Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Gus L" data-source="post: 9535543" data-attributes="member: 7045072">I don't see these as needing to be measured in real life units of time. In RPGs one does not manage &quot;clocks&quot; by looking at a clock, one does so by counting some sort of turn.&nbsp; The acid burns for 1D6+1 rounds, the spell's duration is 6 turns etc... Even when (as in AD&amp;D) these things are measured in minutes per the rulebook, using them requires translating those minutes into Turns or Rounds.&nbsp; The actual game time (barring extremely rare &quot;real-time&quot; mechanics such as the falling ceiling trap in Tomb of Horrors) is always measured in some unit that is independent of the real world clock.It may take a little clarifying but generally I find that making it clear that everything is tied to turns and rounds (and watches for wilderness travel/sessions for downtime) makes the choices very obvious to players.&nbsp; Gone is any discussion of how many days or minutes something will take because there's intentionally not a real world analogue, there's no fiddling around with that translation from fiction to game. Sure one still can say things like &quot;it's been a few minutes&quot; or &quot;hours pass while you wait&quot; and maybe mark off a few turns (or even 6 turns an hour), but the focus is on the unit of game action rather then the time.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Gus L, post: 9535543, member: 7045072"] I don't see these as needing to be measured in real life units of time. In RPGs one does not manage "clocks" by looking at a clock, one does so by counting some sort of turn. The acid burns for 1D6+1 rounds, the spell's duration is 6 turns etc... Even when (as in AD&D) these things are measured in minutes per the rulebook, using them requires translating those minutes into Turns or Rounds. The actual game time (barring extremely rare "real-time" mechanics such as the falling ceiling trap in Tomb of Horrors) is always measured in some unit that is independent of the real world clock. It may take a little clarifying but generally I find that making it clear that everything is tied to turns and rounds (and watches for wilderness travel/sessions for downtime) makes the choices very obvious to players. Gone is any discussion of how many days or minutes something will take because there's intentionally not a real world analogue, there's no fiddling around with that translation from fiction to game. Sure one still can say things like "it's been a few minutes" or "hours pass while you wait" and maybe mark off a few turns (or even 6 turns an hour), but the focus is on the unit of game action rather then the time. [/QUOTE]

Verification