Thursday, July 23, 2015

Exploration Turns

As I alluded to in earlier posts, I run dungeon crawls in my 5e campaign using something called Exploration Turns.  My goal is to merge aspects of dungeon crawl board games, like my favorite Warhammer Quest, with good ole' D&D.    I make use of minis and dungeon tiles.  Dungeons are on the compact side, about 3 to 6 main rooms is enough.  The process works like this:



Starting the Delve

When the party is about to enter a dungeon, I place the first dungeon tile down, and have them line up at the edge of the tile in marching order.  I have everyone make note of their encumbrance, and their modified movement rate.

Move and Action

Play then proceeds in Exploration Turns.  The players take turns moving their PC minis, one by one, in whatever order they decide.  Moving diagonally costs 1 movement point the first time, and 2 the second time.  Each PC can also take one action, such as trying to force open a door, pick a lock, disable a trap, etc.  As new areas of the dungeon come into range of the party's light source(s), I lay down the dungeon tiles to represent them.

Unexpected Events

At the end of each Exploration Turn, one of the players rolls 1d6.  If the result is a 1, an Unexpected Event occurs.  For each dungeon I create, I have a 2d12 table of Unexpected Events.  These are most always negative, such as wandering monsters, traps, or bad environmental effects, but there are some beneficial Unexpected Events.  These Events keep the pressure on the PCs to keep moving and accomplish their goal.

Combat

I reveal any monsters at the end of the Exploration Turn, and then have everyone roll Initiative.  Play proceeds in Combat Turns until the enemies are defeated, following Initiative order.  Since the party never knows when monsters will pop up, they need to take care to preserve their desired formation as they explore the dungeon.

Short Rests

It's rare that the party will want to take a Short Rest in the dungeon, but if they really wish to do so, they can.  If they've found a truly secure position, I'll let them take the Short Rest without risk.  If not, they need to make 3 Unexpected Event rolls during the Short Rest and hope nothing bad shows up.

Summary

The Exploration Turn system makes a dungeon crawl in D&D 5e feel more like a tactical board game.  The Unexpected Event rolls keep the tension ratcheted up, and make things like rolling to open a stuck door meaningful.  Encumbrance becomes important, because each 5' of movement is critical.  The beautiful chaos that is injected from the Unexpected Events keeps the experience fresh and interesting.  My players are currently in the middle of completing the first dungeon using this method, when they're finished I'll publish the dungeon as an example.

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