G5: Thistledown Hall: Library: rules1

By definition a "round", in AD&D terms, is a long time (1 minute). A lot can happen in 1 round and the AD&D game uses the 1 minute round assuming that during this time combatants are moving into position, sizing each other up, etc. We wanted to play out our combat rounds to simulate how 2 opponents would actually trade blows during a fight and this meant taking some of the fudge out of the combat round. To achieve this we reduced the combat round to one 6 second segment divided into 3, 2 second action phases. With this new round, if a fighter wants to make a move it has to be done within one of the action phases.

To make the transition as clean as possible we have converted spell casting times of 1 round into the new 6 second round. So a spell that would normally take 1 full AD&D round to cast now takes 1 full 6 second round to cast. At first this may seem like a big change that could unbalance game play but in fact it's not. All the same things that happened in the old round are still happening in the new round. While mages are able to cast spells much more quickly than before, fighters are also acting much more rapidly. This subject is covered in more detail in the spell casting section of this document.

Initiative
Initiative is rolled as normal, each player rolls a 10 sided die and adds on any speed modifiers for the type of weapon that they are using. From this score you then subtract and bonuses you have for good dexterity. This is your initiative roll. The lower the number the better!

Declaration
Once you have determined who will be acting first, those individuals must declare what they are going to do with their first action. Each player at the table will declare their action as their turn comes up. Obviously, characters who lose initiative may have no choice but to engage in combat or react to the actions of the initiative winners.