Thus, in Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells, I decided to handle distance and time in a more loose and abstract way, giving the Overlord more freedom to frame scenes and how the time passes as the necessity of the game play dictates.
Measuring Distance
During a fast and action packed adventure of Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells, the last thing you would want to do is counting squares, feets, meters or whatever measuring unit you are accustomed to use. That’s why this game opts for an abstract way of handling distances.
There are 5 broad distance categories: close, short, medium, long and distant. Close encompasses everything within a couple of steps away. Short distance would be up to what a person could normally walk in about 10 seconds. Medium would be up to the distance someone could run in the same 10 seconds. Long range would be up to the distance a person could run in a minute. The distant category would then encompass the distance a person could run in 10 minutes.
It’s important to note that these distances are relative to personal scale, but the same principle can be applied to vehicles and spaceships too. You just have to substitute the “person” in those measurements with the appropriate scale standard. So, short distance for starship combat would be up to what a starship could normally cruise in about 10 seconds.
Rescued by the mercenary company, Kaylia now is searching for her starship, so they can help her fix it and get out of that wasteland. Their planetary transport’s sensors have a long range, which means it functions normally of to the distance a planetary ship could cover flying fast in 1 minute, which is pretty far. However, Kaylia’s starship is even further, which would be in the distant range category, so they make a test with a Negative Die.
Measuring Time
As with the measurement of distance, Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells measures time in some abstract units we call rounds and turns.
A round takes as much time as it’s usually needed for a character to take an Action and make a Movement in an action scene or combat. This usually means a round lasts around 10 seconds or so, but that can vary according to the Overlord’s judgment.
On the other hand, a turn usually lasts until a scene is resolved (see Action and Scene Resolution above). Sometimes this involves the resolution of a series of rounds, but other times a whole scene can be resolved in one test and this takes a turn. Most of the time, this means a turn lasts for about 10 minutes. However, the Overlord my judge that a turn may take more time, such as a day, a week or even a month (for when the characters are traveling for a long time, making an extensive research, or something similar).
Reaching the crash site of her starship, Kaylia and the mercenaries start their work on fixing its engine. This will take almost a full day, so the turn to resolve this scene will take the same amount. Once they have it fixed, Kaylia jumps in her cockpit and fires up the engines. But who shows up to make her life more complicated? Kaylia’s Evil Twin Sister! A chase begins and now their actions will be resolved round by round and they fire weapons at each other and Kaylia tries to get away.
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