The Long Watch is what your character does while you are away. Step out of the realm, and they keep a quiet vigil; come back, and you claim the experience and gold that vigil earned.

How it works

• The watch begins the moment you stop playing. Nothing to switch on, nothing to remember.
• You bank experience at a quarter of your fighting pace — it is meant to keep you moving, never to replace playing — and a modest purse of gold alongside it, at a fifth of that rate.
• The watch pays only if you have actually played since your last claim. Earn some experience on any of your characters first, or it reports nothing.
• Absences shorter than five minutes bank nothing at all.
• The watch fills for up to 12 hours per absence. Beyond that it simply waits for you.
• Return and claim it from your stat panel. Twelve hours at that pace comes to about three levels, so a long absence never vaults you past content you have not seen.

Why the cap

A watch that never stopped filling would make logging out the best way to play. Twelve hours means a night's sleep or a working day is fully rewarded, while a fortnight away does not hand you the endgame. Come back, claim, and get on with the realm.