Time, Move/Turn, Melee Round

[Deleted]

In the underworld all distances are in feet, so whenever distances are given in inches convert them to tens of feet.

Movement (distances given in Vol 1) is in segments of approximately ten minutes. Thus it takes ten minutes to move about two moves - 120 feet for a fully-armored character. Two moves constitute a turn, except in flight/pursuit situations where the moves/turn will be doubled (and no mapping allowed).

Melee is fast and furious. There are ten rounds of combat per turn.

Wilderness -
Scale: Assume the greatest distance across a hex is about 5 miles.
Turn: Each move will constitute one day. Each day is considered a turn.

As I noted before, I played back in the 70's but hardly at all since then and my memory is a bit vague on some things.

To summarize the above from Vol 3, movement is in segments of 10 min and 10 min is two moves which equals a turn. Melee is 10 rounds to a turn or 1 min rounds. But for wilderness travel a move=a day=a turn. There are multiple definitions of turns, moves and rounds in the game. What system does the majority use or what system do you use in a game? Does everyone use a 1 minute long melee round or do you use something shorter? What travel times do you use for dungeon vs wilderness vs whatever?

[philotomy]

I use the standard rates for everything except the melee round. My OD&D game grew out of Holmes roots, and I've kept a 10-12 second melee round.

[makofan]

I am considering making that double-move 10 minute turn only one of many options. I assume that it takes into account:
1) Imperfect lighting
2) Unexplored area
3) Stopping to map
4) Checking for traps as you move
5) Casually looking for secret dors
6) Dwarves applying their abilities
7) Frequent listening/scouting

Thus if my players were moving back through an explored area, not searching for traps, not scouting, I may make their turn be a five-move turn. By giving players the options, they can balance time/danger.

For combat, I am thinking of 10-second rounds, but any combat turn ends up being 10 minutes as in the aftermath people are taking inventory, cathing their breath, etc.

[philotomy]

I use the following for movement rates (also see my movement in combat musing for some comments -- especially concerning the elf movement rate):

Race	Light (leather)	Heavy (chain)	Armored (plate)
Human	12"	9"	6"
Elf	15"	12"	6"
Dwarf	9"	6"	3"
Hobbit	9"	6"	3"

Turn-based movement then works like this

Exploring/Mapping	x2	(6" == 120' per turn)
Normal/Confident	x4	(6" == 240' per turn)
Running	x6	(6" == 360' per turn)

Note the compatibility with the Holmes rates, which say a fully armored man would move 120' while exploring, 240' while moving normally, and 360' while running.

[Deleted]

I pretty much stick with the Holmes formula as well.

[tgamemaster1975]

The only thing I really change is I use a 10 sec melee round. A 1 minute melee round just always seemed way too long for me.

[korgoth]

tgamemaster1975 said:

The only thing I really change is I use a 10 sec melee round. A 1 minute melee round just always seemed way too long for me.

I would also use a 10 second round.

Have you run into any unforseen snags when making this adjustment?

[philotomy]

I think a 1 min. round works well for Chainmail mass-combat. I'm less fond of it for man-to-man skirmishes.

I think the only thing I adjusted for a 10-second round is the movement/encounter speed. After making calculations based on 4.5 feet-per-second average walking pace, I came to the conclusion that the B/X rule of encounter speed equalling movement rate divided by three is a reasonable (and convenient) approximation.

24"	80' per round	160' per round charge
21"	70' per round	140' per round charge
18"	60' per round	120' per round charge
15"	50' per round	100' per round charge
12"	40' per round	80' per round charge
9"	30' per round	60' per round charge
6"	20' per round	40' per round charge
3"	10 per round	20' per round charge

I have a PDF with the movement rates I use.

[crimhthanthegreat]

The 4.5 feet/sec average walking pace is 3.0 miles per hour. I use a 6 sec melee round for combat (that would be 27 feet covered at the 4.5 feet/sec speed. I just adjust everything according to that. I picked that based on reading that a English longbowman could get off a shot every 6 sec. A swordsman is going to make quite a several attempts to hit, parries and use of shield etc in that length of time, but we roll for one hit. I think that this time frame works really well for melee. Most spells take one melee round to cast.

[WSmith]

philotomy said:

I have a PDF with the movement rates I use.

This is what I have decided to make as my standard also.

[Finarvyn]

Actually, I tend not to think much about distance & time scales in my OD&D games. I assume that each turn allows for most mundane actions, and that several sword swings occur within a single die roll, and otherwise try not to pin myself down on the details.

Now, when I ran AD&D I tended to focus more on specifics because the rules seemed to demand it more. OD&D is just too free and loose for me to sweat the details.