Time marches on. Perhaps with glacial slowness, but it does advance, and the characters inexorably move with it, whether they have acted or not, even--occasionally--whether they have read or not. Sometimes in real life people are late. Sometimes they miss important appointments. Sometimes they think of exactly what they should have said--twelve hours too late. Sometimes these omissions have consequences. Even serious consequences. It happens--in life and in game. This is not a change, but it is a clarification and advisory.

Now, as much as I reasonably can, I will try not to advance the clock unless/until every player has read at least some of the posts and every player's character has had ample opportunity to interact. However, it's not fair to make an entire game wait on a few players, especially when I'm running several contexts that must stay more or less synchronized. Therefore, at irregular intervals, I will be making game time posts. These time posts will comprise a specific range of hours (shown below), to simulate the passage of time, to help quantify distances travelled, reflect the need for meals/rest/prayer/study/etc. As in real life, there will be occasions when time will seem to drag on forever (e.g., combat), as well as other periods when time will fly by (e.g., outdoor cross-country travel). For medieval flavour I am using canonical hours:

• Prime: 0600--0900 (6:00 am--9:00 am)
• Tierce: 0900--1200 (9:00 am--12:00 n)
• Sext: 1200--1500 (12:00 n--3:00 pm)
• Nones: 1500--1800 (3:00 pm--6:00 pm)
• Vespers: 1800--2100 (6:00 pm--9:00 pm)
• Compline: 2100--0000 (9:00 pm--12:00 m)
• Matins: 0000--0300 (12:00 m--3:00 am)
• Lauds: 0300--0600 (3:00 am--6:00 am)

These canonical hours may be further broken down into hour and half hour and even quarter hour increments, for example, 0815 hrs would be written, Prime and Three, the first quarter; 1830 hrs is written, Vespers, the half. Implied is that Vespers is the first hour (1800-1859); Vespers and Two, the second hour (1900-1959); Vespers and Three, the third hour (2000-2059) and so forth.

In temperate latitudes Compline and Matins are usually considered to be 'hours of darkness'; not so in sub-polar regions. You'll be advised on occasions when darkness rules apply to other time blocks.

A time post might be as simple as the day/date and canonical hour with no additional information. Usually, however, it will also include location and weather conditions, and sometimes a general advisory on overall party welfare. For those of you who've played in other RPGs or contexts where time posts have been used, this is nothing new, except for the specific details. For those of you who haven't, I thought it worth sharing in detail.