Movement between encounters?


Advice


Hello All,

As a GM I've always found movement between battle encounters (without initiative) to be a bit awkward (example, dungeon crawling, etc.). Often someone just ends up pushing all the minis into a room or down the hall. Sometimes a player hesitantly moves their mini somewhere while looking up at the other players and GM, like, "is this okay?"

Both of these situations becomes particularly weird (from a mechanical standpoint) when there are traps/haunts located in certain squares.

How do you handle PC movement between battles?


In my group we generally have a known formation for movement. Usually its rogue in the front, fighter 2 squares back and 1 to a side, Wizard/sorc on the other side, cleric somewhere in the back.

If someone says, "I want to check that door for traps" or "I want to go down the hallway" other players are asked if they are going with, or where they want to go. This sets their locations for if a trap was in the hallway and triggered. Often someone will "check the hallway" then everyone moves up some, then they will check the door while everyone stands 15-20' back. And so on.


have a formation and then move the lead figure. Make sure to ask them to map their path out.


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My group doesn't use maps and minis outside of combat, we build a mental image of our environment from the description the DM gives (if we do use a map, it's only for reference). From that, players get to choose what they want to do (which path to choose at path splitting, a door to check/open, corpse to loot and other objects/features to interact with or a sound to investigate). We always keep action economy in mind so that everyone has a chance to act (and not having one player run around for several hundred feet and picking stuff up while someone else barely gets to enter a room) but it's much more free than in initiative order.

When we're walking down corridors, we establish a formation (what order we travel in, who's holding a light source, etc). The formation can be altered at player discretion. We often assume to move until we find/hear anything (which path to choose at path splitting, a door to check/open, corpse to loot and other objects/features to interact with or a sound to investigate).

Players should exclaim everything they want to do, so that the DM can react properly. Example: "I walk up to the figurine and pick it up" - should be enough. It's important to note movement but it doesn't need to be too precise. It's enough to state that you walk up to something, back away, purposefully trying to walk as far away from something while passing it by or designate a specific point where you want to position yourself (behind the door, behind an ally, etc.). Entering and exiting rooms or passing by specific features are often of significance and therefor is something assumed that players should specifically call out if they do.

When it comes to traps and haunts, it's up to the DM if a character walks on the very specific square (unless the player is aware and specifically calls out to avoid the area). Fair and proper judgment from the DM's side should be enough to determine if the movement includes these specific squares.

All this assumes that both the DM and the players are fair, relaxed, can communicate properly and that nobody has any agenda other than having fun. This is not possible with bad DMs and erratic players.


Thank you all for your advice. This helped me in my session this weekend.

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