How long is a minute in D&D?

\$\begingroup\$

Table of Contents Show

The debuff would last 10 rounds.
You must log in to answer this question.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .
How does time work in D&D???
How long is 1 minute in D&D combat?
How long is 1 hour in D&D?
What is a minute in DND 5e?
How long is a round in D&D?

Let's say a debuff lasts a "minute" on an enemy. We all know a round takes approx 6 seconds.

Is this 6 seconds per person? or just for that particular person.

IE: Let's say it's 4 heroes vs 2 enemies. 1 enemy has a debuff that lasts a minute.

Would the debuff last 10 rounds (aka 10*6 seconds=1minute) or would the debuff last (6*6=36, so 2 rounds) if we cycle through each person.

Rubiksmoose

92.4k19 gold badges469 silver badges574 bronze badges

asked Jul 9, 2016 at 6:03

\$\endgroup\$

\$\begingroup\$

The debuff would last 10 rounds.

Time section of D&D Basic Rules Chapter 8 (official, online, & free)

Basic Rules p.69:

A round represents about 6 seconds in the game world. During a round, each participant in a battle takes a turn.

6 seconds for a round, and the round consists of all the turns in that round.

answered Jul 9, 2016 at 6:11

CTWindCTWind

18.9k5 gold badges82 silver badges107 bronze badges

\$\endgroup\$

\$\begingroup\$

correct... 1 minute equals 10 rounds... 10 mins = 100 rounds... an hour, God forbid a combat should take that long, equals 600 rounds of everybody and every thing taking a turn.

answered Jun 16, 2018 at 20:36

\$\endgroup\$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .

Search
- Search all Forums
- Search this Forum
- Search this Thread
Tools
- Jump to Forum

How does time work in D&D???

#1 Apr 15, 2017
How does DM handle time in they'er game?
#2 Apr 15, 2017
I'd say it varies? D&D gives a length of time for just about everything from combat rounds to short rests to travel times to creating magic items, so it depends on what the characters are wanting to do that determines the length of time.
If a character is proficient in something and they've done it a million times before, the DM may shorten the length of time it takes to do something, or lengthen it if the character isn't good at it. It really depends on the DM, the players, and the activity.
Other than that, it works just about the same as it would in real life, I'd imagine, haha.
LaTia Jacquise
Community Relations Coordinator @ Monte Cook Games
D'hani, Rivals of Waterdeep
Forever DM
#3 Apr 15, 2017
It's somewhat difficult to describe - sometimes you play through action by action, while the group are exploring a dungeon, but when they're travelling back to the town, you may say, "after a couple of hours travel back towards the town, it's starting to get dark and the sky clouds over and it starts to rain - do you wish to continue on towards town, or find somewhere to make camp?"
I recommend taking a look at the Streams & Video subforum - you can watch other people's sessions and see how other DMs handle it.
#4 Apr 15, 2017
skizzerz
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
- Swashbuckler
- Join Date: 3/20/2017
- Posts: 329
- Member Details
In combat: each round is 6 seconds total. So, one minute is 10 rounds.
In a dungeon: time is far more fluid. If something in the dungeon is time-based (maybe the dungeon is set to collapse after 36 hours or something, or you're tracking when party buffs run out), then make use of the travel pace rules and measure in minutes should the need arise
Overland: As above, but even more fluid as you can handwave away entire nights/days/weeks at a time. Depending on the distance traveled, use the above travel pace chart and measure in either hours or days.
You don't need to be precise when measuring distances, eyeballing it from the map is generally good enough.
#5 Apr 15, 2017
Overland =
#6 Apr 15, 2017
Combat: round based time.
Exploring(dungeons, cities): minutes, hours.
Traveling: hours, days.
#7 Apr 16, 2017
Windrunner
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
- Protector
- Location: MN
- Join Date: 3/20/2017
- Posts: 170
- Member Details
General info on rules above, but not sure if that completely answers your question.
As a dm, I track time in a few ways.
Combat -- i use a everything from a full worksheet to check marks on a notebook page. If it is a complicated battle, I have a tracking sheet that includes a section with boxes that I check off as each round starts. I also track spell name and what round it was cast. For more simple battles, I just use hash marks in the margin of a notebook page I track HP on.
Day -- I don;t track too closely, but i estimate hours based on travel speed. For example, party traveling to town ~6 miles away. daily rate = 24 miles, so 24/6 = 4 and 8 hours / 4 = 2 hours.
Campaign -- I have a journal that tracks by days what happened. It can range from Day 42 = temple of lore, Day 43-52 = downtime, etc. It is a standard part of the notes I keep on what happened so I can refer back to it as needed.
hope this helps!
--
DM -- Elanon -- Homebrew world
Gronn -- Tiefling Warlock -- Amarath
Slim -- Halfling Cleric -- CoS (future Lord of Waterdeep 😁)
Bran -- Human Wizard - RoT
Making D&D mistakes and having fun since 1977!
#8 Apr 16, 2017
Combat -- i use a everything from a full worksheet to check marks on a notebook page. If it is a complicated battle, I have a tracking sheet that includes a section with boxes that I check off as each round starts. I also track spell name and what round it was cast. For more simple battles, I just use hash marks in the margin of a notebook page I track HP on.
You just inspired me to create a combat worksheet. I'm notoriously bad at keeping track of spell durations. Hopefully it isn't too busy at work today haha
Welcome to the Grand Illusion, come on in and see what's happening, pay the price, get your ticket for the show....
#9 Apr 20, 2017
Onyx
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
- Disciple
- Join Date: 3/20/2017
- Posts: 679
- Member Details
Ooh, thanks for the calendar.
Although I doubt I'll use it to accurately track the passage of time, it's a very good reminder for a long-going campaign to keep track of seasons (and thus shift overland travel and camping conditions accordingly).
#10 Apr 20, 2017
Yarium
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
- Adept
- Join Date: 3/20/2017
- Posts: 47
- Member Details
I doubt you mean combat; since that's spelled out in the book. If you mean dungeon-exploring, the players get through it pretty quickly, so I tend to say that it's only a few minutes in each room if they're really flying. When players start taking 20, that's when they'll eat up hours of time. Resting is hours. Small dungeons players will clear out in an hour and then go back and search through it later. Larger dungeons might have the players resting a few times, so a few days are what's past.
Once you get into the open world, you can start tracking things day-by-day. It's usually not a good idea to skip days and say "it takes you 3 days to get there, but you get there", because that's 3 whole days in a matter of moments. Try to have at least 1 thing happen per day; even if it's just having the players make a few skill checks because they're doing "down time" stuff. If you need to go on longer time spans than that (say it takes three months to cross the great ocean), then consider either an alternate mode of transportation that doesn't take that long, or create a few month-to-month challenges, with weekly skill checks, and allow the players to attempt something that would take them that longer period of time.
Over even longer time-spans, such as waiting years, just don't do it. If there's something that needs to happen during years, that's the introduction to a new campaign, or the prologue to an ending campaign.
#11 Apr 21, 2017
Watch a soap opera for a year and there you go.
Essentially you have three choices.
1) give the players significant downtime between adventrues. This really only works if they don't have several plot hooks already present.
2) keep track of every day the travel and mark that off the calender. If they end up level 20 in five months they do.
3) Handle the game like a soap opera. Keep track of days as they travel and during certain real world events have the in game versions during those times but don't worry if only a month has actually passed based on their travel.
You can also allow some hybrid of the three.
#12 Apr 21, 2017
Im not sure you have to stop everyday especially for a trip that is going to take a week or two or longer. Since the PCs are traveling they will have full abilities and hit points. So I think it's fair to just roll for which days have surprise encounters. Maybe plan on any side quests that may emerge and then just glance over the week doing any downtime rolls at the end. And search for food rolls at the beginning.
#13 Nov 25, 2020
but when it says to wait for 1d4 hours, what does that basically mean. i know to roll a 1d4 but, how much time, lets say 3 hours. how much time is that?
#14 Nov 25, 2020
Memnosyne
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
- Thaumaturgist
- Join Date: 7/8/2019
- Posts: 2,041
- Member Details
3 hours is 3 hours.
Out of Game, that could either happen instantaneously, or stretch over multiple sessions, depending on what you are doing in-game at the time.
If you're in a dungeon, you may need to track time in 1-10 minute increments, but if you're just travelling overland, you'll probably keep track in hour or half-day increments.
Ignored Users: Ravnodaus
#15 Nov 25, 2020
Eriniel
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
- Initiate
- Join Date: 7/5/2019
- Posts: 190
- Member Details
I created a blank calendar template which I use in my game to record what the PCs are doing and where they are.
I also printed a rough map that is a composite of the places they will be visiting should they follow my plot hooks to the different adventures I have planned.
Instead of a specific key, I have labeled various roads and trails with the time it would take to travel them in good weather.
Between these two, I feel pretty comfortable that I can keep track of things like the phases of the moon and when major holidays will occur.
I can also add, that I have become convinced that my PCs will not be keeping track.
#16 Nov 26, 2020
My reading of your question is that you are asking how real world time relates to in-game time experienced by the characters. E.g. "we are playing for 2 hours in the real world, how many hours/days is that for the characters?"
If that's the case, you are not going to find an accurate answer. It's like watching a film: A 2 hour film could cover a few hours, a day, a week, a year, a decade...
If you spend the majority of a session in combat, you won't cover much in-game time. A combat round lasts 6 seconds in-game, but could take several minutes (or longer) to resolve in real time. Taking an approximation of 1 minute per player, 5 players, then the same for the DM to resolve opponents, and your entire session spent in combat, you would be looking at your 2 hour session covering 2 minutes of in-game time.
On the other hand, if your party is making a long journey and you just narrate past most of it, your 2 hour session could be several days, weeks or months.
#17 Nov 28, 2020
pavilionaire
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
- Swashbuckler
- Location: Quil-te-Shaila; the Dream Plane
- Join Date: 5/29/2019
- Posts: 1,225
- Member Details
In D&D, a day takes a minute, ten minutes takes ten minutes, and one minute takes an hour.
I am not sure if you’re asking about fantasy world time or real world time. The rules are pretty specific about fantasy world time - how long it takes to make an attack, cast a spell, rest, or for poison or a curse to wear off - so I’ll focus on real world time.
My campaign has been running about a year, and a month has gone by in the fantasy world. Other DMs do it differently, with more downtime between adventures, but I like to keep it more fast paced, with the characters getting swept up in one urgent mission after another.
A social role-playing session of 3 hours will usually carry them forward a day or two, broken down into four or five conversations of twenty minutes or so interspersed with exploration of the city.
A combat-heavy session might be nearly 3 hours of combat, which takes under a minute of fantasy world time.
A dungeon exploration session takes on the order of hours of fantasy world time.
Overland travel might see a few days go by in the session. I probably won’t have any of those days where *nothing* happens, but it might be something as simple as you find a mysterious old statue overgrown with weeds in the woods. It isn’t magical or anything, just a cool old statue you can tell your friends about.
I generally allow my players as much time as they want to make decisions. A combat round is six seconds, but if you need a minute to look up how your spell works, that’s fine. You’re not a full time professional adventurer, so I don’t expect you as a player to react as quickly as your character who has trained and practiced day in and day out for this.
But if I want to create a sense of urgency, I will put time limits on a decision. The rhinoceros is charging. What do you do? If they don’t answer in six seconds, they stood their ground, and I’ll let them know the consequences of not making a decision.
#19 Dec 2, 2020
Wysperra
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
- Lancer
- Join Date: 3/24/2018
- Posts: 6,652
- Member Details
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.

Posts Quoted:

Clear All Quotes

Home
D&D Beyond Forums
Dungeons & Dragons Discussion
Tips & Tactics
How does time work in D&D???

How long is 1 minute in D&D combat?

Essentially, combat consists of rounds, with each person involved in combat taking a turn during which they can move and perform an action. Each round takes 6 seconds of time in the game world. So a combat that lasts 10 rounds occurs for the characters in the game over the course of a minute.

How long is 1 hour in D&D?

In D&D, a day takes a minute, ten minutes takes ten minutes, and one minute takes an hour.

What is a minute in DND 5e?

If a round is 6 seconds, then a minute is 10 rounds (6 seconds x 10 = 60 seconds in a minute). So, a 1 minute spell will last through most battles, but maybe not a chase scene. Whether or not you keep track of the exact ending of the spell is up to how much detail you want.

How long is a round in D&D?

A round represents about 6 seconds in the game world. During a round, each participant in a battle takes a turn. The order of turns is determined at the Beginning of a combat encounter, when everyone rolls Initiative.