When I first started working on AD&D3e way back in 2006, my goal was to take Castles & Crusades and add as many elements of 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons as possible… so that I could run classic TSR modules on-the-fly, while still using the streamlined (d20) rules of C&C.

Over time, however, I moved away from C&C’s use of Primes and towards the skill and ability check rules of D&D’s 3rd-5th editions. As a fan of 2nd edition’s numerous campaign settings, awesome Monstrous Manual, and improved ease of use, I started to morph my rules into something of a 2nd edition retroclone that eschewed its many fiddly subsystems in favor simpler (d20) checks for combat, saving throws, and skill checks.

One carryover of AD&D that should have been removed earlier on was its Movement Rates for creatures and characters. In AD&D, most creatures move either 12″, 9″, or 6″ each round; with each inch representing 5″ of movement and each round lasting 1 minute. When making AD&D3e I wanted to keep those Movement Rates in place BUT wanted a melee round to equal 10 seconds rather than 1 minute. So, rather than moving 60′ in 1 minute (as in 2nd edition), an AD&D3e character would move 60′ in 10 seconds.

While this change was easy to implement, allowed for on-the-fly conversions of creatures, and made sense, it also meant that combatants were moving VERY quickly during each melee round. While running games, it became apparent that combatants were able to engage distant enemies swiftly, lessening the effectiveness of ranged weapons and spells, and were all-too-easily able to disengage from combat and/or find cover. Additionally, the space available on even the largest battle mats wasn’t sufficient for most combats. Even my players commented that they were able to quickly move anywhere they wanted while in combat. We found that having high movement rates actually bogged down combat because all combatants became skirmishers who were able to dash around during every melee round. 

So, after wanting to do so for years, I’ve finally reduced the length of each round from 10 seconds to 6 seconds. With this change, I’ve also halved the Movement Rates of all creatures and characters. These changes have simplified the tracking of distances moved (it’s much easier to calculate movement when every minute is 10 rounds and every 10-minutes turn is 100 rounds), made combat more “sticky” and challenging by restricting distances moved during combat, and brought the rules more in line with current versions of D&D (3rd edition onward).

Please give these changes a try and let me know what you think!

Here’s a link to my AD&D3e page:

http://scruffygrognard.altervista.org/