So i realized that apparently the Dungeon Turn rules from the old playtest of 5E were still kinda in the game, but scattered, so I'm going to try to piece them together back to kinda what they were. Help me fill out the holes.
Movement and Actions.
"In a dungeon environment, the adventurers' movement happens on a scale of minutes.It takes them about a minute to creep down a long hallway, another minute to check for traps on the door at the end of the hall, and a good ten minutes to search the chamber beyond for anything interesting or valuable." PHB 181.
"Travel Speed in Dungeon.(Per Minute.)
Fast. 400 feet (-5 penalty to passive Wisdom (Perception) scores)
Normal. 300 feet
Slow. 200 feet (Able to use stealth)" PHB 181
Using A Map DMG p242 (Dungeon Map Scale)
Whatever environment the adventurers are exploring, you can use a map to follow their progress as you relate the details of their travels. In a dungeon, tracking movement on a map lets you describe the branching passages, doors, chambers, and other features the adventurers encounter as they go, and gives the players the opportunity to choose their own path
Map Travel Pace. Dungeon (1 sq. = 10 ft.) DMG p242.
Slow Pace. 20 sq./min.
Normal Pace 30 sq./min.
Fast Pace 40 sq./min.
[Random Encounters]
"You decide when a random encounter happens, or you roll. Consider checking for a random encounter once every hour, once every 4 to 8 hours, or once during the day and once during a long rest-whatever makes the most sense based on how active the area is.
If you roll, do so with a d20. If the result is 18 or higher, a random encounter occurs. You then roll on an appropriate random encounter table to determine what the adventurers meet, re-rolling if the die result doesn't make sense given the circumstances." DMG p86. Assuming the lowest scale for a dungeon, so a check every hour."
[Exploration activities]
" As adventurers travel through a dungeon or the wilderness, they need to remain alert for danger, and some characters might perform other tasks to help the group's journey. " PHB 182.
Listed activities.(Full details of how to do the actions are in the rulebook, just noting them all down.)
Stealth PHB p182. While traveling at a slow pace, the characters can move stealthily using Stealth Checks.
Noticing Threats PHB p182.
"Characters who turn their attention to other tasks as the group travels are not focused on watching for danger.
These characters don't contribute their passive Wisdom (Perception) scores to the group's chance of noticing hidden threats. However, a character not watching for danger can do one of the following activities instead, or some other activity with the DM's permission."
Navigate. PHB p183
Draw a Map. PHB p183
Track. PHB p183
Forage. PHB p183
On top of this another set of implied activities are in the PHB, which are checking for traps, and searching chambers.
Checking for Traps. PHB p181
Searching Room. PHB p181
All of these actions take one minute of time, except searching a room, which takes ten minutes.
When you look at all the core rules of the game and piece it together you get this basic procedure that is essential "The Dungeon Turn", with every turn taking one minute, and every round generally taking about a minute as well,(10 minutes if they are searching a room), with the exception of searching rooms, which takes 10 minutes. The general procedure seems to be a similar but streamlined version of Old DnD.
The Dungeon Turn as explained by 5e rules
- Set travel pace, and activities for the turn. The party decides what action to take (e.g. moving, searching, listening, entering rooms).
- Progress and description. The players make progress on the map, time moves forward, and the DM descriptions what actions are taken and what happens next.
- Encounters. After an hour has passed the DM checks for random encounters, DM determines the distance, and If monsters are encountered, resolve any interaction or combat that occurs between the creatures and the characters.
- End of turn. After performing all these steps, go back to the first step and repeat the sequence.
RAW, this is generally the procedure 5e seems to expect you to explore dungeons with, and they are in the game, except scattered around the book, and this is me compiling them and making a structure. What are your thoughts on this? Are they even good? Does it accomplish its goal of trying to be like the Dungeon Turn of old B/X?
I've used it while running a dungeon crawl, and it mostly works well, a good way of keeping track of time, and adds a bit of tension, though the amount of movement per minute is far too high, feels like it should be halved, and the encounter rate should be a bit higher, 25% chance(so encounter on a roll of 16 or higher.)
