Excerpt from the Forbidden RPGforum
Have you noticed, that it can be difficult to return to events, i.e. a combat, in a roleplaying game, if it has been a few weeks since last game session? The cause is simple: Time passes. Not the time, that has passed from the last time, you and I sat and played at the table, for there has obviously passed the aforementioned weeks, but time also passes in the game.
Only a few knows this, but time actually passes during the combat rounds. It passes extremely slow, so it easily gives a sense of time standing still during a combat round, while you choose a form of attack, rolls dice and establishes the result, men minuscule parts of seconds passes none the less.
Since time passes so extremely slow, no one notices. Not even if it is a combat it takes three or fours hours to play through. However when a few weeks passes, and the party has stood in the midst of a fight with a group of orcs and trolls, then time has passed, just a little bit, but now it has come to a part, where you can sense it. That is why, it is difficult to get back into the situation and immerse into it again. There has occurred a timelag, that requires some game time to catch up with. That is why it is better to end the game with the characters going to bed or in some other way leave them with a situation with a longer duration ahead of them. The synchronization becomes less noticeable.
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These stories are chosen and translated from a Danish Advent Calender (“julekalender”) for roleplayers. They are small, independent stories from the major Advent Calender story arc. In Denmark there is a long running tradition for Advent Calender stories (in the shape of radio plays, tv-series, written stories, candles – but also as blogs with 24 daily blog posts counting down to Christmas) in 24 episodes running from the 1st of December til Christmas on the 24th of December (yes, Danes celebrates Christmas on the 24th).
Roles, Dice and Fun 