Now that you've meticulously crafted your character, honed their skills, and chosen their path, it's time to put them into action! This chapter delves into the core mechanics of Unbound Tales, guiding you through the steps of resolving actions, overcoming challenges, and weaving a narrative tapestry rich with adventure. We'll explore the resolution system, skill checks and opposed checks, resource management, combat flow, and the role of the Director in guiding the narrative.

Unbound Tales utilizes three distinct time scales to handle different aspects of gameplay.

Rounds are the smallest unit of time used in the game, specifically for handling the ebb and flow of combat encounters. With each round being 6 seconds long, it allows for a granular approach to tactical positioning, action economy management, and resolving the back-and-forth of attacks and abilities.

The minute time scale is used for less intense situations, such as exploring environments, interacting with NPCs, or undertaking tasks that require more than just a few seconds but don't warrant tracking every 6-second increment.

Finally, the hourly time scale comes into play for long-term activities like resting, traveling long distances, or spending time between adventures or quests. Tracking time in hours for these situations avoids getting bogged down in too much minute-by-minute detail when it's not necessary.

Resting in particular often requires tracking elapsed time to determine when resources or abilities renew.

Short Rests last one hour, and each character can select one hour-long action that has the Rest property.

Long Rests last twelve hours, but each character will spend time sleeping and eating, leaving them three hours for actions that have the Rest property.

Actions that do not have the Rest property cannot be taken during the rest, unless the character wants to forego the benefits of taking that rest.

The turn order in Unbound Tales is extremely flexible, regardless of the time scale. Every player gets to select the actions for their character. The order in which characters resolve their actions is entirely up to the players, and does not need to be predetermined. If one character takes an action that another character, yet to take an action, can benefit from, the players can cheerfully agree to change the order. However, no character who has already taken an action is permitted to take another action, until every other character on their team has done so.

After each player character takes an action, the Director is permitted to select one of their non-player characters and take an action. Non-player characters follow the same rules as player characters: once any non-player character has taken an action, they cannot take another until all other non-player characters have taken their own actions.

All actions are treated as being completed when the character taking them finishes their turn. This might not be strictly realistic, but it's easier to play.

When in an encounter, or otherwise in Rounds time-scale, each character may take one quick action, plus two simple actions or one complex action, and may also move a distance in meters equal to their speed. Movement can be taken before, between or after actions, as the character chooses, so long as the total distance moved does not exceed the character's speed, but movement cannot be taken in the middle of an action.

When in Minute time-scale, the party moves as a whole. This is done before characters are permitted to select actions. The party can move a distance equal to ten times the speed of the slowest member of the party, in meters.

When in Hour time-scale, the party can cover a distance equal to the speed of the slowest member of the party, in kilometers. However, long-distance travel is an action by itself, requiring one hour to move that distance, and there is a cost, in recoveries, to taking this action.