Moments and Round Structure

In Untold Epoch, time does not flow evenly. Some spans of time are lived, others are fought for. These are Moments — when fate sharpens, stakes rise, and decisions shape the course of survival and legend alike. A Moment represents a structured frame of play, in which action is deliberate, opportunity is finite, and every choice is weighted.

Moments are used to organize high-tension gameplay within the three core pillars: Combat, Exploration, and Social. Each Moment is mechanically distinct, granting a framework of choices, actions, and consequences to guide play.

What is a Moment?

A Moment is a formal frame of play used when time and precision matter. Each character receives a base of 3 Action Points (AP) to spend on various actions available during that Moment. Some features may increase this total.

An action can be taken more than once in a Turn, but each repeat costs one more AP than the last — a first Attack costs 1 AP, a second costs 2. This holds across every pillar: repeating the same action gets expensive fast, and reaching for a different one is often the cheaper path. It’s what keeps a 3 AP Turn from defaulting to “do the cheap thing three times,” and it’s why some actions — Heavy Attack, Headlong — are built around a single committed effort instead of several smaller ones.

The type of Moment — Combat, Exploration, or Social — determines which set of actions are available. Some actions may be shared between types, while others are unique to a specific Moment.

Round Structure

Untold Epoch does not roll initiative. There is no list to build, no order to remember, no waiting your turn while the table moves down a sheet. Within their Phase, characters act when it makes sense for them to act — the table decides, the fiction decides, and the dice stay out of it until it’s time to swing.

The Round

A Round is the basic unit of structured time within any Moment. Every Round consists of two Phases, played in order:

1. Player Phase — every player character acts, in whatever order the players choose.
2. GM Phase — every GM-controlled creature acts, in whatever order the GM chooses.

When the GM Phase ends, the Round ends, and a new Round begins with a fresh Player Phase. This cycle repeats until the Moment resolves — combat ends, a chase concludes, a negotiation reaches its outcome.

Combat Rounds are fixed at roughly 15 seconds, since precise timing matters for tracking durations, movement, and tactical positioning. Exploration and Social Rounds have no fixed length — the GM sets the pace of each Round to match the scene, whether that’s an hour of travel, a few minutes of searching, or a single exchange in a longer negotiation. The Player Phase / GM Phase structure holds regardless of scale.

Turns

A Turn is a single character’s activation within a Phase — the span during which they spend their Action Points and resolve their actions. Each character gets exactly one Turn per Round, taken during whichever Phase they belong to (Player Phase for PCs, GM Phase for GM-controlled creatures).

“Turn” refers to an individual character’s moment to act. “Phase” refers to the shared block of time in which every character on that side acts. A Turn always happens inside a Phase — never across one.

Self-Ordering

• During the Player Phase, the players decide among themselves what order to act in. There is no fixed sequence — talk it out, let the fiction lead, let whoever has the loudest plan go first. If two players want to act at the exact same instant and it matters which goes first, the GM makes the call.
• During the GM Phase, the GM decides the order for every creature under their control, including the option to hold a creature’s action until later in the Phase, or to have multiple creatures act in whatever sequence best serves the scene.

This isn’t a simplification for its own sake — it’s a tool. A party that talks through their Phase like a unit will consistently outperform one that doesn’t, and that’s by design. Untold Epoch rewards coordination, not turn order.

See Surprise for how a Moment can begin with one side already at a disadvantage.

Example: A Round in Motion

A four-person party approaches a den of bandits. Two bandits are already in position, Hidden. As the party closes in, the scout actively rolls an Awareness (Intellect) Trial against each bandit’s Ward — looking for trouble before stepping further in — and succeeds against both, Detecting them. The other three party members don’t think to look.

The ambush triggers and the Combat Moment begins.

Surprise is checked, per the Concealment path — no new roll needed: the scout already Detected both bandits and is not Surprised. The other three PCs never Detected either bandit and are Surprised.

Round 1 begins. Player Phase: the scout, the only one not Surprised, acts first — diving for cover and firing a shot. The other three PCs lose their AP this Turn to the Surprised condition and cannot act.

GM Phase: the GM acts with both bandits and the rest of the den, in whatever order serves the ambush.

Round 1 ends. Surprised expires for everyone who had it — Round 2’s Player Phase begins with the whole party free to act, in whatever order they choose.