Timekeeping
Time passes in Eldyard just as it does in our world, even if sometimes it behaves strangely. That’s because you don’t need to play out every minute, or even every day, of the time that passes in your legend. One game session might last four hours of real time and cover a month of game time or, maybe, span one 15-minute fight outside a tavern, although hopefully you’ll use the Three Turns and Out system rather than put yourself through that. In Fayrewood time is broken down into five different levels:
Turns
Turns are the smallest division of time in Fayrewood. They represent the time taken for a fairly simple action. The exact length of a given turn is fairly abstract and can take as much or as little time as the action needs. A turn is generally shorter in an energetic scene and longer in a social scene. It takes a lot less time to throw a punch than it does to barter with a merchant.
Scenes
A step up from the turn, a scene is a set of actions that take place in a single setting or between a single group of characters. Scenes in Fayrewood should feel familiar to you as they have the same pacing you would expect from a scene in a play or film. The number of turns that take place in any given scene can vary according to the pacing.
Chapters
A chapter is the word used to describe a single session of play in Fayrewood. Chapters are useful measures of time for balancing some of the mechanics of Fayrewood, especially because they have an unambiguous start and end point: when you sit down to play, and when you get up to go about your life outside the woods.
Fables
A fable is a complete narrative arc with an inciting incident, climax, and resolution. Many fables take place across multiple chapters, some might only last for one. A clever Storyteller might even be able to construct a fable that plays out within a single scene.
Legends
When multiple fables are strung together, connected by the same characters and narrative threads, this is a legend. Typically, a legend maintains a consistent tone across its fables, although this might not always be the case for every scene and fable of a legend.