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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zamkaizer" data-source="post: 4069945" data-attributes="member: 55476">Concerning TimeWhile I've never taken issue with the abstraction of space, or, to a lesser extent, the abstraction of...the multitude of things hit points represent, the abstraction of time has always bothered me. Characters performing their actions in turns has always put pressure on both my suspension of disbelief and other rules. Try representing one character running down another--with one shooting out 80 feet in front of the other before the distance is closed once again--and you'll see just how wacky the abstraction of time can get. Were I to design 4E, this would be amongst the first issues I'd attempt to address.A goofy idea I've been kicking around in my head for some time--and I'm not sure 4E would be the best place to attempt to implement it--is a way in which to represent simultaneous action. At it's most basic level, it goes something like this: instead of each character having a turn consisting of a move action and a standard action, all characters act simultaneously on a round divided into five segments, during the entirety of which a character can make some number of standard actions. At the beginning of each segment, the character decides whether they want to take a standard action, take a move action, or do nothing. The characters who take a standard action do so according to their speed, modified, perhaps, by their weapon (a rapier, for instance, is faster, if less brutal, than an axe). Following that, the characters who take a move action do so according to their speed. I have not yet decided what length of time a round represents--perhaps 10 seconds--though it would dictate how far each character can move with a single action and how many standard actions a character may take.In theory, this would make movement significantly more dynamic. Characters would react to one another's movements, attempting to intercept and avoid one another. Each attack could be effectively be a spring attack. It also allows for subtle changes in balance, such as how certain spells might require their caster not move for a number of segments. It also represents much more realistically certain instances of movement. Take the aforementioned example of one character pursuing another. Instead of the pursued rocketing off in front of their adversary by some ridiculous distance, they would instead do so by a distance only about a fifth as ridiculous.Next time: I further represent how unqualified I am by examining weapons and reach.</blockquote>

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