Time Keeping.

Time and Time Keeping in any game is one of the necessary responsibilities of the Games Master. Real time and game time are not concurrent. An hour of real time play can cover days, weeks, months of game time or perhaps minutes of game time.

Terri: So, a round of moves could be as little as seconds in game time?

Sam: Yes, especially in battle. Combat can take quite a bit of real time for a minutes worth of combat. Which is why combat is broken down into rounds. Each combat round the pc's and the npc's roll initiative. The higher initiative rolls move first, depending on what you're doing you can have multiple actions during a combat round. So it will seem like the combat round is broken up into further time segments due to people moving during the round.

Terri: Where else in a game could a long period of real time play cover only minutes of game time?

Sam: Social interactions. Roleplaying out a social interaction might only be five minutes of game time, but could take half an hour or longer real time, depending on how in depth you're doing the roleplay and/or how many people are involved.

Terri: And where in a game could an extended period of game time take a short period of real time to roleplay out?

Sam: Travel; going from one city to another city takes a great deal of game time. But unless there's something happening during the journey very little real time is eaten up.

Tomorrow I'll be asking Sam what he believes is unique about D6 Epic.