LikelyArrow
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This post began with a curiosity: why are combat rounds in Basic D&D — Holmes through BECMI — 10 seconds long?
OD&D and AD&D — both editions — have 1 minute combat rounds. WOTC D&D editions have 6 second rounds, which while different is clearly derived from AD&D, which splits up rounds into ten 6 second segments. This makes Basic D&D’s 10 second rounds stand out as a bit of an anomaly.
I think I found the answer. Most of this is speculation, but I’ll try to back up my reasoning the best I can. If you know any evidence that supports or contradicts my theory, please let me know.
The basic hypothesis is this: AD&D was originally going to have 10 second combat rounds, but between the publication of Holmes and the publication of the 1e Player’s Handbook, Gygax changed his mind.
First, let’s pay attention to the timeline:
Now, I can see no scenario in which it makes sense to start people off using 10 second combat rounds only to switch them to 1 minute combat rounds of ten 6 second segments. The single most plausible interpretation of these events to my mind is that the intention was to use 10 second rounds in AD&D, but then Gary changed his mind and decided to keep the 1 minute rounds but divide them into ten segments of 6 seconds each.
It is possible that the intention was to keep rounds 1 minute long but divide them into six 10 second segments. And this gets to a facet of the question I haven’t addressed: why 10 seconds? The answer can be found in Supplement 2: Blackmoor.
The Blackmoor supplement introduced a new variant initiative system that split the round into eight segments: six movement segments, one pre-movement segment, and one post-movement segment. Movement was now to be done on a segment-by-segment basis, with a table for dissecting how far a character could move in each segment based on their per-round movement rate, and attacks occurred on specific segments depending on a number of factors including the character’s Dexterity.
My sense is that the pre-movement and post-movement segments were essentially intended to take a negligible amount of time each — essentially, they were for quick reactions and actions gotten in at the last-second — leaving the 60 seconds of round time divided equally between the six movement segments, making them 10 seconds each. Voila: the origin of 10 second rounds.
The AD&D 1e combat round is similarly divided into segments, but they’re 6 seconds long each and so there are ten of them. This can be a seen as a straightforward variant of the Blackmoor system, and indeed AD&D also tracks events on a segment-by-segment basis — though only in special cases, unlike the Blackmoor system. In AD&D segments are used primarily for surprise segments, when characters get multiple attacks per round, to determine whether an attack interrupts a spell, or whether a spell gets delayed until the next round.
So could the intention have been to use 1 minute rounds with 10 second segments in AD&D, instead of 6 second segments, but otherwise keep the rest of the AD&D (or perhaps Blackmoor) initiative system? It’s possible, but one thing does slightly push against this: A 1st level fighter by Holmes can attack up to 6 times, once per round, while in OD&D and AD&D he can attack at most (I think) 3 times, and that only in very favorable circumstances, including very high Dexterity, a light weapon, and light or no armor.
One piece of evidence I was going to offer was that Basic D&D allowed characters to move twice as fast as OD&D and AD&D characters, between 20 and 40 feet per 10 seconds (between 1.5 and 3 mph). However, I double-checked and that’s a B/X and BECMI thing; Holmes’ speeds track with OD&D and AD&D.
Eh, I suppose it’s possible.
So that leaves one question big question outstanding: why the change to one minute rounds and six second segments? I actually don’t necessarily think this was about the lawsuit with Arneson — which happened in 1979, after the change was made, but if that possibility was already on the horizon then it might have been a way to distinguish AD&D from both Holmes D&D and Arneson’s Blackmoor supplement.
My guess at the moment is simply that (a) he decided that six attacks per minute was too many and (b) ten is a nicer number than six.
Well, that’ll wrap this up. One little bit of trivia before I go: Chainmail does not seem to define the length of its turns, but if we assume a marching speed of about 3mph for light and heavy infantry (move: 9”), then that works out very nearly perfectly if each Chainmail turn is one minute long.
OD&D and AD&D — both editions — have 1 minute combat rounds. WOTC D&D editions have 6 second rounds, which while different is clearly derived from AD&D, which splits up rounds into ten 6 second segments. This makes Basic D&D’s 10 second rounds stand out as a bit of an anomaly.
I think I found the answer. Most of this is speculation, but I’ll try to back up my reasoning the best I can. If you know any evidence that supports or contradicts my theory, please let me know.
The basic hypothesis is this: AD&D was originally going to have 10 second combat rounds, but between the publication of Holmes and the publication of the 1e Player’s Handbook, Gygax changed his mind.
First, let’s pay attention to the timeline:
- OD&D came out in 1974, and specified (Book 3, page 8) that combat rounds are one minute long.
- The Holmes Basic set was published in 1977, and says on page 9 that combat rounds are 10 seconds long.
- The 1e Monster Manual came out in December of that year.
- The Player’s Handbook came out the next year, in June of 1978, with the Dungeon Master’s Guide finishing the trio in 1979. (The DMG is not particularly relevant here since the PHB already established that combat rounds are one minute long.)
Now, I can see no scenario in which it makes sense to start people off using 10 second combat rounds only to switch them to 1 minute combat rounds of ten 6 second segments. The single most plausible interpretation of these events to my mind is that the intention was to use 10 second rounds in AD&D, but then Gary changed his mind and decided to keep the 1 minute rounds but divide them into ten segments of 6 seconds each.
It is possible that the intention was to keep rounds 1 minute long but divide them into six 10 second segments. And this gets to a facet of the question I haven’t addressed: why 10 seconds? The answer can be found in Supplement 2: Blackmoor.
The Blackmoor supplement introduced a new variant initiative system that split the round into eight segments: six movement segments, one pre-movement segment, and one post-movement segment. Movement was now to be done on a segment-by-segment basis, with a table for dissecting how far a character could move in each segment based on their per-round movement rate, and attacks occurred on specific segments depending on a number of factors including the character’s Dexterity.
My sense is that the pre-movement and post-movement segments were essentially intended to take a negligible amount of time each — essentially, they were for quick reactions and actions gotten in at the last-second — leaving the 60 seconds of round time divided equally between the six movement segments, making them 10 seconds each. Voila: the origin of 10 second rounds.
The AD&D 1e combat round is similarly divided into segments, but they’re 6 seconds long each and so there are ten of them. This can be a seen as a straightforward variant of the Blackmoor system, and indeed AD&D also tracks events on a segment-by-segment basis — though only in special cases, unlike the Blackmoor system. In AD&D segments are used primarily for surprise segments, when characters get multiple attacks per round, to determine whether an attack interrupts a spell, or whether a spell gets delayed until the next round.
So could the intention have been to use 1 minute rounds with 10 second segments in AD&D, instead of 6 second segments, but otherwise keep the rest of the AD&D (or perhaps Blackmoor) initiative system? It’s possible, but one thing does slightly push against this: A 1st level fighter by Holmes can attack up to 6 times, once per round, while in OD&D and AD&D he can attack at most (I think) 3 times, and that only in very favorable circumstances, including very high Dexterity, a light weapon, and light or no armor.
One piece of evidence I was going to offer was that Basic D&D allowed characters to move twice as fast as OD&D and AD&D characters, between 20 and 40 feet per 10 seconds (between 1.5 and 3 mph). However, I double-checked and that’s a B/X and BECMI thing; Holmes’ speeds track with OD&D and AD&D.
Eh, I suppose it’s possible.
So that leaves one question big question outstanding: why the change to one minute rounds and six second segments? I actually don’t necessarily think this was about the lawsuit with Arneson — which happened in 1979, after the change was made, but if that possibility was already on the horizon then it might have been a way to distinguish AD&D from both Holmes D&D and Arneson’s Blackmoor supplement.
My guess at the moment is simply that (a) he decided that six attacks per minute was too many and (b) ten is a nicer number than six.
Well, that’ll wrap this up. One little bit of trivia before I go: Chainmail does not seem to define the length of its turns, but if we assume a marching speed of about 3mph for light and heavy infantry (move: 9”), then that works out very nearly perfectly if each Chainmail turn is one minute long.