many days left to either prepare or stop it. For example, they discovered the BBEG was working on an evil ritual that had to be completed on the new moon. They then knew exactly how many days they had to uncover the location, scout the defenses and finally try to take him on. Plus they began having to carefully account for travel time. At one point one of the PC's was taken over by an intellect devourer and the party wanted to travel to a city to get a restoration done. But they knew that if they took the 4 days of travel time to get to the big city and back, the cult leaders would escape with some prisoners. So they had to choose. Those kinds of things I tracked in the calendar.

In my case it worked really well as I had tons of notes both Player visible and GM only as to what was going on on each date. When the players actions affected the timeline I would go through after the session and update the calendars. But for campaigns where there are not those kind of timelines imposed, it may not be that useful.

[mattekure]

Didn't somebody write a module or extension for weather? I vaguely remember seeing one.

There is the DOE weather extension that works well. And integrates with the calendar.

[Halfront]

When I was setting up my Roll20 calendar script, I thought of doing this as well. Then I decided to keep the calendar and weather scripts separate. The reason being I knew they would do a lot of teleporting around the campaign world. So weather linked to the date would be a bad idea since it could change, based on their location.

In non-fantasy worlds, weather means even less. PCs might be in space, or travel to different worlds on the same day, and that could result in no weather or vastly different weather in a single day.

In FG, I have a story entry that has the weather by day based on location. It's all in 'quotable text', so I can just scroll to the day and click on it and it posts it to the chat log.

I see your point - taken :)

[Bidmaron]

Dulux sure did

[RoleforFun]

Good idea with the weather (if appropriate) and taking notes for the adventure/timeline for reference. Any other uses or tips on how best to manage the calendar everyone? What about any good ideas that COULD be implemented or changed in a future version? What would be some good ways to use it, if possible, that would make it more integrated and easy to implement?

[LordEntrails]

Integration with long rests (in some rulesets). It would be nice if when you completed a long rest if the GM was asked if they wished to advanced the date and add some comments, and to maybe even make note of the long rest in the calendar. I could image short rests being added to the date as well.

[JohnD]

A lot of good ideas here. Nice to see.

I make it into a quasi PC diary. If someone wants to write stuff up between sessions, I award bonus XP and add it into the calendar as "in character" notes of the adventuring party. In nobody cares to do this, I just leave the calendar alone.

The problem comes when I get behind in even doing this, with 4 campaigns on the go and real life tea bagging me. I'd love to see players have the ability to add notes directly into the calendar on their own... that would be nice.

[celestian]

Hey Catalyst20XX it would be great if it were a player editable resource but its not.


I had no idea till you mentioned it was limited like that. I was hoping to implement the calendar for my next game so they could use it for their own logs.

[Trenloe]

The reason it's not a player editable resource is that the data is stored in the database and only a single player can own a database node and edit it at one time (plus the GM). So, in order for all players to be able to add/edit notes in the calendar, there would need to be code to swap owners, or have separate sections for each player, or something else to enable this to be done. Is it doable? Yes. But it needs to be designed and coded into the software. Or a community developed extension...

[RoleforFun]

The reason it's not a player editable resource is that the data is stored in the database and only a single player can own a database node and edit it at one time (plus the GM). So, in order for all players to be able to add/edit notes in the calendar, there would need to be code to swap owners, or have separate sections for each player, or something else to enable this to be done. Is it doable? Yes. But it needs to be designed and coded into the software. Or a community developed extension...

Sounds like a job for Dulux! I know I would sure appreciate it. The only reason I don't use all of his DOE is because I'm so anxious about having a bunch of extensions all at once (with compatibility issues after updates and the other ext's I use). Maybe one day I'll have the courage to run more than 3 at a time! But seriously though, I love these ideas and the potential. Let's keep it up!

[BrettM]

My group has been playing for 2.5 years on Roll20, so as we transition to FG I plan to use it to mark specific dates in the past, as well as anything notable for the future.

I do wish I could bring up a list of entries. Not just "All Logs" which seems to show only a list of days (e.g., 1st Hammer, 1487, etc.), but I could see the entered text as well (Day X - left Waterdeep), etc. Something to easily scan.

Either way, I'm going to give it a go.