Tracking the passage of time!

When playing D&D and similar systems, often the passing of time is left out of the equation for simplicity sake. When players buff themselves it’s often considered that the buffs will last most of the dungeon, if not the whole thing.

One method I have switched to during areas where the passing of time is important is switching to initiative for asking what people are doing. The party rolls initiative, then until the next combat encounter we go down the list to ask what people are doing. On Roll20 I use a custom Round Counter that raises by 1 every time it comes up on the turn order. In person I use a handheld counter device that I bought for Hackmaster.

Structuring the gameplay in this manner may seem very board gamey, but it gives you an accurate passage of time as often one round is six seconds, so 10 rounds is one in-game minute. It also gives people a chance to roleplay, or get involved if they feel they may be stepping on the toes of their allies, or are shy to butt in. This system allows for ease in triggering and resolving traps as players move on their turn and thus, can accidentally get in front of a rogue who’s on the lookout for such devices.

I use a house rule that every x number of rounds an encounter roll is made. The rate of encounters varies based on the location. In a tomb in the middle of an old mountain pass the rate will be high, 15-20 rounds for a random encounter due to isolation. Places like a castle or a big bads hideout the rate may me 5-10 as more individuals are in the location to intercept the party.

It can slow the game down a bit, and some players can get confused on how to handle when actions happen. It’s best to make clear “when” actions happen, and if people are waiting for others to act first in the round. Delaying actions and readying is all easy to do, as long as no immediate threats are present. When it comes to moving on a per square basis (if you use a map) I usually just let everyone move at the system’s Run speed and still take an action for game flow sake.

A big takeaway from switching to this system is realistically it takes the average party of mine 3-5 minutes to clear a dungeon from start to finish. That can take all game session, but it really breaks down the scope of how time actually passes. It feels like in-game it should take literal hours but the 6 second round helps to make it feel fast and deadly. Another situation I find that my games have gone in when I switched to keeping people constrained to the initiative is people tend to separate from the party. The ability to feel as if they have to act on their own causes groups to form, and the party indeed becomes split, often times over large areas.

Three combats happening at once while the party is spread out over the dungeon.

Of course if you and your players enjoy a more organic turn and burn with no pauses that’s great! I always like to try to use the rules the best I can, and I found this is a good way to keep effects tracked and encounter rate balanced.