Traverse Fantasy

traditionally, torches have a constant duration of six turns or one hour. what happens when we change this up?

i'd like to look at statistically equivalent methods of handling combat in tabletop games, and draw out their differences with respect to how they affect the play experience.

the dungeon exploration procedure for the 1974 edition of dungeons & dragons  is given in volume 3, pages 8-10. here is a selection of passages throughout those pages to best understand how the procedure is structured; i have only removed parts related to sub-procedures unrelated to time and movement. THE MOVE/TURN IN THE UNDERWORLD: Movement is in segments of approximately ten minutes. Thus it takes ten minutes to move about two moves --120 feet for a fully-armored character. Two moves constitute a turn, except in flight/pursuit situations where the moves/turn will be doubled (and no mapping allowed). Time must be taken to rest, so one turn every hour must be spent motionless, and double the rest period must be taken after a flight/pursuit takes place. Time searching for anything (secret passages, hidden treasure, etc.), loading treasure, listening, ESP'ing [1], hiding, will be adjudged by the referee as to what portion of a turn will be used by the activity. Typically, ESP...

let me just give the rundown! in the original dungeons & dragons  (1974), a dungeon turn was not the amount of time it took to perform an action. instead, a turn is the interval of time between wandering monster checks. this means that after each turn, the referee rolls a die for a 1-in-6 chance of a monster appearing. what happens in between these checks is basically up in the air, and the rulebook invites liberal guesstimation. the party is afforded two "moves" (120 feet for an unarmored character) in one turn. there are ten "rounds" of combat per turn. thought-detecting can take just a quarter turn. searching a room takes a full turn. ultimately, the rulebook says, "Time spend searching for anything [...] will be adjudged by the referee as to what portion of a turn will be used by the activity." edit:  if the above paragraph feels like a controversial reading, read the companion piece ( link )! movement rates the movement rates of dungeon exploratio...