Pacing a dungeon

[Dragonsoul]

Ok, for my next game I have my players going through a fairly standard dungeon, but with a minor twist they have a hard 5 minute-that's 30 rounds limit to complete the dungeon, is there anything in particular I should watch out for, and how big should it be made?

As a clarification, it isn't a TPK if they fail, they just get trapped in a planar locked plane that got invaded by the Far Realms

[Retech]

Do they know there is a time limit?

[Dragonsoul]

Yes, they are well aware of the limit

[flabort]

30 rounds, a round is 6 seconds... so 180 seconds. a minute is 60 seconds, so 180/60=... 3 minutes.

First mistake is that 5 minutes is 50 rounds, not 30. Easy way to remember is there's 10 rounds to a minute. :smallwink:

So, in regards to size: It should be small enough that the players can get in, and out, in that time. So, take their slowest base land speed, multiply it by the number of rounds (50), divide by 2. Now, you have to factor in combat, which will eat a number of rounds. and the fact that they may not take the shortest path. So, divide it again by roughly 3-5. So, if the slowest character moves at 20 feet (40 when using both actions), the dungeon should be roughly 100-170 feet, for the shortest path from start to goal.

Edit: Also, how much combat will there be? The final division is going to be determined by that, and how much it branches/how many traps there are. So, say you have 4 rooms, and each room has a branch with 1-2 rooms down that path, and a treasure room at the end. This would give us around 10 rooms. Lets say 2/3 of them had combat. So, 6 or 7 rooms with combat, taking up 4-8 rounds each. Much is avoidable. But if all 7 took 8 rounds, that would be 56 rounds, and they'd lose. So... if they did 6 combats with 4 rounds, that would be 24, half their time. An average (6.5*6) would use 39, or around 40 rounds, leaving 10 rounds to find the goal and get out. Yikes!

So, if you had a 4 room shortest path, with a 10 room 100% completion, with 6-7 combats, if they tried for 100% completion they'd lose. definitely. So, we want a high number to divide by. I'd say, 5.8, or something. 6, maybe.
So, maybe an 80 foot shortest path. So the distance between doors should be roughly 20, on average.

[Diefje]

I'd be very careful with any non-rolled actions (other than just movement). Attack rolls, skill checks, casting, all fine because it's defined how long it takes. If you toss in something that's gonna try to talk, how long does that take? What about if they have to find a puzzle, how long does it take to solve? How do you let your party discuss how to proceed? Do they talk only during their turn?

I really like the idea of there being a "wrong way". That will really put a sense of urgency in them, once they discover it's not just a linear dungeon, and they have to somehow find the right way and really power through everything cause they might have to waste time backtracking.