Do you miss the Turn?

[Swiftbrook]

Basic D&D had 10 second rounds but kept the turn at 10 minutes.

AD&D (1E & 2E) had a 1 minute combat round with 10 rounds = 1 Turn.

I don't mind the time switch. What I don't like is not changing the missile weapon rules. In AD&D, a long bow could fire 2 arrows per round but crossbows only one bolt every round or every other round in the case of a heavy crossbow. In 3E, you can now fire bows and crossbows unrealistically fast.

I'm not going to get into the whole thing. I like the new time system, I don't like what they did with missile weapons

-Swiftbrook

 

[MerricB]

I don't see the real advantage with (a) since you can just say it in minutes or 10s of minutes... really I don't see the point :\

A group of characters (slowest speed 20') walks 100' down a corridor, searching for traps and secret doors along the way. They come to a door, where they listen at it and search it for traps (Take 20 on the trapfinding) before forcing it open, which takes 4 attempts.

They then are attacked by orcs. The combat lasts 6 rounds (including a surprise round).

How long has all of this taken?

Cheers!

 

[knifespeaks]

I miss the turn....

DM'ing 3.5 recently, my first experience of these 'new rules', and the thought came to me....how do I keep track of how long a torch burns without turns?

So, I brought 'em back

Long live turns

 

[Davelozzi]

How long has all of this taken?

I'd just say "abouy five minutes" and wouldn't bother to calculate the specifics.

 

[MerricB]

I'd just say "abouy five minutes" and wouldn't bother to calculate the specifics.

Indeed. But D&D 3E actually tells you the exact timings for each.

Saying "about five minutes" is conceptually equal to using the Turn.

In D&D 3E, if you are running it properly, that progression will take about 70 rounds (70 x 6 = 420 seconds = 7 minutes).

I'm making an assumption about searching, though - I have this suspicion it is actually 130 x 6 = 780 seconds = 13 minutes.

Interestingly, while in 1E you had nice containers of the "round" and "turn" to put your actions into, in 3E you only have the "round" - everything is measured using it.

Cheers!

 

[Plane Sailing]

I think about 30 minutes is about as long as one of my combats ever goes...

Seriously? I find that with 4-6 players an encounter of appropriate challenge rating for 8th level characters takes about 6 rds and 1+ hours to resolve. I can't remember a combat which took under 30 mins (outside of shooting ducks in a barrel kind of thing).

How do you keep them so short?

 

[MerricB]

My strongest objection to the demise of the turn is that it made time-keeping simple (if sometimes inaccurate) and easy to explain to new DMs.

D&D is obsessed with keeping track of time - with spells of varying durations and the like.

You can see the basics in 3E of a system that relies on the "minute" rather than the 10-minute turn; this would be fine if it were expanded upon more.

The idea of the "turn" is definitely gamist in philosophy: it makes the game easier to run, rather than an accurate simulation.

When you consider that 3E moves more towards the tactical game elements of combat, it's odd that this has moved the other way.

Cheers!

 

[Thanee]

If you like it, it's really not hard to break up the time flow into segments of 10 minutes each and call them "turns".

Bye
Thanee

 

[Fenes]

I don't see a need for turns. I don't run a game which relies on knowing exactly how much time passed between two scenes or encounters. Usually we only need to know if a spell is still in effect or not, and if we are not sure then we roll a die or flip a coin.

 

[MerricB]

Seriously? I find that with 4-6 players an encounter of appropriate challenge rating for 8th level characters takes about 6 rds and 1+ hours to resolve. I can't remember a combat which took under 30 mins (outside of shooting ducks in a barrel kind of thing).

How do you keep them so short?

The lack of spellcasting beyond "blow them up with fireball" probably helps.

I also have a very low tolerance of dithering. If someone can't tell me immediately what they're doing when their turn comes up, they miss their turn.

However, this might just be my impression of combat. I'm sure they take significantly less than an hour each - except for a few big battles (30 combatants on the enemy's side...)

Cheers!