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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 9274832" data-attributes="member: 82106">Unfortunately the original game's 'rules' with respect to this sort of thing are extremely fragmented and confusing. First of all the combat system is described as being Chainmail, but that system uses a 20:1 figure to creature ratio and is intended for mass combat, so turns are minutes long at the very least. Clearly D&amp;D intends to adapt that system to a 1:1 ratio, but it is pretty vague about how that works. Book 3 has some time rules here and there, one being p 35 where it discusses campaign time and movement, and wilderness time. On page 25 is a paragraph called 'land combat' which states that chainmail is used with a 1:1 figure ratio, but it doesn't mention time at all. Page 8 discusses time in the underworld, but the terminology is, to say the least, confusing! It indicates scale is inches to feet and movement is 'in segments of approximately 10 minutes', but then states that 'it takes ten minutes to move about two moves', which I assume is referencing the phased movement rules of Chainmail, maybe? Then it says that 2 moves 'constitute a turn'. So we are left with the conclusion that the original rules agree with AD&amp;D, a turn is 10 minutes. This also happens to mean that the movement rates come out the same as AD&amp;D 1e, which all seems reasonably consistent at least.As for melee, a single sentence at the end of this section suggests &quot;There are ten rounds of combat per turn.&quot; Again, consistent with AD&amp;D 1e we get 1 minute melee rounds, 10 per turn. I think the only conclusion we can come to is that Fireball has a 'duration' of 10 minutes, but that this is essentially a meaningless value since the EFFECT is clearly instantaneous.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 9274832, member: 82106"] Unfortunately the original game's 'rules' with respect to this sort of thing are extremely fragmented and confusing. First of all the combat system is described as being Chainmail, but that system uses a 20:1 figure to creature ratio and is intended for mass combat, so turns are minutes long at the very least. Clearly D&D intends to adapt that system to a 1:1 ratio, but it is pretty vague about how that works. Book 3 has some time rules here and there, one being p 35 where it discusses campaign time and movement, and wilderness time. On page 25 is a paragraph called 'land combat' which states that chainmail is used with a 1:1 figure ratio, but it doesn't mention time at all. Page 8 discusses time in the underworld, but the terminology is, to say the least, confusing! It indicates scale is inches to feet and movement is 'in segments of approximately 10 minutes', but then states that 'it takes ten minutes to move about two moves', which I assume is referencing the phased movement rules of Chainmail, maybe? Then it says that 2 moves 'constitute a turn'. So we are left with the conclusion that the original rules agree with AD&D, a turn is 10 minutes. This also happens to mean that the movement rates come out the same as AD&D 1e, which all seems reasonably consistent at least. As for melee, a single sentence at the end of this section suggests "There are ten rounds of combat per turn." Again, consistent with AD&D 1e we get 1 minute melee rounds, 10 per turn. I think the only conclusion we can come to is that Fireball has a 'duration' of 10 minutes, but that this is essentially a meaningless value since the EFFECT is clearly instantaneous. [/QUOTE]

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