A conversation with one of my players today made me realize something. If you say something happens "an hour before dawn" my head assumes around 4-5am.
I assume this without considering the season despite living in New England, and previously having lived in Canada. I assume this despite knowing dawn is sunrise, and the fact I get to see the sunrise closer to 8 than 5 a good chunk of the year with winter.
Considering this, it also makes other things make more sense. During the winter dawn is later and sunset is earlier. Without electric lights you literally can't do as much. You have to go through candles, oil, or some form of magic. It is expensive. Which also makes sense why winter was a much quieter season before we had modern technology.
So Dawn, do you track when it actually should be in your game? Or do you just assume some "super early in the morning" time and go with that?
When running Shadows of Esteren and the game was centered around surviving a winter of natural and supernatural threats, I tracked dawn and dusk because it mattered given how much people wanted to get done. Traveling 5 miles in 3' of snow is hard, timing becomes a question of life or death so I tracked it then.
ReplyDeleteMostly though I just say, Early.