Exploration

Credit: The Angry GM’s Exploration Rules

Exploration Tasks
During exploration, the party is generally engaged in tasks that will take several minutes at a time or they are moving between nearby locations, like rooms in a dungeon. Obviously, more immediate tasks are possible.

When a player declares an action, it is important to distinguish between an immediate action and one that will take a few minutes. Kicking open a door or jumping over a pit are immediate actions. Securing a rope and climbing down one side of a pit and up the other is a task that will take a few minutes. As is picking a lock. Any action that will take more than one minute but less than ten minutes should be considered an exploration task.

During exploration, the party is generally moving slowly and carefully. That means that tasks that would otherwise be quick and easy – like crossing a room, opening a door, moving down the hallway, and reaching the next room – tend to be a little slower. Think about it. The party must gather back up in their marching order, move quietly to the door, someone will peer through, everyone will stop to listen, they will move slowly down the hall, and stack up against the next door. And then decide what to do. Thus, moving from one room or scene to another should generally also be considered an exploration task.

Exploration tasks can also be quiet or noisy. A noisy task is one that can be heard or perceived at a reasonable distance. A quiet task is one that is no louder than quiet talking, one that would be difficult to hear from more than a few feet away. Kicking open a door is a loud task. Picking a lock is a quiet task. Movement between rooms is generally quiet as long as the party is making some kind of effort to go carefully.

In order to determine whether an action is immediate or not and whether it is loud or not, the GM should listen carefully to the players’ description of their actions and ask questions as needed. But the default position is that a task is not-immediate and it is quiet. The party can rush or hustle if they so desire and if the GM allows it. A rushed task is almost always loud unless the GM determines otherwise. The effect of rushing will be described below.

Actions During Exploration
As is normal, once a player declares an action, the GM determines whether the action can succeed or fail and determines whether an ability check is required. The GM should also determine whether the action is immediate and also whether the action is quiet or noisy. If the description of the action doesn’t make that obvious, the GM should ask questions of the player to determine those answers.

If the action is immediate, the action can be resolved immediately. If the action was loud, the GM Rolls for Complications (see below).

If the action is not immediate, however, the GM should let the other players know that the character is engaged in an action that will take a few minutes and ask what the other players are doing during this time. This should be done before the non-immediate action is resolved. If any players undertake immediate actions at this point or ask questions, they should be dealt with immediately. If any players declare actions that aren’t immediate, those actions should be held. Once all the players are committed to non-immediate actions or to waiting for their allies to finish their tasks, the GM should resolve each non-immediate task in turn and then Advance Time (see below). If any of the actions were loud, the GM should Roll for Complications (see below).

Extended Tasks
In general, an exploration task should take no longer than ten minutes. However, some very complicated tasks can take an extended period of time. The GM can determine, for example, that an extremely complex, ancient lock might take longer to pick. During that time, the party might attract attention and complications may arise.

When designing an extended task, a GM should determine how much time the task requires in terms of actions. Each action Advances Time (see below) once and, if the action is noisy, may cause a Roll for Complications (see below). Obviously, during this time, other characters may engage in actions as described above or they can simply wait. If the action does not require a die roll, the GM merely Advances Time for each required action and, if necessary, Rolls for Complications. If the action does require a die roll, the GM Advances Time and Rolls for Complications for each action as normal, but if the die roll is a failure, the character makes no progress. Thus, they may have to attempt further actions in order to complete the task. Of course, if the action takes too long, the party may decide to give up. Particularly if complications arise.

Time and the Time Pool
As players spend time on exploration tasks, the passage of time will have an effect. Timed effects (like spells and conditions) will expire and timed resources will get used up (such as torches and lamp oil). There is also an increasing chance that the party will suffer some random event, setback, or complication. But, while it is important to keep track of time, it is not important to keep track of time precisely. Instead, the GM uses the Time Pool.

The Time Pool is a pile of tokens visible to all of the players and the GM. The GM can use coins, candy, or poker chips. The GM can also use dice of the appropriate type if the GM has enough of them.

Whenever the party is engaged in one or more non-instantaneous exploration tasks as described above, or whenever they move from location to location within the dungeon, or whenever they engage in an activity that takes between one and ten minutes (such as casting a spell as a ritual), the GM Advances Time. The GM may also Advance Time if the party is staying in one place debating their actions for more than a few minutes. This can prod a distracted party to action as the characters realize they are wasting time and possibly attracting attention.

When Time Advances, any effect with 10 minutes or less remaining of its duration expires. Other durations are not effected. The GM then adds a single token to the Time Pool. If multiple characters undertook simultaneous exploration tasks, the GM adds only a single token to the Time Pool. However, the GM does not add a token to the Time Pool if there are already six tokens in the Time Pool. Instead, the Time Pool is Cleared (see below). If the party was rushing at a task, the GM also does not add a token to the Time Pool. However, in those cases, the GM still Advances Time and all applicable duration expires.

After expiring durations and adding necessary tokens to the Time Pool, the GM should Roll for Complications if any of the attempted tasks were loud (whether they succeeded or not) or if any of the tasks were rushed (again, regardless of success).

Rolling for Complications
Whenever the party attempts a loud or rushed task, the GM Rolls for Complications. The GM will also Roll for Complications before Clearing the Time Pool (see below). In addition, whenever the party does something to attract attention (such as arguing loudly), the GM may Roll for Complications. If the party spends several minutes arguing loudly about where to go next, the GM may both Advance Time and Roll for Complications.

Elements of the adventure could also call for a Roll for Complications as determined by the GM or the adventure designer. For example, if the party sets off an alarm trap or if a goblin prisoner starts screaming for help, the adventure could call on the GM to Roll for Complications.

To Roll for Complications, the GM rolls a number of dice equal to the number of tokens currently in the Time Pool. That’s why it can be helpful to simply use dice for the Time Pool if you have enough. In most normal situations, the GM will roll d6s. However, in less dangerous or more sparsely populated environments, the GM could use d8s. And in extremely dangerous environments, the GM could use d4s.

Various factors in the adventure could change the size of the dice used when Rolling for Complications. For example, if the party invades a kobold lair during the day – when most of the kobolds are sleeping – the Complication Dice might only be d8s. But if they come back at night, those dice become d6s. And if some kobolds manage to escape from a battle and raise the alarm, those dice might become d4s. Again, GMs and adventure designers are encouraged to use the Complication mechanic creatively to add different elements to their adventures.

Regardless of the number and size of the Complication Dice, if any die shows a 1, a Complication occurs. The GM should remove one token from the Time Pool and then resolve the Complication. Otherwise, nothing happens.

Complications
A Complication is a random event, setback, or encounter that befalls the party. They are prescribed by the adventure, but the GM can invent new ones on the fly. The most common Complications are random encounters with creatures wandering around the dungeon. In general, such an encounter should be an encounter of Easy difficulty for the party’s level or even easier. Such encounters should be nuisances rather than serious threats. The party should not earn any XP for dealing with this encounter, nor should they earn significant XP for dealing with any Complication.

Wandering creatures do not have to be hostile, though outright friendly creatures should be exceedingly rare. Other random events can include geological events, minor traps and hazards that risk a few hit points of damage or impose a condition on an unlucky PC, or the like.

GMs or adventure designers are welcome to design whatever Complications serve the theme of the adventure. But Complications should not be terribly complex. A random encounter should include only one or two types of creatures with clear, simple motivations. Other random events should not be more complex than a single event that the party can react to. In general, for each adventuring day that the GM or designer expects the party to spend exploring the site (as defined on DMG 84), there should be at least four but no more than six possible Complications. They could be organized on a random table or the GM can simply choose an appropriate one.

Specific locations can also have specific Complications keyed to them. For example, in the cave of sulfurous geysers, a Complication can always result in a spray of noxious gases from one of the geysers. An adventure designer could also instruct a GM to Roll for Complications each time the party passes through the Sulfurous Geyser Cave. Complications and Rolls for Complications should be used in this way to create special effects that help bring a dungeon to life and all sorts of random events can key off of this system.

GMs and adventure designers are advised not too worry too greatly over the idea that the party being “loud” can somehow increase the odds of an earthquake or volcanic geyser eruption. This sort of abstraction is actually quite common in fiction and is seen all the times in movies. And since loudness and brash clumsiness go hand in hand, as does loudness and inattention, it is perfectly sensible to key sudden, unexpected surprises to the party’s “loudness.” And the fact that I even feel the need to include this paragraph makes me mad and angry. So, if you want to argue the point with me, I’d strongly advise you to reconsider.

If the GM is ever required to Roll for Complications when there are no tokens in the Time Pool, the GM should roll one Complication Die. If it shows a 1, a Complication arises. Otherwise, nothing happens.

Clearing the Time Pool
If there are already six tokens in the Time Pool when Time Advances, the GM does not add another token to the Time Pool. Instead, it means that one hour of game time has passed and it is time to Clear the Time Pool.

After all effects with 10 minutes or less remaining of their durations expires as normal for Advancing Time, any effect with an hour or less remaining of its duration expires. Any effect with a duration greater than one hour remaining has one hour subtracted from its remaining duration. Then, the GM Rolls for Complications regardless of whether any attempted actions were loud or rushed. The GM should only roll six dice and not add any for the final advancement of time that caused the Time Pool to clear. Whether a Complication occurs or not, the GM then removes all tokens from the Time Pool.

Thus, the Time Pool gradually counts up to one hour of game time. Because of the slight variation due to Complications removing token from the Time Pool and the possibility of characters rushing, the actual number of tasks accomplished in an hour may vary slightly. This accounts for the imprecise nature of time tracking.

Whenever the Time Pool is cleared, the GM can mark one hour of time on a log. This will help the GM determine how long the party has been adventuring. Moreover, in event-based adventures or adventures with specific time limits, the GM or adventure designer can key those events and time limits to one-hour intervals. Thus, the Time Pool provides a simple mechanic for keeping track of time.

Time Flies
Each token in the Time Pool represents the passage of approximately ten minutes of time. If the party engages in an activity that takes more than 10 minutes – for example, the party takes a short rest – during exploration, you may add one token to the Time Pool for each 10 minutes of time spent. Each token represents a normal Advancement of Time. Thus, if the party is being loud or drawing attention during these extended activities, the GM should Roll for Complications once or twice. If the Time Pool is filled as a result of adding these tokens, the GM should add only enough tokens to fill the Time Pool, Roll for Complications as normal, and clear the Time Pool, and then add any remaining tokens.

As a shortcut to this process, if the party takes a short rest, the GM can simply assume one hour passes. He can mark an hour on his log and expire or decrement effect durations as normal. After that, the GM can pick up six dice of the appropriate size and Roll for Complications. The actual Time Pool remains untouched. This removes the possibility of interrupting a short rest in the middle with a complication, but it greatly simplifies the process, avoids the need to deal with partial short rests, and does not prevent the players from benefitting from a short rest they desperately need. However, it still provides consequences for the choice to take a short rest. Thus, most GMs are advised to use this simpler method.