Turns and Rounds - relooking at exploration

[AbdulAlhazred]

Y'know, back in the day...

Right, well we did measure off paces for characters and basically just chose our own within a race's norm (12 or 6 movement). Then the DM would say something like "50 paces and a door to the right, 20 more and a passage to the left".

But that's really too detailed for most folks now. I just assume players are measuring by some means and relate distances in feet or finger width inches. Not telling makes mapping detrimental, but if they're not mapping I don't see a reason to relate distance anyways.

Yeah, even in 4e there's not a lot of reason to be overly precise. That's why things like diagonal movement being simplified or 'square fireballs' never really bothered me. The rules just tell you quick and easy what happens within a good enough approximation that things work. If you made the fireball 'round' maybe you'd find that the corner square isn't in the circle, or more like it is just on the edge with a bit inside. One way or the other you gotta decide if a guy that barely touches the AoE got effected or not. Same with diagonal movement, saying someone always moves '5 squares per round' is only moderately precise, and if a room is 8'x14' well, making it 2x3 squares is good enough too.