Following on from lots of helpful feedback on some Searching/Passive Perception tweaks, I was hoping to get some comments on the closely related ideas I had about running movement and time tracking in a dungeon. Once again, a lot here is stolen from @iserith and Angry GM, but with some twists of my own.
First, some observations:
My approach:
Time
Dungeon time is measured in blocks of 10 minutes. Anything that takes less than 10 minutes isn't tracked. Wandering monster checks are made every 20 minutes. Most basic dungeoneering activities are assumed to take 10 minutes - picking a lock, searching a room, interacting with a puzzle, combat, etc. Yes, it's a big fudge; but neither I or any of my players is interested in minute by minute timekeeping and this is a reasonable compromise to keep time-based tension without having to do that. There's always room for judgement calls in specific cases.
Activities
Players determine what activity their character is doing at any given point. The core activities are:
These can be combined with moving around (see below) but any other declared action that requires substantial engagement will be mutually exclusive with the ones listed above.
Movement around the dungeon
When moving between rooms, along corridors etc, PCs can move cautiously, at normal pace, or fast.
Normal movement
When moving normally, the time taken between rooms/areas of the dungeon is not tracked - assumed to be irrelevant relative to the time spent on other activities. At this pace, however, stealth is not possible. Noticing hidden things is done with the passive perception of any PCs looking for them, and the Perception DCs are 5 higher than they would be for an active search. Sneaky monsters will roll stealth against the best passive perception of PCs keeping watch.
Slow movement
When moving slowly, each section of corridor takes 10 minutes. Again, this is a big fudge and there will need to be some judgement calls - a 200' corridor might take 20 minutes, crossing to the room directly opposite might take no time; but the default assumption is that if you come out of a room, walk down a corridor, and enter another room, the whole process takes 10 minutes at a slow pace.
It is assumed that PCs are moving stealthily at this pace. Monsters will have to roll Perception against the PCs weakest passive stealth to notice them + the alert level will not be increased (see below)
Detecting secrets/traps is done by passive perception, but with the normal detection DC for an active search.If PCs really want to roll for some reason, they can do so, with PP effectively acting as a floor.1 Note that I will also make an effort to provide clues to suggest the presence of secrets/traps in general areas, and having a PP that exceeds a trap detection DC will probably just give you a solid clue as to the presence of a trap - seeing the tripwire or a strange seam in the floor. There's room for some old-skool descriptive searching/trap-finding here for those that want it. See my other post (linked above) for some indications of roughly how I would handle this.
Sneaky monsters will roll stealth against the best passive perception of PCs looking out for them.
Fast movement
This is unlikely to be relevant in most cases for reasons mentioned earlier on. It's the standard 400' / minute fast movement rate. You automatically fail all your Perception checks for secrets at this pace, and you have a -5 penalty to PP against sneaky monsters.
Searching and Interacting with Rooms
Random Encounters and the Alert Level
The alert level of the dungeon starts at 1. Every time the PCs move between rooms at anything faster than a slow pace, they increase the alert level. Every time the PCs hurry an exploration task, they increase the alert level. Every 20 minutes, the DM checks for a Random Encounter by rolling a D20. If it comes up at the alert level or less, he rolls for an encounter on the appropriate table. Whenever a particular encounter happens and is dealt with by the PCs, it should be crossed off the list. If it is rolled again at a later point, no encounter occurs, or, better yet, the PCs notice some sign of the carnage they have inflicted - a rat dragging a goblin's severed finger into its burrow or somesuch.
The overall result should be that slow and careful movement wastes resources, but makes random encounters less likely over a given period of time, and gives the PCs more options for avoid them (better chance of noticing the encounter before it befalls them). Gung-ho charging through the dungeon reduces the number of encounter checks, but quickly increases the chances that each one will result in an encounter, and consequently means encounters will happen closer together. Defeating/surviving numerous random encounters will gradually reduce the chances of future encounters, however, as the PCs slowly de-populate the area.
The exact mechanism for running the alert level/WM check thing could be tweaked. The alert level could be a modifier to a roll on a single table, with more dangerous encounters at higher results and "NO ENCOUNTER" lower down. Might need to be 2d20 or something to make that work.
Phew. That was a long one. Thoughts? (other than "TL;DR, it's too complicated"! Remember that I'm running this on Roll20 and I'm a JS programmer, so automating stuff is fairly straightforward for me...)
1 I've changed my mind on this. Allowing the whole "PP is a floor" thing does horrible violence to the probability math and is unnecessary given that I've set different DCs for casual examination (which might be done via PP most of the time) vs active searching (which may be done via explicit roll most of the time)
First, some observations:
- The different paces of movement in the PHB are pretty much irrelevant for most dungeons. Being able to travel 400' rather than 200' / minute makes basically no difference during exploration unless the dungeon is enormous or you're running some sort of chase/escape sequence (which is probably better handled in a more abstract fashion anyway). The vast majority of the PCs' time is going to be spent in combat, detailed searching or other interaction, unless we return to something more like 1E exploration rates
- Nevertheless, Gary was right to emphasise the importance of time tracking - lots of things depend on it mechanically (spells, resources), and, done properly, it really creates a sense of tension and excitement.
- The speed at which the PCs move and interact with the dungeon should present some non-obvious tactical choices
- The major variables that we're playing with seem to be:
- How much time passes - which will tick down resources + move external time limits closer
- How carefully can the PCs observe their environment - including searching for traps + secrets, and spotting/hearing monsters before the monsters notice them
- How much the PCs make their presence known, which generally translates to an increased chance of a random encounter.
My approach:
Time
Dungeon time is measured in blocks of 10 minutes. Anything that takes less than 10 minutes isn't tracked. Wandering monster checks are made every 20 minutes. Most basic dungeoneering activities are assumed to take 10 minutes - picking a lock, searching a room, interacting with a puzzle, combat, etc. Yes, it's a big fudge; but neither I or any of my players is interested in minute by minute timekeeping and this is a reasonable compromise to keep time-based tension without having to do that. There's always room for judgement calls in specific cases.
Activities
Players determine what activity their character is doing at any given point. The core activities are:
- Checking for secrets + traps
- Watching for monsters
- Mapping
These can be combined with moving around (see below) but any other declared action that requires substantial engagement will be mutually exclusive with the ones listed above.
Movement around the dungeon
When moving between rooms, along corridors etc, PCs can move cautiously, at normal pace, or fast.
Normal movement
When moving normally, the time taken between rooms/areas of the dungeon is not tracked - assumed to be irrelevant relative to the time spent on other activities. At this pace, however, stealth is not possible. Noticing hidden things is done with the passive perception of any PCs looking for them, and the Perception DCs are 5 higher than they would be for an active search. Sneaky monsters will roll stealth against the best passive perception of PCs keeping watch.
Slow movement
When moving slowly, each section of corridor takes 10 minutes. Again, this is a big fudge and there will need to be some judgement calls - a 200' corridor might take 20 minutes, crossing to the room directly opposite might take no time; but the default assumption is that if you come out of a room, walk down a corridor, and enter another room, the whole process takes 10 minutes at a slow pace.
It is assumed that PCs are moving stealthily at this pace. Monsters will have to roll Perception against the PCs weakest passive stealth to notice them + the alert level will not be increased (see below)
Detecting secrets/traps is done by passive perception, but with the normal detection DC for an active search.
Sneaky monsters will roll stealth against the best passive perception of PCs looking out for them.
Fast movement
This is unlikely to be relevant in most cases for reasons mentioned earlier on. It's the standard 400' / minute fast movement rate. You automatically fail all your Perception checks for secrets at this pace, and you have a -5 penalty to PP against sneaky monsters.
Searching and Interacting with Rooms
- Searching a normal sized room for hidden things takes 10 minutes and involves a normal Wisdom(Perception) check against detection DC of hidden items
- Players can choose to do a hurried search (no time advancement), but they do so at disadvantage, and they increase the alert level (see below) by 1 (because: noise)
- If players are not happy with the results of a normal (not hurried) search, they can choose to spend time to increase the value of the D20 roll. Every 10 extra minutes they spend looking adds 4 to their roll; the value of the roll cannot be increased beyond 20 before bonuses. Effectively this is a slightly nuanced version of taking 20. A player may do this successively with the DM relaying any new information they find each time. Obviously the DM will also be making Random Encounter checks every 20 minutes as well!
- Note that there is nothing stopping the PCs using this same "take up to 20" mechanic in a corridor if they are happy to spend the extra time searching
- Sneaky monsters will roll stealth against the best passive perception of PCs looking out for them - best make sure you have a lookout.
- Mutatis mutandis this same mechanic can be applied to most exploration tasks - puzzles, skill challenges etc
Random Encounters and the Alert Level
The alert level of the dungeon starts at 1. Every time the PCs move between rooms at anything faster than a slow pace, they increase the alert level. Every time the PCs hurry an exploration task, they increase the alert level. Every 20 minutes, the DM checks for a Random Encounter by rolling a D20. If it comes up at the alert level or less, he rolls for an encounter on the appropriate table. Whenever a particular encounter happens and is dealt with by the PCs, it should be crossed off the list. If it is rolled again at a later point, no encounter occurs, or, better yet, the PCs notice some sign of the carnage they have inflicted - a rat dragging a goblin's severed finger into its burrow or somesuch.
The overall result should be that slow and careful movement wastes resources, but makes random encounters less likely over a given period of time, and gives the PCs more options for avoid them (better chance of noticing the encounter before it befalls them). Gung-ho charging through the dungeon reduces the number of encounter checks, but quickly increases the chances that each one will result in an encounter, and consequently means encounters will happen closer together. Defeating/surviving numerous random encounters will gradually reduce the chances of future encounters, however, as the PCs slowly de-populate the area.
The exact mechanism for running the alert level/WM check thing could be tweaked. The alert level could be a modifier to a roll on a single table, with more dangerous encounters at higher results and "NO ENCOUNTER" lower down. Might need to be 2d20 or something to make that work.
Phew. That was a long one. Thoughts? (other than "TL;DR, it's too complicated"! Remember that I'm running this on Roll20 and I'm a JS programmer, so automating stuff is fairly straightforward for me...)
1 I've changed my mind on this. Allowing the whole "PP is a floor" thing does horrible violence to the probability math and is unnecessary given that I've set different DCs for casual examination (which might be done via PP most of the time) vs active searching (which may be done via explicit roll most of the time)
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