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Time Tracker Worksheet
Time Tracking Worksheet Download!

There are four important time breakouts that are important in this game. Nearly all game time in a dungeon is measured in turns, unless the party is engaged in combat. Measuring time can be important for many reasons; torches burn down to useless stubs, food is consumed, and wounded characters heal damage as they rest. 

Turn this is a 10 minute time increment in which most time is recorded

Round this is a 1 minute time increment where combat or actions take place

Segment this a 6 second increment

Time Conversions

1 Turn = 10 Rounds = 60 segments

Instant these things happen as soon as it’s your turn and can be done in addition to an action typically used with spells

Movement and Timekeeping

The speed listed on each race type is the distance a character can move unencumbered per round (1 minute). Below is a list of races with their base movement in feet and their encumbered movement for quick reference.

RaceBaseEncumbered
Draco14070
Dwarf9045
Elf12060
Faun15075
Halfling9045
Human12060

A party’s base speed is based on the speed of the SLOWEST member.

Movement of a character is reduced by half if the character is more than 50% encumbered. See Encumbrance

If a character is moving cautiously (e.g., sneaking, mapping), this movement rate is divided by 10.

Running allows the character to double their movement rate. During combat, a flat-out run is not possible unless performing a charge or fleeing from combat.

For example: A character moves 6 squares per round in a dungeon with 5′ x 5′ grid squares. For every 60 squares tick off a turn.

Time of Common Actions

  • Searching a room: 1 turn per 30′ x 30′ space.
  • Map a room: 1 turn per 30′ x 30′ space.
  • Torch: burns for 1 hour (6 turns)
  • Lantern Oil: burns for 4 hours (24 turns)
  • Listening for noise: 1 round per attempt
  • Searching for traps: 1d4 rounds per attempt
  • Open a stuck or locked door: 1 round per attempt
  • Eating should happen every 4-6 hours
  • Eating: 1d4 turns
  • Rations: 1 ration per day
  • Waterskin: 1 skin of water per day
  • Short Rest: recover 1 hit dice (roll) of health 1 hour (6 turns).
  • Long Rest: recover full hit points (8 hours or 48 turns)
  • Recover Mana: Full mana at 10 hours (60 turns) or 10% per hour (6 turns)

For more details on movement check out Encumbrance 

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This Post Has 7 Comments

  1. Caleb Willden

    So…how come it takes an hour to walk down a 60-foot hallway? That’s about 0.1 miles per hour. That’s literally only twice as fast as your average garden snail. Am I missing something?

    1. Avatar photo
      simplednd

      So propose a change to the rule!

      1. captainamasa

        I propose that the speed listed on each race type is the distance each player can move unencumbered PER ROUND (10 seconds). So, a race with a Speed of 30ft would move at about 2mph. [Math: 30ft/10sec = (30/5280)miles/(10/60/60)hrs = 2.045mph]

        The searching time (1 turn, or 10 minutes, for one 30ft x 30ft space) seems super reasonable to me.

  2. Michael Myhre

    Hi,
    I dont understand how time works. Totally new to this, but how do you manage time when playing the game? During combat, you do actions in turn (initiative), but how do you work around time in all instances (sleep, walking). When u get paralyzed, it is for X turns.. so a character will just be paralyzed for 4 hours?

    1. Avatar photo
      simplednd

      Check out this post about bookkeeping, movement and time: /2015/08/24/encumbrance-rules-and-bookkeeping/

  3. Matt Wilkins

    Not sure where you copied the spell descriptions from, but must have been another system, because in Feather Fall (for example) it explicitly mentions a segment being 6seconds. I think that must mean a round in the spell section is a minute (the old AD&D system). So I guess the simplednd game time definitions could be changed to the round=1minute, turn=10minute, 1segment=6seconds, OR probably better, a note in the spell section saying that when the duration says 4 rounds for example, that really means 4 minutes, not 4 simplednd rounds. Argh, I found all the dnd versions time and distance so annoyingly confusing, feet vs yards for inside vs outside, ranges scaling up, but not area of affect, differing definitions of movement rate, etc etc!

    1. Avatar photo
      simplednd

      I agree. The spell list needs some TLC to standardize the terms and rules surrounding each spell

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