Revisiting the MERP round sequence time intervals

This post will try to examine the MERP time that each round sequence occurs and compare it with some of the other games that I have reviewed.

MERP uses 10 second round intervals. While representing a larger chunk of time compared to many games, some games use abstract, variable, or summary time which can represent much larger chunks of time.

Here are some round intervals for several games.

Standard times
MERP and Rolemaster Express rounds are divided into 10 second intervals.
For D&D and Star Frontiers, each round is 6 second intervals.
OpenQuest and Legend use 5 second round durations.
JAGS uses 1 second rounds or segments.

Variable time
Hackmaster uses variable action speed measured in seconds based on each specific weapon, armor, or spell. Weapons range from 7 to 14 seconds per attack. Most spells are 1 or 2 seconds. Some are up to 10 seconds. A few have minutes or hours for casting times.

Abstract time
Dungeon World uses abstract time for moves which varies according the story created from the fiction conversation.
HeroQuest RPG focuses on the outcome  or summary of the story rather than the play-by-play of actions.