As a matter of practical gameplay, time in GAFT is measured in Turns. A Turn consists of how long it takes for everyone at the table to declare and resolves their actions. How long this takes in the game reality depends upon what everybody is doing.
There are four different time categories for actions.
· Tasks: One Turn = one second. Combat and other action sequences work in one second turns. These are also called Rounds due to the influence of older RPG games.
· Operations: One Turn = one minute. This is the default – if you don’t know, it’s an operation.
· Research/Repair: One turn = one hour. This applies to researching things that are already known by someone or repairing equipment that already exists. Fabricating simple items with known technology might also fall into this category.
· Manufacture/Design: One Turn equals one day up to Extremely Hard, One Month at Brutal or Unbelievable, and one year at Impossible or higher.
If you know how long it takes to do a particular task - then that is how long it takes. We all know folding a paper airplane takes minutes, not days, even though you can semantically call it manufacturing. See Rule 5A.
If you have the times, means and interest to look it up, we encourage that. Many times that is not practical, so we have a dice mechanic.
If you need to determine the time required, in turns, randomly use the DD total minus the Difference.
So if the DD totaled 18, and the character rolled a 21, the task takes [(21-18=3) (18-3=15)]15 turns.
Combat and other action sequences, such as jumping across a chasm or swinging a sword, are subject to Action Sequence rules, which supersede these rules in such cases.