I guess I fall on both sides of the argument. In some ways, I like the time jumps because realistically, character development doesn't happen so quickly on a day to day basis... think about your own lives. Interesting stuff doesn't happen every day. In RPG's like the inns, just doing every day doesn't work very well because we really are working in these characters everyday lives - not like other RPG's where you're in the middle of a journey or war or whatnot. In everyday life, people just don't change that quickly - change takes time. For example, I had (have, I guess) a character in the Green Dragon that fell in love - but this was something of an awkward situation since the whole scenario took place over the course of about three days. As another example more pertinent to the thread, what about Undome's characters? Personally, I found them a great addition, but if we did do a day-to-day sort of thing, we really wouldn't be seeing much of them because honestly, they can't be away from their farm all the time, and they weren't just going to follow Thornden to the Hall the next day.
On the other hand, I think that trying to stick to real time is a little unrealistic as well. We just don't write fast enough to get all the things that need to be said and done said and done. We're constantly having to catch up on missed time, and in that time nothing really big can happen because then you're trying to coordinate activities of several characters in flashback and not really moving forward at all. That's not saying there won't be times when larger time jumps won't be appropriate - actually, even without the RL time consideration, I could see one coming up once all these loose ends are tied up, as long as people don't go on creating more loose ends (now there's the tricky part, isn't it?).
I do think Jenny made a very valid point when she said this:
Quote:
|
I am having a hard time writing with my characters because I do not know what happens to them. I can not say how Lin has grown and changed because I don't know. That story isn't done yet, and your "problems of form" mean I can't start my own storylines in this Hall. There are characters with which I cannot interact without ruining what I wished to be surprises in my own storyline. I cannot make any further plans, because I have no way of knowing when you will skip time ahead nor how far you will do so.
|
By trying to write Lin's story both here and in AiE, I could see where that's definitely a bit difficult. A lot of times, you might have some idea where your character is going in an RPG, but a lot of it depends on other characters as well, and it's a sort of "we get there when we get there" thing. Because if you plan it all out ahead of time and know exactly where the characters are going, what's the point of continuing to write the tale? I like it when my characters surprise me. It's one of the reasons I'm glad I left Leof out of it (other than the fact that I really don't see him having much place there, but whatever).
So that's my take on it. I don't think we should forego the time jumps, but I'm also not sure that we necessarily need to stick to RL time.