III-8 & 9: It's A Move, It's A Turn, Both, Neither! Annotated

Pages 8-9

 

Unguarded Treasures: cautions us to against making unguarded treasure, presumably in response to bullet point #2 on the previous page, easily visible or obtainable. 

 

Maintaining Freshness: raises a point that may not occur to even experienced referees. A large, multi-layered underworld dungeon (mega-dungeon in modern gaming circles) need not, and arguably should not, be static. The denizens will alter areas to suit their needs or respond the PC party’s incursion into their domain. New areas and level may open up in response to various forces at work. 

 

The Move/Turn In The Underworld

 

We are introduced to the concept of movement based timekeeping. Moving so far causes a discrete amount of time to elapse; the turn. A turn is equivalent to 10 minutes of in-game time. This will help resolve the duration of spell effects and light sources, among many other aspects of the game. This section also introduces many other staples of a typical D&D session. 

 

• Mapping movement versus fleeing
• Rest
• Searching
• Melee and combat turns
• Secret passages, stuck doors, spiking doors
• Traps
• Listening at doors
• Light sources underground
• Fireballs and lightning bolts as “tactical nukes” that just may turn around and bite the caster