I'm just wondering how my fellow GM's handle the passage of time in Shadowrun. Yes we have the timed Combat Turn system, and the Vehicle Combat system, but when not in combat, how do we use time?

I have two main questions.

One, how long does it take to get somewhere? I don't live in Seattle IRL, I've never been there, so I'm not sure how big a city Seattle is, and how big the other cities within the plex are. For example, how long would it take a runner to get from Tacoma to Everett? two hours driving? 5 hours on a train? Even just making the hop from Tacoma to Downtown could take hours, but I wouldn't know, because I've never been there.

Also, how do you run time sensitive situations, for example the time it takes for security guards to patrol their patch? Do you just go into combat turns to determine who is moving and how far they move in that time? Or do you just make it up as you go along?

I use Google Maps to extrapolate time to travel distances. This gives you a basic idea of travel time under average conditions and travel time. Pretty easy to then increase or decrease the time based upon any conditions you desire.

Seattle is not THAT large, so usually 0,5-1 hour does the trick for us. Assuming you´ve got a car.

As a Seattle-area native, it really depends on where you're going and when. Given the large amount of water around the Seattle area, methods of getting from one place to another are generally rather constricted, which lends itself to bad traffic. The one constant about Seattle traffic is that it's bad. Everything else (time, place, cause...) is more or less random. If you're going at the right time in the right direction, the 60-mile trip between Tacoma and Everett can take under an hour (if you're talking just from the south end of Everett to the very north end of Tacoma, all on I-5), while if you try to commute as little as 14 miles in the wrong direction at the wrong time, it can take an hour and a half or more (that used to be my commute). The I-90 and SR-520 bridges in particular are horrendous during Rush Hour (which is actually somewhere around 7:30-10 in the morning and 4-7 in the evening).

Hopefully that'll give you something to extrapolate from. As for time sensative issues in-game, I usually take canon travel times (foot movement rate/car speed/etc) and just ask the players how fast/careful they're being, and wing it from there. Then again, I tend to be an on-the-fly GM, so that probably doesn't trend me towards careful consideration of all issues with bearing on the situation before making a decision to keep the game going.

All travel in RPGs takes exactly as long as the plot requires.

Seconded.

Chris

well, the thing is, it's not always a question of plot. sometimes it's a question of challenge. if you as the GM want to challenge your group by giving them two hours to get somewhere, it'd be nice to have some sort of rules in place to make that time limit a reality.

I tend to vaguely figure out how many km there are, and then apply an average speed of x Km/h. If you take the highway all the way with little traffic, that average might be 80 to 100km/h, but if you take the streets during traffic that might drop to 30-40 km/h.

Don't forget that GridGuide plays a part in traffic now, for the better. Traffic is far less horrendous. Also, people live closer to their place of work, and some do not commute at all.

So the GM can pretty much figure whatever he wants. To please your players, you can have em roll Vehicule skill to decrease the time it takes (particularly useful in "beat the clock" type of missions), or simply negociate GM to Player if they feel your times are off. After a few games, you should have come to an agreement that "driving from dowtown to the barrens takes an hour and a half" and then take it from there.

I'd do an extended driving test. Obviously the driver would be contributing hits, but as an example the hacker could also contribute to the test by hacking grid guide, etc.