It's About Time

Turns, Rounds, Seconds and how we think about time in the game.

The role-playing hobby is formed around playing a particular type of GAME. The game comes in many forms today, but regardless of the rule system used it usually involves taking "turns" during which each player takes various actions with their playing piece(s) called player characters. What these game turns represent in the passage of game time varies from system to system. In the world's first role-playing game, co-authors Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson set the game "Turn" at 10 minutes and combat is measured in "Rounds". of which there are ten (each round is 1 minute long) during a Turn. Depending on how you view it, the implications of time passing can have significant impact on the game...or not.

For example what does a 1 minute round of combat look like to the imagination? I frequently think about the 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood as an example of the sort of combat exchanges which may be taking place during a 1 minute round of melee. In Volume 3 of the LBBs, Gary Gygax describes melee as "fast and furious". With this description in mind, as referee I prefer that combat proceed from round to round rather quickly. Each round would obviously involve a series of "attacks" and parries, lunges and maneuvers. The entire affair would take up a bit of space around the starting position of the combatants and possibly result in the wearing down of one or both, perhaps even in wounding or death. Yes, this is the 1 minute combat round as I view it.

A "Turn" spent exploring the underground is assumed to represent ten minutes of time. During this time characters may cautiously move about the underground, conceivably also looking for traps and secret doors and listening for noises. The underground is a dangerous place, after all. Combat, as previously stated, occurs in 1 minute "Rounds".

When traveling through the wilderness a turn can involve a longer period of game time passing. Each turn is considered a day of cross country travel according to Volume 3 of the LBBs. The rules give movement rates in terms of the 5 mile "hex". After six days of travel, the adventurers will need to rest a day.

Other game systems measure time differently. The GURPS family of games (including Dungeon Fantasy) uses the term "seconds" to refer to the concept of a game turn. Each "second" in the game a character may take an action such as "ready a weapon", make an "attack", "move" a distance (GURPS uses the 1-yard hexagon), cast a spell and so forth. Hackmaster 5 uses a variation on the seconds of time concept. Actions in Hackmaster 5 take time in terms of a number of seconds similar to the way they do in real life. The Hackmaster 5 game tracks the passage of time in seconds using the "Count Up". Character actions, delays and recoveries require the passing of a given number of seconds. Thus the game's combat is always flowing and the player can decide to abandon one action and start another as each new second is announced by the referee meaning that you really aren't "waiting for your turn".

Did I mention that Mr. Gygax suggests that melee should be "fast and furious"? If that is the feeling I am going for, then abstraction is my friend. Lump a lot of the detail into a minimum of game factors and roll a die - it's a process that gives a quick result and allows the game to move on to the next "turn". That is about as quick as one can get. Hesitate too long while deciding what to do, or spend a lot of time calculating details, looking things up or rolling the die multiple times, and the action slows way down. The "feeling" changes. The pace of the game - in other words the passing of real time at the table - is a major contributor to how the game will feel.