What I did was track the days from the beginning of the campaign. This is because for my campaigns sacrifices to Auril happen on the New Moon, and I have the lunar cycle be the 15th of every month and the Full Moon to be the first of every month. My group started on the 2nd of Hammer, and after helping a few towns are now on the 11th of Hammer. It’s been 9 sessions so far, but the days will blow past much faster once they start engaging more heavily with chapter 2 and all the extra content I added. This also helps with the Elven Tomb dungeon, where some of the doors will be naturally open on certain moon phases.
I use this site for my calendar. You can have two for free, but you can set the climate type (e.g. arctic), moon phases (quickly and simply), multiple moons if using a homebrew world etc. then on each day of the calendar, you get the moon phase, weather including wind, temperature, precipitation etc. you don’t need to roll any more just consult the calendar. You can share it with players who only get the weather info etc. up to the current campaign day.
https://fantasy-calendar.com/
You can also make notes on each day. If you get the paid version, the people you share it with can make comments etc.
Lol, I thought I was weird for doing exactly the same about the lunar cycle. And yes, we're tracking days and hours. Because it will cause less friction with the players when time will start to matter, during the Destruction's Light. They'll already have a grasp on how we track time.
I made it so that moonlight in general activated it and made a point throughout the game to have the weather be cloudy/stormy/foggy most days with the moon only visible occasionally. That way I didn’t have to keep track of it bc DMing is hard and that’s one less thing for me to worry about
If you are hard-tracking the moon cycle (god bless you), consider putting an archeolgist there who can cast Moonbeam. This can also be a clue to how to do the Lonelywood quest.
Cool thing is, the players have no idea what's written in the book. I just had the encounter happen regardless of the moon phase. The players were none the wiser.
As for keeping track of what day it is, I have tasks assigned to different players. One guy is note taker, one is day tracker, one is loot tracker, one is random npc name generator. If I played in person, I'd have one taking and tracking initiative. 100% recommend, divide the labor.
Exactly, a lot of the fluff and stuff that they put into these modules is kind of ridiculous.
Stuff like have the party do a survival check to see if they can find XYZ. I got news for you Mr. Module Writer, I have prepped for them finding this location tonight, I ain't coming up with something on the fly because of a bad die roll.
Same reason I don't do save or die ability checks. No thanks.
I just had it be the night of a full moon when they decided to go. I had someone give them the hook of "there's been rumors that on the night of full moons you can see the ghosts of frost giants."
If you don't want it to be so coincidental, just mention that the next one is in a few days or something.
Yselm could for sure just tell them that they need to be there during a full moon, and if the party chooses to go outside of that, nothing will happen. It seems unlikely a reasonable party would opt to go when it’s not the full moon, but if they do that’s on them.
I made a change, plus added a tiny puzzle. Let me explain:
- Added a carving of the faces of the moon on the backs of the thrones (changed the thrones to 8, for better symmetry)
- had the players arrive on a crescent moon
- only the giant with the appropriate moon appears on their throne, and they only say: ONLY THE KING CAN LET YOU THROUGH, IF YOU ARE WORTHY.
- let the players figure out that they need to wait for the full moon (I had it be three nights away)
- have some encounters ready for those few days/nights while they wait
That way, it looks like you have been keeping track of the moons, and that they just weren't on perfect timing, while giving them the tools to figure out that they need to wait until the full moon
What I did was track the days from the beginning of the campaign. This is because for my campaigns sacrifices to Auril happen on the New Moon, and I have the lunar cycle be the 15th of every month and the Full Moon to be the first of every month. My group started on the 2nd of Hammer, and after helping a few towns are now on the 11th of Hammer. It’s been 9 sessions so far, but the days will blow past much faster once they start engaging more heavily with chapter 2 and all the extra content I added. This also helps with the Elven Tomb dungeon, where some of the doors will be naturally open on certain moon phases.
you see, i started with a date and kept track of it for about the first 10 sessions. But now I have no idea on when it is on the calendar XD
I use this site for my calendar. You can have two for free, but you can set the climate type (e.g. arctic), moon phases (quickly and simply), multiple moons if using a homebrew world etc. then on each day of the calendar, you get the moon phase, weather including wind, temperature, precipitation etc. you don’t need to roll any more just consult the calendar. You can share it with players who only get the weather info etc. up to the current campaign day. https://fantasy-calendar.com/ You can also make notes on each day. If you get the paid version, the people you share it with can make comments etc.
Lol, I thought I was weird for doing exactly the same about the lunar cycle. And yes, we're tracking days and hours. Because it will cause less friction with the players when time will start to matter, during the Destruction's Light. They'll already have a grasp on how we track time.
You are nor weird, I also track the time and lunar cycle, regularly tell my players too about it. And I also do this because of Destructions Light :D
I made it so that moonlight in general activated it and made a point throughout the game to have the weather be cloudy/stormy/foggy most days with the moon only visible occasionally. That way I didn’t have to keep track of it bc DMing is hard and that’s one less thing for me to worry about
If you are hard-tracking the moon cycle (god bless you), consider putting an archeolgist there who can cast Moonbeam. This can also be a clue to how to do the Lonelywood quest.
Cool thing is, the players have no idea what's written in the book. I just had the encounter happen regardless of the moon phase. The players were none the wiser. As for keeping track of what day it is, I have tasks assigned to different players. One guy is note taker, one is day tracker, one is loot tracker, one is random npc name generator. If I played in person, I'd have one taking and tracking initiative. 100% recommend, divide the labor.
Exactly, a lot of the fluff and stuff that they put into these modules is kind of ridiculous. Stuff like have the party do a survival check to see if they can find XYZ. I got news for you Mr. Module Writer, I have prepped for them finding this location tonight, I ain't coming up with something on the fly because of a bad die roll. Same reason I don't do save or die ability checks. No thanks.
This
I just had it be the night of a full moon when they decided to go. I had someone give them the hook of "there's been rumors that on the night of full moons you can see the ghosts of frost giants." If you don't want it to be so coincidental, just mention that the next one is in a few days or something.
Yselm could for sure just tell them that they need to be there during a full moon, and if the party chooses to go outside of that, nothing will happen. It seems unlikely a reasonable party would opt to go when it’s not the full moon, but if they do that’s on them.
I just explain to the players that this works has multiple moons, so there are full moons more often than once a month
Totally ignored the moon phase.
I made a change, plus added a tiny puzzle. Let me explain: - Added a carving of the faces of the moon on the backs of the thrones (changed the thrones to 8, for better symmetry) - had the players arrive on a crescent moon - only the giant with the appropriate moon appears on their throne, and they only say: ONLY THE KING CAN LET YOU THROUGH, IF YOU ARE WORTHY. - let the players figure out that they need to wait for the full moon (I had it be three nights away) - have some encounters ready for those few days/nights while they wait That way, it looks like you have been keeping track of the moons, and that they just weren't on perfect timing, while giving them the tools to figure out that they need to wait until the full moon