TEXT: EN World EN5IDER| Those Who Crawl
  Dungeons and dungeon crawling; 
  the simplest and most elegant way 
  to present every aspect of fantasy 
  roleplaying games. The walls of a 
  dungeon give the game structure, both 
  literally and figuratively. “How do 
  we get out of this dungeon?” “Should 
  we go left or right?” “If we listen at 
  the door, what do we hear?” “What 
  do you mean it has eight eyes and no 
  legs?!” 
  When you delve into a dungeon, 
  choices and consequences are 
  abundant. A party of adventurers is 
  faced with a darkened tunnel. What 
  should they do?
  They can stop and listen to gain more 
  info. They can light it up with torches, 
  but doing so might attract monsters. 
  They can have a character with darkvision scout 
  ahead, but that might put them at risk. Or they can 
  just ignore it and explore elsewhere. Dungeons 
  provide freedom of choice, cooperation, and 
  problem solving, all through their design.
  Unfortunately, they are exhausting for a Game 
  Master. They take a lot of brainpower and 
  memorization to run, which is an absolute shame! 
  The best part of the game shouldn’t be nearly this 
  mentally taxing.
  Below are tips and tricks that will make running 
  dungeons easier and faster for you and help make 
  exploring dungeons more exhilarating for your 
  players; no more arguing about time and duration 
  rules or hair-pulling over accurate dungeon 
  mapping.
  THOSE WHO 
  CRAWL
  by Kiel Chenier 
  
  EN World EN5IDER |  Those Who Crawl
  1. Know the tone of your game.
  Tone is the perspective or attitude that an author 
  adopts with regards to the world they are trying to 
  present or the story they are trying to tell. Thinking 
  about the tone of your game will help you choose 
  which rules reinforce the tone, and which work 
  against it. What kind of emotions is their world 
  trying to elicit in their players? Is your game a light-
  hearted, adventurous romp? Is it a gritty, action-
  packed drama? Is it more like a horror film, or a 
  thriller? Do you run a game that’s a gonzo mish-
  mash of all of these things? If so, that’s totally cool. 
  Most roleplaying games end up having a variety of 
  tones. 
  Tone matters when running a dungeon crawl is 
  because it dictates which rules you should use, and 
  which rules you should ignore. 
  For example, if you are running a horror-inspired 
  game and the dungeon is meant to be a real trial 
  for your players, rules for managing dwindling 
  resources will help enforce that tone. Things like 
  accurately tracking how far a torch or lantern can 
  light up an area, how long a torch lasts, and tracking 
  how many of them a player has. Who is carrying 
  the light source? It matters, because whoever is 
  illuminated most is sure to be the first one noticed 
  by the horrifying mutants lurking in the dark. 
  But if you are running a game of high adventure 
  and larger-than-life player characters, then resource 
  management doesn’t make as much sense. Their 
  heroic exploits and witty banter with the escaping 
  main villain are the game’s primary focus; they 
  don’t want to worry about having enough torches. 
  They have torches in their equipment list. That 
  should be enough!
  That kind of meticulous resource-tracking would 
  only slow down the flow of a high-adventure game, 
  but it helps reinforce the danger and desperation 
  of the game with the more horrific tone. Instead, 
  for the high adventure game, having a really 
  simple and fast way for players to 
  check rooms and hallways (say, a 
  single Wisdom check), regardless of 
  illumination, would be much faster. 
  Take stealth and sneaking for 
  example. In the horror game, 
  individual stealth checks might work 
  better, as they single out characters 
  and make the opportunity for failure 
  greater. For the high adventure 
  game, group stealth checks (like in 
  the fourth-edition game) might be 
  the best way to go, as they reinforce 
  camaraderie among the group, where 
  one player makes the check, but all the 
  characters are providing a set bonus 
  to that player’s check. Everyone is 
  helping and important. 
  2.Track Time with Dice.
  It is easy to forget about the passing 
  of time when you’re deep down in a 
  dungeon. Encounters can pop up at 
  any moment, minutes slip away as 
  players discuss how best to avoid a 
  trap, choose which door to open first, 
  and investigate things in general.
  This is difficult (and dangerous) 
  for Game Masters, because random 
  encounters should be rolled for 
  every 30-60 minutes, depending 
  on how populated the dungeon is. 
  Dungeons are dangerous, populated, 
  living places! Accidentally ignoring 
  that can make your games seem less 
  challenging and immersive.
  Trying to add up abstracted time is 
  a hassle, so here’s a sane and safe 
  replacement. Track time using dice, 
  specifically d6s and d12s. 
  
  EN World EN5IDER| Those Who Crawl
  As the Game Master, set aside a d6 
  and a d12 when the player characters 
  enter a dungeon. The d6 represents 
  minutes, and the d12 represents hours 
  (in game time, not actual time). Both 
  begin at the ‘1’ position. You track 
  time in the dungeon in ten-minute 
  increments. When ten minutes pass, 
  you turn the d6 to ‘2’, then to ‘3’ ten 
  minutes after that. After 60 minutes 
  have passed in game, you turn the 
  d12 to ‘2’ and reset the d6 back to ‘1’. 
  Minutes and hours. Simple.
  Each of the following things should 
  take about 10 minutes of in-game time:
  •
  Picking a complex lock on a
  door or a chest.
  •
  Actively searching a room for
  secret doors.
  •
  Searching/looting dead bodies
  for treasure and clues.
  •
  A combat round taking over
  3–4 rounds (this accounts for
  catching one’s breath and
  recouping oneself afterwards).
  •
  Stopping to discuss, at length,
  what to do next (use only if
  your game is more hardcore or
  old-school).
  3. Simplify Published 
     Adventures
  Pre-written adventures are not always 
  the easiest or fastest to run. Sure, a 
  bunch of the work is done for you, 
  but these published adventures can 
  be poorly laid out and require a lot of 
  back-and-forth referencing at the table. 
  If you’re new to running dungeons, 
  these books can often be a hassle to 
  use if you’re in a hurry.
  If you have the time before running a game, try 
  doing the following:
  •
  Photocopy or print out a copy of the dungeon
  map (make sure it doesn’t take up all of the
  page).
  •
  Write down the most necessary details about
  the dungeon’s rooms circling around the
  photocopied/printed map. Include things
  like the room’s name, its contents, how many
  monsters are inside (if any), page references
  to the adventure, and page references to
  monster stats (if any).
  •
  In the map itself, use symbols to indicate
  locked doors, traps, and other important
  dungeon dressings. Make sure that these
  symbols make sense to you.
  •
  Write down the names of any important
  NPC’s and their locations.
  By having the whole dungeon in front of you at 
  all times, you’ll never be caught fumbling through 
  a book trying to find the right information when 
  players ask you questions.
  4.Describe Rooms Clearly
  Nothing says ‘old school dungeon crawl’ like 
  busting out the graph paper and pencils and 
  requiring your players to map a dungeon by hand 
  as they explore it. Fifth-edition strongly emphasizes 
  ‘Theatre of the Mind’-style play, and this style of 
  dungeon mapping is becoming widely popular once 
  again. 
  For players new to it, mapping can get a bit 
  confusing. Dungeon mapping requires a lot of back 
  and forth communication, which can be hampered 
  by oddly-shaped, weirdly-proportioned, and 
  overly-detailed dungeon rooms. 
  Here are some tips on how to best describe 
  
  EN World EN5IDER |  Those Who Crawl
  dungeons to make it easier for players to draw 
  them:
  Tell players where the dungeon begins. Where is 
  the first entrance room located on the page? Is it at 
  the top? The bottom? In the middle? If you don’t 
  clue your players in to this, chances are their maps 
  will quickly run off the page. Whatever your players 
  are mapping on should be oriented the same way 
  your dungeon map is. 
  Give players shapes. Instead of just telling players 
  that a room is 30 feet by 60 feet, tell them it is a 
  horizontal rectangle. The dimensions are important, 
  but giving the player a definite shape allows them to 
  instantly understand you. 
  Use cardinal directions. Rather than trying to 
  describe things as left, right, up, and down, try 
  using north, south, east, and west. These directions 
  remain the same regardless of where a player 
  character’s perspective is. For example, “The room 
  extends 40 feet north/south, and 20 feet east/west.” 
  Also, try to keep the north direction on your map 
  pointing towards the top of the page. It makes for 
  easier mapping. 
  Room first, then exits/entrances. When you 
  describe a dungeon room to players, give them 
  the shape of the room first, its dimensions second, 
  where they are entering from third, any/all other 
  exits or doorways fourth, and finally room details 
  and dressings last. For example, “You enter a square 
  room, it’s 20 feet by 20 feet, with the entrance in the 
  southeast corner. There’s one other doorway to the 
  north, in the center of the wall. You suddenly realize 
  it’s a giant mouth. Save versus being eaten.”
  Point-to-Point maps. Dungeon cartography isn’t 
  for everyone. It can be difficult to cobble together 
  a dungeon map that’s accurate and fits together 
  cleanly. When in doubt, you can suggest something 
  more abstract: if your game doesn’t rely on really 
  accurate positioning and movement, try a ‘point-
  to-point’ map, described below. This type of map 
  is an abstraction, but still contains all the important 
  information.
  -A point-to-point map will look like 
  a series of shapes (rooms) connected 
  by lines and points (hallways/
  passageways). 
  -You give players the shape and 
  dimensions of a room. The players 
  draw the shape, but write down the 
  dimensions on the sides of the room’s 
  shape. They do not need to be to scale. 
  -Hallways and doorways are drawn as 
  points and lines. The length/width of 
  the hallway is written along the line.
  5. Helpful tools and aids
  Dungeon crawling can be made easier 
  with the addition of a few simple 
  tools. All of the ones listed below are 
  intended to make navigating space 
  easier to understand for players, and 
  to help Game Masters save time at the 
  table.
  Miniatures and/or tokens. Making 
  sense of scale and position is tricky 
  in confined spaces. Using miniatures 
  or other small objects (cardboard 
  tokens, paper standees, coins, dice, 
  etc.) to stand in for player characters 
  and monsters can make a world of 
  difference when communicating 
  space and movement, especially 
  when using a tactical grid.
  Wet- and dry-erase boards. These 
  office standbys make communication 
  between GMs and players a breeze. 
  If players get confused about the 
  shape of a room, or what objects 
  within a room might look like, having 
  something you can draw on and 
  also erase quickly can make a world 
  
  EN World EN5IDER| Those Who Crawl
  of difference. Also, when placed on 
  a table alongside miniatures and 
  tokens, it can be used as a battle grid 
  for combat.
  Tablet computers. What’s better than 
  graph paper and pencils? Having 
  a something players can draw 
  and erase on endlessly, undoing 
  and redoing any lines they create. 
  By having one designated player 
  mapping a dungeon using an iPad 
  or a different tablet, you save a lot of 
  time at the table. There are numerous 
  free drawing applications and 
  programs that you can run on most 
  tablets (Penultimate, Layers, Bamboo 
  Paper, and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 
  are among the best for mapping). If 
  you’re able to spend a little money, 
  the Bamboo Stylus Solo is a touch 
  screen stylus that will ensure your 
  digital maps are as clear and detailed 
  as you want them to be.
  Image references. A picture is 
  worth a thousand words. Trying to 
  improvise dungeon dressings and 
  details can be difficult for Game 
  Masters just starting out, and boxed 
  ‘read-aloud’ text can get kind of 
  boring, and can take your players out 
  of the game. If you have the time, a 
  good solution is to print out images 
  of dungeon locales and examples of 
  architecture to show your players, or 
  load them onto a tablet or laptop.
  Author - Kiel Chenier
  Editor - James Haeck
  Artists - Ellis Goodson
  Layout - Justin Buell
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/5th Edition (5e)/3rd Party/EN World EN5ider/EN5ider 020 - Those Who Crawl.pdf