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Re: Game design musing: It's About Time (Part II)
Roundless combat does seem like one of those things which would work very nicely on a computer. It's an interesting idea, and you have several intriguing suggestions here, but I'm not sure if anyone has invented rules to make tabletop combat playable with a quanta under 1s or so without adding significant complexity. There are issues with movement and reaction time, for example, which you don't really have time to discuss here. (Even if we convert Move 5 yards/s to Move 1 yd/0.2 s, tracking acceleration becomes an issue). Still, there ought to be good alternatives to the traditional round, and you have laid out several possibilities.
You might want to have a look at Kenzerco's new Western gunfight rules, Aces and Eights. I've never used them, but apparently they use 'roundless' combat with a quanta of 0.1 s or so. There are some other interesting novelties in how they handle combat, although I'd have to try it to be convinced it is all playable.