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Look Before You Leap (Day)

While someone born on February 29th in the year 2000 would be 24 in regular calendar years (they'd use March 1st as a birthday) they’ve technically only had six birthdays. While "technically correct" is the best kind of correct, we still can’t stop the ravages of age. Leap days/years are of course necessary with how we’ve set up our calendar: due to some large egos (and poor math), we need an extra day every four years to keep things like the solar year, equinoxes, and solstices on track and synchronized. While keeping track of calendars is something many of us neglect in our games, and those that do are likely try to keep it simple, adding a special “leap day” to games can provide an opportunity to include new adventures, events, items, or quirks. So in honor of our real world’s Leap Day 2024 , take a few moments with Never Say Dice to ponder some of the possibilities of this rare inspirational event.

Character Changes

Plenty of people are born on leap days. As mentioned, we all know their real age, but there's still something fun and special about focusing on their ‘true’ birthday. If you’re adding a special day to your own tabletop games, there's no reason a character couldn’t be born on that day (or your setting's equivalent). Perhaps that gives them a background point of being some sort of “chosen” character (for good or ill) or they receive a certain boon that time of year. It can also be an opportunity for temporary changes to characters. Magical or Scientific effects are likely to abound on "rare" days. If a player has been considering a major change to their character (species, class, or anything else) - this special occurrence would be an excellent time to perform a "retcon" within their ongoing game instead of just retiring the character or having a substitute step in. This allows long-running campaigns some space to incorporate something new without replacing characters entirely, a tricky circumstance during normal play. While any of these changes should be driven by the players themselves, it's a great chance to provide them the opportunity.

Inspirational Items

Magic, science, the Force - call it what you will, but the external powers present in games are frequently swayed  by natural events....events such as a ‘"leap day." How those things play out during our special event is wide open. Imagine the chaos it would cause in our tabletop worlds if the ‘rules’ around magic or science changed on those special days. It might be opposite day, and that Wand of Healing becomes a Wand of Harm. The polarity of the positronic manifold emissions might have been reversed, causing a wild change to phaser pulses or scanner readings. Magic just may stop working at all during this timeframe. Any one of these these could change the basis for the "magic" (whatever we're calling it) items in our games, forcing the players to adapt in new ways to what might have been an otherwise normal mission.

Quest Quandaries

The biggest opportunity for your special TTRPG day might just be quests. It isn’t hard to imagine some special fruit or plant that's only available on that one important day in your game world. If something is that rare, someone in your world is going to want it, and will be willing to pay large amounts of currency to get it. It is also likely that your group of adventurers won’t be the only ones after this unusual piece of flora. Alternately, there is a good chance some treasure hidden in your game world is only accessible, or the map will only show the way, on this special day. Think along the lines of a scenario where the players are trying to find the Ark like Indy does in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Perhaps the sun only shines just right, or hidden letters on the treasure map only show for this particular day. You might also consider one of the harder things to pull off at the gaming table: the time loop adventure. While you might think something in the style of the movie Groundhog’s Day, any particular day could become a classic timeloop adventure. After all, there are several sci-fi and fantasy properties that pull this off just fine, and there is no reason you can’t include it at your tabletops too. It may be one of the more complicated adventures though, and discussing all of the things needed to get it just might just be a future post.

Before we end up in a time loop of our own, perhaps we should wrap it up here. Even if you don’t incorporate a special ‘leap day’ into your characters, items, or adventures, you can still include it in your games. Cultural celebrations of these unique times can provide a fantastic backdrop for your adventure worlds. These aren’t the only ideas though. Open the possibilities up for your players, and they might provide some inspiration as well. Please reach out with any ideas you have for leap days that come up at your own tables! Until next time, enjoy your tables, and your Leap Days. So please reach out with any ideas you have for leap days that come up at your own tables! Until next time, enjoy your tables, and your Leap Days. And please reach out with any ideas you have for leap days that come up at your own tables! Until next time, enjoy your tables, and your Leap Days

- A

Send questions, comments, any ideas you have for leap days that come up at your own tables  to neversaydice20@gmail.com or Tweet us @neversaydice2.



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