How long is an action round?

[thewarchief]

I realize that the length of an action round is somewhat elastic being the time it takes for everybody to attempt (at least) one action, but I was wondering how long most people feel a typical action round is in combat.

My reason for asking is that I was working on some some but stuff and I'm trying to translate the time it takes to do something into game terms. For example if it takes a character 30 seconds to do some task should I consider that one action round, three action rounds, five action rounds , six action rounds, or what?

Just wondering what sort of time frame most people use.

[misterharry]

We worked out that in order for vehicle Speeds to make sense when converted into kph, the Action Round in chases must be 45 seconds. But that seems far too long for combat situations - how long does it take to fire a gun or swing a punch? Of course, the character might be waiting for the best shot/strike, but even so. My gut feel is that in combat an Action Round is 15-20 seconds.

[thewarchief]

I Had a power outrage happened right in the middle of my original, brilliant reply. Fortunately somebody changed the fluid links and restored the power, so I can make a lesser attempt. Take Two

Feb 16, 2024 12:52:09 GMT misterharry said:

We worked out that in order for vehicle Speeds to make sense when converted into kph, the Action Round in chases must be 45 seconds.

Must be at least 45 seconds, based on the 300m zones suggested for vehicle chases, and the top speed of vehicles. But that didn't factor in the extra zones you can get from making good skill rolls, nor the fact that vehicles rarely sustain thier top speed for very long, especially on the winding roads of the UK. So wer're probably talking closer to a minute, not that it matters all that much, most of the time.

Still that matched up fairly well with how see see chases play out on the show. Rather than play out each second the show tends to cut back and forth between vehicles as terrain goes by. Planet of SPiders being the definitive example. Everything taking place much more quickly than it probably is happening on the show.

Feb 16, 2024 12:52:09 GMT misterharry said:

. But that seems far too long for combat situations - how long does it take to fire a gun or swing a punch?

Less than a second, but that is hardly time enough for everyone to attempt one action or for some character to attempt multiple action. Personally I don't think it's a good idea for it to take 20 rounds for a character to tie their shoe laces, as that might bog things down.

Feb 16, 2024 12:52:09 GMT misterharry said:

Of course, the character might be waiting for the best shot/strike,

Or running across a room, digging a can of Nitro-9 out of their backpack, or nibbling on some jelly babies.

Feb 16, 2024 12:52:09 GMT misterharry said:

but even so. My gut feel is that in combat an Action Round is 15-20 seconds.

My gut was closer to 5-6 but guts are like that. Let's look at foot chases.

Assuming that:
- average Characters have Coordination 3 and Athletics 2
- on a typical action round the characters will move 3.5833 zones, factoring in for their running rolls.
- characters in a chase are running for their lives and trying to sprint away from a menace at around their top running speed
- average sprinting speed for a human of around 29.475 km/hr (using the average for males and females)
- the average zone in a foot chase is 30m per the rules.

Then in an hour a typical runnier will move 29.475 km or 982.5 zones
And it will take 274.19 action rounds to do so
So 1 action round = 0.03647 hours, or 0.2189 minutes, or 13.129 seconds

So in the 10-15 second range. But that assuming top speed again, which no one is going to be able to do while turning down sidepaths, avoiding obstacles, ducking behind furniture, opening doors, taking to their companions, and such. So if we factor up the times by around 33% like I did above with the chases, round off a little, and uh, carry the five, and uh, we get...17.5 seconds. So 15-20 seconds!

I could swear I seen that before.

Feb 16, 2024 12:52:09 GMT misterharry said:

but even so. My gut feel is that in combat an Action Round is 15-20 seconds.

Oh, yeah.   Good call.

Oh, distance running speeds are slower, around 6 minutes per km or around 10km/hr, so were back at 45-60 seconds for long distance chases, which is very convenient.


So assuming that everyone else guts match yours then since it takes 3 full action rounds to reload a blackpowder weapon, we are taking around 45-60 seconds. Which gives me something to work with, and which also means that it's not unreasonable for a character to shave off a round or two from the reloading time with a Coodination + Marksman roll.

Thanks.

Oh, anyone else got a take on this? I might as well get a consensus before I start posting game stats and such.

[thewarchief]

Hmm, this would put Usain Bolt's speed of 44.72 kph at around Speed 5.44, for say Coordination 4 and Athletics 5 (AoK: Running).

[Marnal]

I just went with 10 seconds. But IIRC I picked that number because it was how long a round was in FASA Dr Who.

[thewarchief]

Mar 7, 2024 4:40:28 GMT Marnal said:

I just went with 10 seconds. But IIRC I picked that number because it was how long a round was in FASA Dr Who.

It works.

As for me, I was trying to see how long it takes to reload a blackpowder weapon, and how vehicle speeds translate into zones. I recently took another peek at Rocket Age, which doesn't use zones but instead lists movement in both kilometers per hour and meters per action round. THe data given indicates a 6 second action round for Rocket Age, which could work in Doctor Who, if you use the 30mx30m zones.

Personally, I'll probably use both, depending on circumstances. A 6-15 second round is great for most character stuff, but longer rounds and larger zones might be better in a chase, where there is bound to be a lot of dull repetitive stuff. It's usually better game play to use one minute rounds with a car two zones ahead of it's pursuers, than 6 seconds rounds with a car twenty zones ahead. I was thinking of using something along the lines of an hour long chase round for sailing vessels, where it might take half a day for one ship to close within gun range of another.

[Marnal]

FASA Dr Who had a whole system for scaling up turn length and movement distances so you could do things at all sorts of scales.