Hello all. Very new DM here. I was just thinking about something that happened in our last session. The group was traveling through a kobold lair, seeking an object they were tasked with obtaining. They moved from room to room, mowing down kobolds that came after them.
They got about halfway through the dungeon when we ended the session.
I was wondering if there are any rules on traversing through a dungeon that I do not know about. Primarily concerning travel pace. Can players just travel through quickly or at a certain pace? And do they have to remain in marching order? I checked the PHB rules and DMG and I didn’t see anything but just double checking
I may not be fully answering the question, but characters move at a pace that is narratively important. Unless a situation changes, I tend to ask for a normal marching order and assume the characters are in that order until they tell me otherwise -- but this is something you should establish and communicate with your table,
I mean if you are asking for raw speed, I guess a party could just run through a dungeon, but then trigger a lot of traps etc as well as just run into swarms of monsters, so I don't know how that would be beneficial. Running out on the other hand...
Hope that helps!
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"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Thank you! I’ll take this into account. I mean, if they are in a room and cleared out the enemies then I think that they can just explore the room. If they are in a hallway then they must establish marching order
I'll assume that you're not using a grid-map and minis, and playing in theatre-of-the-mind style. While this is a perfectly great way of playing, you do need to keep track - and describe in detail - where your players are in reference to the dungeon, each other, and other creatures.
Touching on what Koradgee mentioned, a good tip is to consider whether you need to know their marching order. If they're advancing down a corridor that's only wide enough for single file, then you'll need to know in which order they are, one for game mechanical reasons, and two so you can describe what's happening from each players perspective.
You'll need to establish their positions if combat arises too, to know if anyone is blocking anyone else, or how far away creatures are from one another etc.
And yes, outside of combat, time passes at a rate that makes sense to your collective narrative. It's up to you to consider the ramifications of the pace they set.
You can pause the narrative to roll initiative, which slows time to about 6 seconds per turn. If they've cleared the room of enemies, or anything that requires players take turns (initiative order), then you've entered a narrative phase, and can return to: 'describe the scene > ask players what they do > describe the results'. How long that takes is up to you.
For example, it might go like this:
DM: 'And with a last blood gurgling breath, the goblin slides from your crimson blade with a thud, and silence descends over the cave. What would you like to do?' Player 1: 'I'd like to look around, to see if there's anything useful in the crates on the far wall' DM: 'You spend 10 minutes going through the crates. There's a few bolts of linen, a quiver of oddly shaped arrows, and a crudely carved figure of a wolf.' Player 2: 'Alright - there's nothing else here, lets continue down the corridor to the west!' DM: 'The corridor is tall, but narrow, and you can only proceed single file... what is your order?'
I agree, a kobold lair should be full of traps and ambushes. Also since Kobolds are small creatures much of the lair will have low ceilings and require crawling. A well played kobold lair can be a challenge for even mid to high level characters.
Hello all. Very new DM here. I was just thinking about something that happened in our last session. The group was traveling through a kobold lair, seeking an object they were tasked with obtaining. They moved from room to room, mowing down kobolds that came after them.
They got about halfway through the dungeon when we ended the session.
I was wondering if there are any rules on traversing through a dungeon that I do not know about. Primarily concerning travel pace. Can players just travel through quickly or at a certain pace? And do they have to remain in marching order? I checked the PHB rules and DMG and I didn’t see anything but just double checking
I may not be fully answering the question, but characters move at a pace that is narratively important. Unless a situation changes, I tend to ask for a normal marching order and assume the characters are in that order until they tell me otherwise -- but this is something you should establish and communicate with your table,
I mean if you are asking for raw speed, I guess a party could just run through a dungeon, but then trigger a lot of traps etc as well as just run into swarms of monsters, so I don't know how that would be beneficial. Running out on the other hand...
Hope that helps!
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Thank you! I’ll take this into account. I mean, if they are in a room and cleared out the enemies then I think that they can just explore the room. If they are in a hallway then they must establish marching order
I'll assume that you're not using a grid-map and minis, and playing in theatre-of-the-mind style. While this is a perfectly great way of playing, you do need to keep track - and describe in detail - where your players are in reference to the dungeon, each other, and other creatures.
Touching on what Koradgee mentioned, a good tip is to consider whether you need to know their marching order. If they're advancing down a corridor that's only wide enough for single file, then you'll need to know in which order they are, one for game mechanical reasons, and two so you can describe what's happening from each players perspective.
You'll need to establish their positions if combat arises too, to know if anyone is blocking anyone else, or how far away creatures are from one another etc.
And yes, outside of combat, time passes at a rate that makes sense to your collective narrative. It's up to you to consider the ramifications of the pace they set.
You can pause the narrative to roll initiative, which slows time to about 6 seconds per turn. If they've cleared the room of enemies, or anything that requires players take turns (initiative order), then you've entered a narrative phase, and can return to: 'describe the scene > ask players what they do > describe the results'. How long that takes is up to you.
For example, it might go like this:
DM: 'And with a last blood gurgling breath, the goblin slides from your crimson blade with a thud, and silence descends over the cave. What would you like to do?'
Player 1: 'I'd like to look around, to see if there's anything useful in the crates on the far wall'
DM: 'You spend 10 minutes going through the crates. There's a few bolts of linen, a quiver of oddly shaped arrows, and a crudely carved figure of a wolf.'
Player 2: 'Alright - there's nothing else here, lets continue down the corridor to the west!'
DM: 'The corridor is tall, but narrow, and you can only proceed single file... what is your order?'
Are you using traps and ambushes? If not, you may be making things easier than they should be. Consider this:
https://youtu.be/J5MRc-nueYQ
I agree, a kobold lair should be full of traps and ambushes. Also since Kobolds are small creatures much of the lair will have low ceilings and require crawling. A well played kobold lair can be a challenge for even mid to high level characters.
*Cue Evil Underlord laugh track*