Question about turns.

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PureSparta
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Question about turns.

Post by PureSparta »

So, i was playing a game last night and something quite obvious, but that i actually never thought about came up. When dealing with player turns inside a dungeon during exploration, how do you handle the actual time compared to their actions? The book says that each player turn takes 10 minutes. But if, say, 2 players decide to look for traps on opposite walls...are they taking 2 turns (meaning 20 minutes) in total or they are "acting" on the "same turn", meaning they both acting simultaneously, thus taking only 10 minutes.

I understand if they were trying to look for something in the same space (one search, and then the other tries to search it), but it kinda doesn't make sense that one player would just wait there doing nothing until the other finishes searching a wall, only then to begin searching the opposite wall himself...

Is my thought process correct? How should i approach this and similar situations regarding turns?
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Metroknight
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Re: Question about turns.

Post by Metroknight »

The way I have handled it is if player A begins his search, it takes him 10 minutes to finish. If player B starts his search 3 minutes later, it takes him 10 minutes to search which forces player A to do something else for 3 minutes of game time.

Basically
Player A:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Player B:- - - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Each takes their full time on their action whether they start at the same time or not. This means from your example, it will take only 10 minutes for them to each search a wall if they start at the same time.
PureSparta
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Re: Question about turns.

Post by PureSparta »

Metroknight wrote: Sun Jan 27, 2019 2:56 am The way I have handled it is if player A begins his search, it takes him 10 minutes to finish. If player B starts his search 3 minutes later, it takes him 10 minutes to search which forces player A to do something else for 3 minutes of game time.

Basically
Player A:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Player B:- - - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Each takes their full time on their action whether they start at the same time or not. This means from your example, it will take only 10 minutes for them to each search a wall if they start at the same time.
Thanks for your input! Yeah, that's exactly how i rationalized those situations in my head, but wanted to know if there was a universal interpretation of that rule that everybody abided to. Since resource management and time is such an important factor in OSR playstyle, i figured that is one thing me and my group should get as correct as possible...
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Clever_Munkey
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Re: Question about turns.

Post by Clever_Munkey »

Yeah. I interpret turn as an abstract measurement of time equal to roughly 10 minutes, that also saves us from typing out X*10 minutes every time. I usually don't worry about things down to the minute. Player A says they want to search one wall, Player B wants to search a different wall, then they search them at the same time, and it all takes 1 turn. If I say a turn is 10 +/- 5 minutes, then it's hard to find a situation where I can't just wave my hand, and say it all balances out in the end so let's just say everything takes about 10 minutes.

My rule: if it could reasonably done in less than 2-3 minutes, then it effectively happens immediately, and it doesn't take a turn.
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PureSparta
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Re: Question about turns.

Post by PureSparta »

Clever_Munkey wrote: Mon Jan 28, 2019 2:50 pm Yeah. I interpret turn as an abstract measurement of time equal to roughly 10 minutes, that also saves us from typing out X*10 minutes every time. I usually don't worry about things down to the minute. Player A says they want to search one wall, Player B wants to search a different wall, then they search them at the same time, and it all takes 1 turn. If I say a turn is 10 +/- 5 minutes, then it's hard to find a situation where I can't just wave my hand, and say it all balances out in the end so let's just say everything takes about 10 minutes.

My rule: if it could reasonably done in less than 2-3 minutes, then it effectively happens immediately, and it doesn't take a turn.
Pretty much how i handle those "small" actions too. Thanks for your input. Guess there is a consensus on this issue afterall haha.
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Solomoriah
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Re: Question about turns.

Post by Solomoriah »

Most PCs don't have timepieces on them. Rather than keeping strict track of every moment, I just make a mental note of any action that takes a turn as being 10 minutes; also, every argument about where to go, or any other time-wasting activity the players think up, is at least another turn. When they exit the dungeon again I round the time consumed up a little bit to figure out what time it is... or if they indicate they want to rest, I figure it out then. You can't get out of bed, search one small room, and justify going back to bed, after all.
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PureSparta
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Re: Question about turns.

Post by PureSparta »

Solomoriah wrote: Thu Feb 07, 2019 9:14 am Most PCs don't have timepieces on them. Rather than keeping strict track of every moment, I just make a mental note of any action that takes a turn as being 10 minutes; also, every argument about where to go, or any other time-wasting activity the players think up, is at least another turn. When they exit the dungeon again I round the time consumed up a little bit to figure out what time it is... or if they indicate they want to rest, I figure it out then. You can't get out of bed, search one small room, and justify going back to bed, after all.
Lol true. That "time-wasting" counting towards actual time wasted is a nice touch that i didn't think about, definetly gonna keep that in mind in my next games. It also puts pressure on the players to keep moving instead of arguing about stuff.
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