Is a round roughly six seconds or ten seconds?

[Piratecat]

I'm mixing up my editions. In 4e, is a round roughly 6 or 10 seconds, or is it not specified?

Thanks!

 

[Bold or Stupid]

6 seconds, so says the Rules Compendium.

 

[Piratecat]

Thank you! I'm suddenly having flashbacks to 1e's 1 minute long combat round, and how stridently I defended it to my friends at the time...

 

[Rune]

Thank you! I'm suddenly having flashbacks to 1e's 1 minute long combat round, and how stridently I defended it to my friends at the time...

As did I (in 2nd edition). But I still don't have a problem with that aspect of combat in those editions. It was no more abstract than the hit point system. What really slowed the combat rounds down was the initiative mechanic in 2nd edition (and, you know, all the math at the table). As for the 1 minute rounds, in a sense, they helped encourage describing the combats.

At least, that's the way I remember it. I haven't played 2nd edition since people started cobbling together unofficial 3rd editions based on leaked info about what 3rd edition was going to look like, back in the early days of Eric Noah's site.

Of course, you were a play-tester, so it's probably been even longer for you?

 

[Piratecat]

I loved the 2e initiative system - d10 every round, add spell casting time (in segments) or weapon speed factor, low goes first. I was sure when we playtested 3e that the 3e initiative system was the worst thing about the game. I said so to Monte Cook and Kim Mohan, quite vociferously. They told me (politely) to shut the hell up and try it.

I had to eat my words. We loved it once we got used to it. I was just being stubborn.

 

[Markn]

I felt the same PC. I was a big fan of 2e initiative system. Like you, I was also against the 3e change but after seeing the big time savings it was well worth the change. Still, I do miss the variables that come into play with a different initative every round...

 

[DracoSuave]

I prefer the World of Darkness way of deciding time for rounds:

It's as long as it has to be.

In reality, it doesn't truly -matter- how long a combat round is, so long as everyone gets to contribute.

 

[RangerWickett]

Initiative and round duration has become contentious in my group since one of the players became a cop. He knows it's a game, but he doesn't see why he has to let a screaming orc charge him from 60 ft. away while he stands there with his crossbow/longbow/pistol, unable to shoot the chump.

 

[Wik]

We go with ten second rounds in 4e, simply because we all agreed that the average combat shouldn't last approximately thirty seconds - it doesn't seem to sync up to the source material (in our case, movies like Conan the Barbarian or Lord of the Rings).

As we play it, the average combat is something like fifty to sixty seconds, which is still fast, but not quite as fast.

Were I to design a game from the ground up, I'd like to see it work around fifteen second rounds, which would be great, unless the time it took to process a round at the table was super fast - and then I'd prefer something like Shadowrun's super-fast three second rounds.

 

[Wik]

Oh yeah. When we played 2e, we shortened it down to either 15 or 30 second rounds (don't remember). And I do remember the long rounds helped foster some more descriptive play elements in a way - and I fully agree with PC that weapon speeds/2e initiative was great fun, as it gave dagger fighters a small benefit against that two-handed sword guy.

I hated 3e's initiative system at first too, until I sat down and played through a couple of rounds.