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<TITLE>RE: [PnP] idea (PDA)</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>|| Interesting. Not sure how I'd approach this to program it. So basically</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>|| its a</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>|| program that clicks time. You then insert some events into it and it will</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>|| then</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>|| show when they are active. hmmm...sounds interesting. Not sure I've ever</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>|| tried tht since I've always prefered paper for tht. I'd have to sleep on it. </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>|| It would be an interesting challenge creative wise. I could probably do it</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>|| but</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>|| would need to think about it more on how it worked since I'm about 80% sure of</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>|| your meaning. </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>||</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>|| How does the time 'click' down? Do you hit the enter key and it increments</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>|| the</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>|| next amount of time or do you as GM decide say increment it by 3turns or 14</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>|| phases? </FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>The way the progam worked was very simple. When I started with the players I entered the starting "game time" (say, April 1st, game-year 0, 8:00am in the morning). It used the standard US calender back then (not the one I posted wor Wout's site).</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Hitting the "p" (phase) key incremented this timestamp value by 3 seconds. Hitting "t" (turn) incremented it by 12 seconds. If I typed "1", then "5" and then "p" it incremented the timestamp by 45 seconds (15 phases). Likewise for minutes, hours and strategic turns (12 hours).</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Days were a special case. Incrementing by one or more days moved you 24 hours, plus enough extra time to make it 6:00am of that day. So, if the timestamp had you at 10:23pm, April 5th and you moved up 3 "days" it would actually become 6:00am April 9th. The use of the "day" counter was not for 24 hours specifically (that could be done with "24h"), but to allow the characters to "lay over" in town for a few days, ready to move out at "sunup" after the wait. The week, month and year markers did a similar "day alignment" so that you started the day at 6:00am.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>The program used this single timestamp. WHen you entered an event and gave it a duration, the duration was added to the current timestamp (no day-twiddling, though) and stored in a list. Every time the internal timestamp was incremented, even if by a phase, the list was scanned for any entries whose expiration stamp was less or equal to the main timestamp. If they had expired, the text entered by the GM for that event was shown in the message area.</FONT></P>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Burton Choinski</FONT>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=2>email: burton.choinski@matrixone.com</FONT>
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