Time Conflicts

by **Ilhor Skyglow** on August 14th, 2012, 9:22 am

Hello everybody

This is actually my first post in Mizahar, but I will spare the introductions for the appropriate subforum

Currently, I am in the process of familiarizing myself with the game world, lore, and mechanics. It all seems neatly done and very carefully planned, but I found a small issue, which I couldn't find being addressed in any other thread.

More specifically, in this thread you describe the concept of fluid time. Yet, because of this, conflicts might arise.

For example, let's say I take part in two threads at the same time. In the first one, taking place at Winter 40, 512 AV, I hunt and kill a deer using a bow. Yet, in the second one, taking place at Winter 35, I have my wrist broken. This means that although I have already killed the deer, I couldn't have possibly done it using a bow (although I could have used my teeth to pull the string, being a master archer and all that

).

Is there a solution to this issue?

Thank you very much for your time, and looking forward to rp-ing with you

by **Viq** on August 14th, 2012, 9:24 am

Hello, and welcome to Mizahar.

Keep your running threads temporally well-separated, and make sure storytellers know of your conditions by updating your character sheet regularly.

Hope to see more of you.

by **Ilhor Skyglow** on August 14th, 2012, 9:43 am

Thank you for your answer!

But let me clarify what I'm talking about:

Real time:

1. I kill the deer using a bow at Monday 13/08/2012
2. I get my wrist broken at Tuesday 14/08/2012

Game time:

1. I kill the deer using a bow at Winter 40, 512 AV
2. I get my wrist broken at Winter 35, 512 AV

So there would be no way for me to include my condition in the CS, since noone knew I had it till... well, till I got it

by **Anselm** on August 14th, 2012, 1:29 pm

You are correct that time conflicts can arise. I do my best to keep my time line clean, but it's not always possible. It helps to keep a record of all your threads - past, present and planned future - in your CS. That way you can spot conflicts. In the example you cite, I would have avoided getting my wrist broken because a look at my CS would show me that it would conflict with another story. But I try not to over think it. I don't know what the Founders would say, but my view is that the integrity of the individual stories is more important than the integrity of the season timeline.

I guess that's a long way of saying, Do your best but don't lose sleep over it.

by **Paragon** on August 14th, 2012, 2:23 pm

It's actually mandatory to keep track of your threads on your Character Sheet. This way you can clearly see what happened on what date. At the start of a season, keep your options open and threads spread out. You'll generally find an arc forming for your character, and you'll know what's going to happen where and when. If you're involved in a particularly big quest/mod thread that may have large implications, your character can be essentially timelocked, meaning you cannot write or speculate what may happen in subsequent seasons.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on August 14th, 2012, 2:25 pm

One thing I always try to do is to do my threads in order, when possible. So when I first make a new thread, it'll be as early in the season as possible. Then each new thread gets pushed to a later date. Most of the time (though not always) this allows me to resolve the earlier chronological stuff in advance.

That being said, I DID break my hand early in the season, and had to revise some threads. The tasks I was performing were ones I could adapt (with some difficulty) to account for not being able to use the hand (of course, to avoid further issues, I simply built a magical wooden hand to do what my broken hand couldn't do the rest of the season).

And of course, another solution is, just don't break your wrist! Very rarely are you going to be in a situation where you HAVE to suffer such an injury. Sometimes I consider that sort of thing when, say, writing a fight scene. I might say to myself "Okay I have two other threads close to this one... To avoid continuity conflicts injuries should be limited to scrapes and bruises". And when I give myself a serious injury like a broken bone, its usually when i know I can 'fit' it into my timeline cleanly.

by **Ilhor Skyglow** on August 14th, 2012, 2:42 pm

Thank you all so much for your time and your helpful answers and tips

by **Verilian** on August 30th, 2012, 6:55 pm

All this advice is pretty good, but I wanted to add one more thing. If you did break your wrist, and there was absolutely no way to modify the other thread for it to make sense, then that other thread would have to be voided. Now.. in something as minor as wrist breaking, this should never be a problem. You could just say you killed the deer with a weapon other than your bow, for instance. But.. if you were beaten to a bloody pulp and left barely alive, instead of having your wrist broken, then it would most likely void the hunting thread entirely.

Also, if you die in a thread, it immediately voids all other threads you are in dated after that timestamp.