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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gus L" data-source="post: 9535101" data-attributes="member: 7045072">See that's where we might take slightly different paths...I think that it makes no sense to have rounds measured in actual time units at all, but I do want a high level of abstraction in my "rounds" I don't think it needs to be a minute, but I certainly don't think it should be "six seconds" or whatever oddly exact amount of time has been cited in recent editions. Abstracted combat time, like abstracted exploration time ("The Turn") are to me useful in that they model a period where the players and the world (though the referee) can act.  They're necessary as a tool for playing the game. Arguments from reasonableness or reality don't make much of an impression on me when I'm trying to run a game that includes dragons and walking dead. In my experience they too often become something like those arguments about how sharp a katana is (1980's preteen logic: they can cut through ANYTHING...) When one appeals to reality then one's players can appeal to it as well - and there are lots of arguments about pre-modern combat that aren't worth having, and lots of times one needs to simply say "No you don't get to stun/kill/do triple damage to an enemy because you watched some weird youtube video."How granular the combat round is though is another question.  It strikes me as very much a design question of how focused one want to be on combat.  If each to hit roll represents a single swing of a weapon then one will likely be pretty combat focused, the descriptions in play will be detailed and specific, while the mechanics can expand to cover what one might do in an individual moment during a fight... I personally don't want a combat focused game, so the idea of a round as a longer exchange of blows works for me.  I guess an analogy would be a video game where you press the attack button to swing a sword vs. something more like an auto battler.  Since I want to focus on dungeon exploration and overcoming obstacles through unpuzzling them and risk management it makes sense to keep combat fairly abstract.  I mean I should make quivers only hold 5 shots and allow a roll after combat to pick up arrows or something, but nah. Missile weapons aren't especially useful in dungeon combats once one adopts a solid "shooting into melee is bad" rule.That's just my experience though.</blockquote>

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