I return to my reading of RuneQuest 2nd edition, trying to get through the "Mechanics & Melee" chapter... and utterly fail! So come read my unhinged rantings about how RQ defines "time", and how most of it is bullshit! #TTRPG https://ludovic.chabant.com/blog/2026/11/07/reading-classic-runequest-what-is-time/
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@andrewdoull To be clear, I'm not arguing about expressing everything in "real world terms". Like I said in the article, I'm totally happy running OSE or Dragonbane using "turns" and "stretches" because *they are useful* in the context of those systems.
In contrast, RQ's "full turn" makes no sense. There are only a handful of things that use "full turn", and none of them are central to the gameplay loop.
@andrewdoull In other words, I challenge you to run RQ using "full turns" instead of minutes.
It's going to be hard. A lot of the mechanics, such as spell durations, are expressed in minutes and hours. RQ isn't built on full turns. I think they're just a remnant of Steve Perrin taking his D&D house rules and turning them into RQ.
@ludovic I challenge you to tell me a game where minutes are useful in the context of the system...
@ludovic The impression I get about the real time / game time thing (I was a few years too late to meet it in person) is that it was intended as a way of keeping multiple campaigns in the same world (usually run by the same GM) in sync.
(But it's also notable that GURPS was one of the first games to use normal units of measure throughout rather than Special Game Units, and was notable for doing so. See also the way D&D "inches" changed between 10 feet and 10 yards depending on context. The post-hoc justification for those slow movement rates is that you're going carefully, measuring and mapping and so on, but this breaks down a bit when you're fleeing through an already-mapped area…)
@RogerBW Oh interesting, thank you! I'll have to dig into the topic a bit more :D
For the D&D rates, nah, there is a table in Holmes' Basic Set that specifically gives different movement rates between "carefully mapping and checking for traps", and not doing that. I might be reading it wrong though.
@ludovic Aha, interesting. I was going by my memories of AD&D, but looking at the PHB it seems that I'm wrong there too: ×5 for known route, ×10 for fleeing if not encumbered.
@RogerBW Yeah they seem to have "fixed" it in later editions, but looking into my scanned PDFs of Holmes Basic (because that's the one that was out when RQ was released), either I'm missing something, or they totally forgot about people being able to walk and run normally.
@ludovic I see your “everything should be expressed in real world terms”, but honestly: how many games even track the passing of minutes?
If it’s not something that has an actual impact, then why state it at all? Like if an effect lasts 1D6 minutes, you’re probably better just saying “until the end of the scene”. Of course, that requires that you define scenes, which a lot of players don’t like as a concept.