Doing Dungeons Justice: A Guide For Running Exciting Dungeons in Fifth Edition D&D

One of the things that I always wished I had learned sooner as a DM was proper Dungeon Running techniques. You can have one of the most deadly, evocative dungeons and the effect it gives the players is diminished by poor DMing procedures. This isn't to say that if you aren't doing it my way, you're a Bad DM™, but that you need to find some way to herd those cats. So without further ado, let's get this ball of yarn rolling.

A dungeon crawl that lacks tension is just a series of encounters. They can be perhaps some of the most eloquently crafted or difficult encounters in existence, but the players will be left with an experience that falls short of its full potential.

There are two things you need to run a dungeon with tension, completely separate from any narratively concocted tension that may be situationally present: Mystery and Momentum. We'll start with the thing that's core to this entire process.

A dungeon crawl has to have a good momentum to have a significant impact. Momentum, in this case, is an ever-present need for the group to keep moving forward. One of the things that breaks down tension more than anything else is too much time being spent deciding what to do next. As a DM, there are certain procedures you can use to keep things moving in such a way that players are constantly engaged and thinking on their feet.

Exploration Turns

Exploration turns give you a structure in which players interact with the environment on a time sensitive basis. It's as easy as breaking every turn into 10 minutes and asking the players what they are doing during that period of time. In older editions, time was split between rounds and turns and these were very separate things. A round is to combat as a turn is to exploration.

So what can you do during a turn? 

A. Travel for 10 minutes. (obviously)  The 5e DMG has already worked out how far your group can typically travel at which paces.

Slow: 20 sq/min. 

Normal: 30 sq/min. 

Fast: 40 sq/min. (1 sq.= 10ft.)

So this means that if you're traveling quickly as a group, you can travel 4000 feet in 10 minutes.  But that's dangerous as a motherfucker.  That's really for when you're trying to find the exit more than anything.  Expect that you can safely travel 2000 feet in 10 minutes (ie as far as you need to go before doing something other than walking in most dungeons).

B. Search a room, whether for secret doors, hidden items, for traps, whatever.

C. Picking a lock (yes it actually takes a while).

D. Breaking down a door.

E. Excavating X cubic feet of dirt/stone/whatever.

F. Cast a spell as a ritual.

G. Investigating something

H. Barricading a room/setting traps.

I. Climb a high wall using pitons & shit.

J. Skim a book.

K. Basically anything else that takes around 10 minutes or longer can be measured in turns.

What do we track with turns?

A. Resource management.  How do you know how long they've been in a dungeon?  You count turns.  A spell that lasts an hour ends after six turns.  A torch burns out after six turns.  Lantern oil is burned up after thirty-six turns.  That invisibility spell lasts six turns.  Knowing that their resources are constantly being used up keeps the players active.

B. Wandering monsters.  This is part of where the mystery of the dungeon factors in.  Most dungeons should have wandering monsters, but not all will.  Wandering monsters keep players from sitting idly for too long in a dungeon and being TOO careful.  Wandering monsters help keep the pace going.  Every few turns that pass, you can check for random encounters.  Is your dungeon full of creatures?  You should probably roll pretty frequently, and have a high probability for encounters.

Example: Every turn, I roll a d12.  On a 1, there's a random encounter.  I'd then roll on my wandering monster chart to see what they face.  If they kill the encounter that I rolled up, I cross it off the list.  If I roll that encounter again, nothing happens.  This emulates the population of the dungeon decreasing with every death.

C. Time-sensitive triggers.  Maybe the cultists will finish their ritual in five hours.  Maybe every hour, a sentry takes a smoke break.  Maybe every turn that passes, there's a 1 in 100 chance that there's a tremor that causes a cave-in.  It's up to you to try to find ways to bring this place to life and make it seem mysterious for your players.

Wandering monsters and time-sensitive triggers build the mystery of the dungeon.  It makes it feel like a lived-in, real location, while simultaneously giving you the opportunity to make it strange and otherworldly.

OKAY, NOW WHAT?

Remember how I talked about travel paces? Slow, Normal, Fast?  These bitches are important.  You know how passive perception works, right?  A disadvantage means you get a -5 on your Passive Perception.  This means if you're moving at a fast pace, or you're in dim lighting (not dark, just dim!) you have a MINUS FIVE on your Passive Perception.  That lovely 13 you had becomes an 8!  You're gonna trigger all them traps, fool. You're gonna get ambushed, too.

The easy solution: players should travel at a slow pace as much as possible in the dungeon, and with as much lighting as they can manage.  You know how DMs complain that their players never need torches because they've got darkvision?  Bam.  Now they're lighting it up like it's motherfucking Christmas, or they're getting spiked.  Now they're using resources. Now things feel a bit more urgent.

Remember this Passive Perception anytime they approach traps or wandering monsters.  Collect all of their Passive Perception scores beforehand so you aren't tipping your hand to them.  Let the chaos ensue.  Also be sure to consider that they're MUCH more likely to be noticed if they're using torches.  This is one of the reason that enhanced darkvision is a huge deal and why having a former denizen of the Underdark on your side is a huge boon.

TAKE IT FURTHER!

Now that you're tracking how time passes, let's start tracking what time of day it is. Use your dice. Lord knows you've got an ass ton of dice you're barely touching right now (thanks COVID).

d10 d10 : d10 (or d6, 6 = 0)

Hour : tens of minutes.

Doing this means that you can really, actually mean it when you say "the sun is starting to set." Or if they had a long rest 8 hours ago and nova'd all their shit, you can tell them "sorry you have to wait 8 hours to go to sleep to get the benefit of another long rest. What do you want to do in the meantime?"

You're DMing on a whole new level now.

HUWELP, that's all I've got for today, folks.  I hope this handy dandy guide comes in.. handy.  For players who arrived to D&D late enough that D&D stopped telling you how to track time in dungeons.  Or how to run dungeons period.

They really dropped the ball, you know?

OH, one last tip.  Don't be afraid to make it impossible for them to get a good night's rest in a dungeon.  Fill their sleep with abhorrent nightmares.  Have them constantly wake being covered in rats.  Be a total shit if you need to.  The dungeon isn't supposed to be cozy.. unless you want it to be.  YOU'RE THE BOSS!