D&D 5E Dungeon Length: How long does it take?

[Ratskinner]

Tough question. IME, combats are actually fairly easy to get a handle on...at least once you get used to your group. Some groups lollygag around the table more than others and that slows down a combat.

Its much harder to estimate the time a party will take on things like mysteries and puzzles. I've seen too many mysteries get bogged down. Not usually because they don't have enough clues, but because they have taken some offhand or irrelevant DM/NPC comment from last session and turned it into gospel truth. You will also get weird things like my current group...I sometimes get the impression that they just skipped or went around puzzles and bashed through mysteries with intimidation and torture before I joined up (or let DMNPCs guide them). You just don't know how long they are willing or need to take to solve such things.

That being said, its maybe not all that important. I mean, a DM shouldn't get too attached to things like a plot or schedule. If they are spending 3 hours puzzling over what you thought would be a minor distraction, but are having fun doing it, Great! You've done your job! The other way (when they whip through stuff), just make sure you've prepped enough possible throw-away encounters to toss in. Your main job as DM is to provide them with entertaining stuff to do, don't worry about things like "will they get through this adventure before we go back to school?" If they do, they do, if not, so be it. Overprep* for the occasions when they blow through stuff, and don't be sad if/when they don't get to it all. (Just save it for the next game.)

*This advice is meant only for D&D. Plenty of other games out there don't require any prep at all, and even 5e is a bit lighter on it than some of its predecessors. Some games (namely the PbtA games) are even plainly damaged by a GM being too attached to a story.

I hope that helps.

 

[devincutler]

Living Greyhawk was designed for 4 hour sessions at gaming conventions, and the PCs all had premade characters, so it was basically right into the scenario. Pretty much like clockwork, these scenarios had 3 "encounters", usually creatures but sometimes major traps or puzzles. Counting exploration and roleplaying, the 3 encounter rule sometimes still did not fit into the 4 hours session, but it often did. Assuming you do not have a lot of table talk or distractions, I think the LG guidelines can apply to 5e (even though LG was 3.5). So, assume 3 "encounters" for a 4 hour session, with encounter being a decent fight, a major puzzle, or an intense roleplaying segment.

 

[Tony Vargas]

my comment was more prescriptive than descriptive: I think those two styles of dungeon work the best.

So not OneTrueWay, but PickOneOfTwoTrueWays? S'OKay.

An important advantage of the old style dungeon from the DM's perspective is you get about double the play/prep ratio, in my experience, due to more time spent on logistics and random content. Whether that's a good thing of course depends on how much the group enjoys those.

Seems much more dependent upon edition. 3.x could eat up gobs of prep time, since you could create NPCs and monsters in such excruciating & optimized detail, while AD&D could tend towards a lot of prep time creating the environment in excruciating detail. :shrug:

...but I tend towards improv (0 prep), anyway.

*This advice is meant only for D&D. Plenty of other games out there don't require any prep at all, and even 5e is a bit lighter on it than some of its predecessors.

I feel like 5e is really suited to low-/no- prep DMing, thanks to the way it encourages player acceptance of DM rulings/judgement/'Empowerment.'

 

[SomeCubingNerd]

You mentioned that your players got through 2 layers in one long session. Any advice on slowing my players down because they would complete that within the first hour or 2. Combat slows them down a lot but I wan't it to be more than just a corridor with monsters as you say in the linked article.

 

[Bawylie]

How do you determine your dungeon's length? What tool(s) do you use to predict how many hours (or sessions) your dungeon takes to complete?

To elaborate: I'm fairly new to DMing 5th Edition. Anyways that being said, how do you determine your dungeon length? I don't just mean physical size but I'm also talking how many encounters populate your dungeon. Combat could slow it down, or even a difficult puzzle. I'm just looking for a general answer or rule of thumb based on your experience.

I plan on each scene lasting 20 to 30 min on average. If my play time is 4 hours, I’m probably getting through 8-12 scenes.

With 20-30 min, each player is getting 5-6 minutes in each scene.

Probably the 1st and last scenes of the play session are NOT encounters - they’re usually sort of setup and wind down. Every other scene is usually some kind of encounter - meaning it has some form of obstacle or complication, and players have to make decisions that determine the outcome. A room in a dungeon is a scene. An exploration of a dangerous area is a scene. Traveling is a scene. Talking to NPCs is a scene (when those NPCs represent an obstacle or complication - not just buying armor or whatever).

So if I have to be done in 4 hours, 12 scenes (with maybe 4 prepped random encounters) is what I’ve got prepped and I might use as few as 6-8.

If I am not forced into a time slot, I can generally accurately estimate how long play will take based on the number of rooms in my dungeon that have encounters in them times 20-30 minutes, give or take an hour or two for establishing scenes, concluding scenes, and random encounters.

You may take longer to resolve scenes based on your players’ decisiveness and your ability to pace your game. You may be faster. They may think of things that cut right through your obstacle (I had a random guard encounter last night that the party rogue lied his way through in 5 min).

But generally. 20-30 min per scene. Everything you’re rolling dice in is a scene.