How is "Next Day" Defined?

[demontroll]

The term "next day" is used a lot in reference to when things can be recharged or tried again. So is there an official definition of what this means?

Is it exactly 24 hours from the occurrence, or does it refresh in the morning after a night's rest?

Does the definition change based on what is involved, or is it always the same?

[HappyDaze]

For simplicity's sake, I would suggest sunrise being the mark of the "next day" since it will avoid a great deal of bookkeeping. It also works well with the magical/mythical angle.

[TriOmegaZero]

I base it off of when spellcasters prepare their spells for the day.

[wraithstrike]

24 hours is what the devs will most likely say, but most GM's don't track things that closely. I normally use HD's idea when I run a game.

[HermitIX]

As a DM I normaly I go by midnight or dawn. But if I am a player it is when ever we rest.

[Mauril]

I tend to treat "next day" as "after no more than 24 hours and no less than an 8 hour rest", whichever is relevant.

This prevents someone from using a 1/day ability at 11:59 pm and then using it again at 12:01 am. However, we also don't want to penalize a player who didn't have to use an ability until late in the evening from being able to use it early in the next day if it is relevant.

[Ravingdork]

Unless something specifically says 8 or 24 hours later, the next day is exactly that, the next day (12am, or for simplicity, at sunrise).

[StabbittyDoom]

Mauril wrote:

I tend to treat "next day" as "after no more than 24 hours and no less than an 8 hour rest", whichever is relevant.

This prevents someone from using a 1/day ability at 11:59 pm and then using it again at 12:01 am. However, we also don't want to penalize a player who didn't have to use an ability until late in the evening from being able to use it early in the next day if it is relevant.

This is pretty close to how I've run it.

If it's X/day, or a similar resource: 8 hours rest.

If it's "cannot affect X again for 24 hours" or a similar type of thing, but the ability is not actually using up a resource: 24 hours or 8 hours rest, whichever comes first. This is basically where anything other than daily resources goes.

[Some call me Tim]

I typically go with next day as being after 8 hours of rest.

It avoids the whole 11:59pm and 12:01am being two different "days."

If the party isn't resting for some reason then I would say 8 hours minimum between uses and at least 24 hours since it was used prior to that.

[O11O1]

I vote in favor of the "After an 8 hour restcycle," interpretation, assuming it's an ability recharge, and that the party isn't intentionally abusing that to full-rest twice in one day.