My problem with six-second rounds

[Barak]

Spell cast by a 10th level caster that's 1 minute per level: that's 100 rounds of combat. If monsters in a dungeon complex you're attacking is repelling your attacks in waves, that's 100 rounds of combat.

At 10 seconds per round, that's now 60 rounds - 40% less usage, overall!

Admittedly, it won't matter in most scenarios, where most people cast bull's strength, etc. once per combat, but when you run at 6 rounds a minute, reinforcements arriving in waves become even more plausible; sounds of battle in a complex, the reinforcements come running... they'll arrive in a minute's or two minutes' time, no?

Further, the distance you can move is altered, to 60 ft. in 10 seconds' time. However, this corresponds EXACTLY to the old AD&D movement system of 120 yards in one minutes' time.

Again, not problem-free, but the problems are minor ones. Note Castles and Crusades is already on a 10-second round scheme, with one "turn" equalling a minute, or 6 rounds.

Fine, instead of 1 minute/level, go back to 10 rounds/level.

 

[Firebird]

I know what you mean about 6 seconds a round being too short. This measure of time makes it very hard to have reinforcements arrive in time to make any difference to a battle. ither they are right behind the door or they don't show up in time (especially with the times needed to armor themselves, buff, travel time, etc.). Most (if not all) of my game fights are over in less than 10 rounds.
Things get even more strange when you consider multiple attacks in that same 6 seconds and maybe one or more AoO (depending on feats), all crammed into the same tiny temporal space. The old one minute round assumed that many swings and misses, attacks and counter-attacks took place each round. The new round must assume that every swing is for the fence.
A double move for a human is 60 ft. 10 ft/. sec. I would find it hard to make it 60 ft in 6 seconds. I'm sure I'd find it impossible to make it 40 ft. in the same 6 seconds in heavy armor.
In short, I don't much care for the 6 second round but am not sure of how to change it given how much is tied to it.

 

[buzz]

A double move for a human is 60 ft. 10 ft/. sec. I would find it hard to make it 60 ft in 6 seconds.

Well, that's a little under 7 mph. An on-the-slow-side human being can run at 14mph, the fastest at about 25 mph, with a decent runner at 19mph. Ergo, 7 mph for "hustle" seems reasonable to me, even in armor.

Granted, talking about real-life statistics like this w/r/t D&D is only going to lead to madness. I only bring it up becuase... Ia! Ia! Cthulhu ftaghn!

 

[Taraxia]

I take rounds to be an average, not an absolute time frame for each individual round. One round might be 15 seconds (enough to say a whole sentence), one round might be one second (enough time for a character to swing a sword once as a full attack -- yeah, I don't see it taking 6 seconds to swing a sword, not even for a 1st-level warrior). As long as it all balances out in the end, it's fine.

 

[DonTadow]

I know what you mean about 6 seconds a round being too short. This measure of time makes it very hard to have reinforcements arrive in time to make any difference to a battle. ither they are right behind the door or they don't show up in time (especially with the times needed to armor themselves, buff, travel time, etc.). Most (if not all) of my game fights are over in less than 10 rounds.
Things get even more strange when you consider multiple attacks in that same 6 seconds and maybe one or more AoO (depending on feats), all crammed into the same tiny temporal space. The old one minute round assumed that many swings and misses, attacks and counter-attacks took place each round. The new round must assume that every swing is for the fence.
A double move for a human is 60 ft. 10 ft/. sec. I would find it hard to make it 60 ft in 6 seconds. I'm sure I'd find it impossible to make it 40 ft. in the same 6 seconds in heavy armor.
In short, I don't much care for the 6 second round but am not sure of how to change it given how much is tied to it.

Six seconds is just a suggestion in my book. Again we go with whatever is cinematic. A techincailly 30 second battle usually lasts 10 minutes in our imaginary time. Think about it, most battles last no less than 10 rounds (if that) thats a minute. HOw epic is that. thus, we insttitue the cinematic rules. We imagine the last epic battle with a boss lasting 30 minutes to an hour.

 

[coyote6]

Hmm, base the length of a round on average party level -- something like (5*average party level) seconds long? That way those epic characters have long, epic battles (rather than "over-in-twelve-seconds, thanks save-or-die!").

(Of course, they also run realllllly slowwwwwlly . . . )

 

[jmucchiello]

(Of course, they also run realllllly slowwwwwlly . . . )

That's special effects like bullet-time (or maybe just the six million dollar man running )

 

[Victim]

Remove simultaneous actions. Sure, people aren't just sitting around when it's not their turn. But each character's action is the 6 seconds that the spotlight is on them. Then the "camera" cuts to another character and follows their action for a little bit. This method basically kills the time keeping aspect of rounds, but allows for more reasonable battle durations while still keeping each action fairly short.

 

[blargney the second]

I think you guys are right - I'm overthinking it. I stopped hanging out in the RAW forums a few months ago, but there are a few lingering side-effects that you are helping me eradicate.

I like the cinematic/comic panel approaches. That's really nifty.
-blarg

 

[the Jester]

Yeah, in recent months I have really gotten behind the idea of occasional "cinematic" bits that break the rules slightly (30 seconds of dialogue in a six-second round, f'rinstance). If you're careful to make sure that nothing that falls under the "cinematic clause" has any real in-game effect, I think you're fine. (Even knocking someone down and having them spring back up or something, so long as nobody loses any actions, takes an AoO or gets any extra bonuses in the process.)