The Unified Time Scale

The GM announces the current time scale: tick, scene, day, or journey. Use ticks when the order of actions matters, and broader scales for conversation, exploration, rest, and travel.

Four Scales

Tick (about 2 seconds). Resolve actions and movement in combat or another urgent situation. Three ticks make one round.

Scene (minutes or hours). Play conversations, exploration, and infiltration. Describe what characters do and use prescribed chance rolls or Saves when needed, without counting individual actions.

Day (and night). Track elapsed time for spell-slot recovery, healing, daily abilities, and alchemical preparation. Rest and Recovery gives the hourly and nightly recovery rates.

Journey (days and weeks). Follow the group's progress across the map. A day of walking covers about 20 to 30 miles, depending on terrain. Play encounters and other events as scenes; summarize the travel between them.

Action Durations in Ticks

Spells, feats, and items give their action cost as a label or a duration:

Label	Ticks
Swift (or Fast)	1
Standard	2
Full	3
1 round (1 turn)	3
2 rounds	6

Round and turn mean the same thing. One minute is about 30 ticks.

Changing Scales

Switch to ticks when the order of actions matters: an ambush begins, two opponents strike, or a guard reaches for an alarm bell. A situation requiring a Reflex duel is played in ticks.

Return to a scene when that urgency ends: the last enemy falls, the pursuers lose the group, or surrender is accepted. Stop counting ticks once priority is no longer contested.

Keep track of work already done when changing scales. If an attack interrupts an hour-long ritual, the GM determines how far it has progressed before resolving the attack in ticks. During a journey, a potion can finish brewing at the evening camp; there is no need to count the intervening ticks.

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