[RPG] When do player characters leave turn-based action (i.e. initiative order) if they are in a hostile area

combatdnd-5einitiative

In most circumstances, it is easy to determine when turn based combat ends:

  • One side is completely killed, unconscious or has fled
  • All parties declared truce

But when in a hostile area, like a Dungeon, do you end turn based action after each chamber with an encounter or do you stay in it for the whole crawl?

This is relevant because there are various effects in the game where you gain a bonus each time you roll initiative or depending on whether an enemy already acted.

As an example:

When you are in a dungeon or building completely filled with enemies and the PCs just cleared a room from enemies, but they don't know whether there are enemies in the next room and if there are whether they have noticed the sounds of battle.

Do you keep them in round based action, because maybe the door opens and enemies enter? Or do you leave it and possible give away that there is no nearby danger or have to reroll initiative when enemies enter the room (and give them the corresponding bonuses).

Best Answer

You enter turn-based action when you need to track time* that closely. You leave it as soon as you don't need that close tracking.

Turn-based time tracking dominates combat, but it can also be used for chases (DMG 252), complex traps (DMG 121), even tense social scenes. That said, it's a really clunky mechanism, right up there with alignment and "what HPs mean" for likelihood of starting an argument.

You're right: while the books say that initiative is rolled at the start of every combat encounter**, they say nothing about when to leave initiative. Common sense has to be our guide: we clearly don't want to always be in "combat-time," or we'd never get from one side of town to the other. Given that we will sometimes not be in combat-time, the question is then: when? Whenever you don't need it--initiative, and combat turns/rounds, are a tool for you to use or not as you need.

A few observations, from my experience playing and running:

  • initiative variants can also play strangely with "roll for initiative"-based features--be thoughtful when employing them;
  • I don't even use initiative for every combat encounter--sometimes it's not worth the trouble (in my opinion) and I'll suggest to the table that we run a simple little simultaneous-declaration-and-resolution combat;
  • escaping combat while in turn-order is largely broken in 5e, in my opinion--the moment either side decides that "running for my life" is more important than "exerting my will by force of arms and might of magic" I break out of combat spacetime.

* - To the extent that initiative and turns/rounds even do that.

** - Which can be a little clunky, like a voice from the gods screaming "MURDER NOW!" To fix this I ask players for a set of initiative rolls each time we leave turn-order, to have on hand the next time it arises.

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