In So You Want To Be a Game Master, I present a complete structure for prepping and running dungeon adventures. It’s a complete framework for running your first dungeon adventure, while providing a foundation you can build on as you start experimenting with advanced and dynamic dungeons, too. If you’ve never run a dungeon before, the goal is to give you a mental model that will help bring your dungeon to life without overwhelming you. And even if you’re a wily veteran, there may be a few new tricks for you to discover here.
One specific tool you’ll find in the book, on page 71, is the Dungeon Running Sheet. This is a tool I developed for tracking the essential information for any dungeon expedition, and it also includes a small cheat sheet for common dungeon procedures and actions.
I think the sheet’s utility is fairly intuitive, but the full instructions for using it can be found in the book. This version has been expanded in size to enhance its utility and for easy printing. It’s also form-fillable so you can also easily use it on a tablet or computer.
OTHER VERSIONS
This version was created by Erichs, who very kindly granted me permission to share it here. You can find cheat sheets, DM screens, and other resources they’ve created here.
ShadowXP has designed a Google Sheet version of the dungeon running sheet. After clicking the link, select File -> Make a Copy and then use it and customize it however you’d like!
I need to read this, as I’ve been asked at work to run Dnd5e instead of the much simpler one-pagers I’ve been doing. I find it overwhelmingly complex.
Thanks for the shoutout, Justin! Your book has really helped fill in some gaps in understanding I didn’t even know I had, and is simultaneously removing some of the mystique from GMing while making me even more excited about all the new skills I get to develop…
This is a great resource to facilitate your dungeon system at the table, thanks! Super helpful to keep track of things.
Thanks for putting these up. I started off in 5e, after swapping to PF2e for a while, the idea of Dungeon Turns was a thing I was ruminating on, since PF operates in 10 minute “turns” out of combat.
I’m about to finish up the Dynamic Dungeons chapter, and I’ll be saying now that pretty much any time I run a dungeon i’ll be using dungeon turns. It’s a really good process to just stop for a second and roll a few die to figure out how the dungeon is working in the background.
It also gives a few brief moments for the players to think about their next steps and for the GM to brainstorm/Improv the situation. I’ll be printing these sheets out and trying them in my next session.
I had a question regarding the contents of the books and the website. I have the book on my Christmas list, and have gotten into reading articles from the site. Is there specific content from the website that does not appear in the book? I assume new articles would not, but I was curious.
@M Hughes: Very little of the website is directly replicated in the book. More common is material that has been restructured into the book’s cohesive structure (e.g., the Three Clue Rule or the Universal Roleplaying Template).
But the book (a) contains a lot of completely original material and (b) even if it was just a straight collection of material from the Alexandrian, it would still only be a fraction of what you can find on the site.
(There’s a lot of stuff on the site.)
Oh my gosh thank you for uploading a digital version of this! I was starting to wonder if I should scan the page in my copy of the book, since this sheet was completely new in concept for me and I really wanted it to help run my ongoing megadungeon.
[…] Dungeon Running Sheets (The Alexandrian) […]
I want to add to the chorus of thanks to Justin, Erich and ShadowyXP. As I was reading I was thinking all along that a cheat sheet of dungeon turns and hexcrawling procedures would be ideal for my GM screen. These resources solve it perfectly. This will absolutely change my games!
If shadowyXP ever does a sheet for hexcrawling, please link it as I would use that, too.