Time and Weather
Time in RPBuddy moves continuously while the game is unpaused. NPCs follow daily routines, weather shifts, and the world evolves as days pass.
The Clock
Time is displayed in the HUD at the top of the screen, showing the current day, time, and weather.
The day is divided into 8 time slots:
| Slot | Hours |
|---|---|
| Dawn | 03:00 – 06:00 |
| Morning | 06:00 – 09:00 |
| Late Morning | 09:00 – 12:00 |
| Afternoon | 12:00 – 15:00 |
| Late Afternoon | 15:00 – 18:00 |
| Evening | 18:00 – 21:00 |
| Late Evening | 21:00 – 00:00 |
| Night | 00:00 – 03:00 |
Time advances continuously while the game is unpaused — no player action needed. Conversations also advance time based on their length.
Time Controls
Pause and Resume
Use the pause/resume buttons in the HUD to stop or start time. Your pause state is saved — if you leave and come back, the game stays paused or unpaused as you left it.
Sleep
During evening or night, a moon icon appears in the HUD. Click it to sleep until morning — the screen fades to black and time advances to the start of the next day.
Passage of Time
Click the campaign day number in the HUD to open the Passage of Time panel. From here you can skip forward or rewind.
Skipping forward:
- Choose a target day and time slot.
- For short skips (1–3 days), time advances with automatic daily digests.
- For longer skips (more than 3 days), you can write summaries for individual NPCs and settlements describing what happened during the gap. Leave entries empty for automatic bridges.
Rewinding:
- Set the target day to an earlier day to rewind.
- Rewinding permanently deletes all memories, conversations, story progress, and daily digests after the target day. You'll need to confirm before proceeding.
Same-day adjustment:
- Change just the time slot to move forward or backward within the current day.
Daily Reset
At 03:00 each day, the daily cycle resets:
- The daily digest generates overnight events — what happened in the world while you weren't watching.
- A new day summary is created for the Journal.
- Weather is randomized per biome for the new day.
- NPCs return home and begin their daily routines again.
Weather
Weather is generated per biome and per time of day. It's shown in the HUD and influences NPC dialogue — characters will comment on a storm or mention the heat.
Weather varies by biome type: a desert world gets sandstorms and scorching sun, while a frozen tundra gets blizzards and ice fog.
NPC Schedules
NPCs move between locations based on the time of day. During the day, they travel to their workplace and social haunts. At night, they return home. Hover over a building to see which NPCs are currently there.
See Daily Routines for more on configuring NPC schedules.