Personally i just use the dungeon sequence from B/X and spice it up as needed.

I track movement by the turn (i.e. 10 mins of game-world time), and mark off turns on a piece of paper. There are ten 1 minute round to the turn. The movement rate depends on what the PCs are doing.

1" of movement rate is equal to 10 ft. in the dungeon. Say the slowest member of the party has a movement rate of 9", and no one is considered encumbered. The party's basic movement rates in the dungeon would be:

• Careful exploring/mapping (x1): 90 ft. per turn.
  
• Following a known route (not exploring/mapping) (x5): 450 ft. per turn
  
• Fleeing/Running (x10): 900 ft. per turn.
  

For more complicated actions (e.g., searching and interacting with a room) I go with how many turns I think it would reasonably take, given the exact actions and circumstances. There are some guidelines in the 1e DMG:

• Door (search for traps): 1 round
  
• Door (listening for noises): 1 round
  
• Room (mapping, casually examining a 20x20 area): 1 turn
  
• Room (thoroughly searching after initial examination: 1 turn
  
• Secret Door (checking for by simple means like tapping in a 10x10 area): 1 round
  
• Secret Door (thorough examination for means of opening in a 10x10 area): 1 turn
  

Tracking by turn makes it pretty simple to keep track of time, which is important for keeping track of expenditure of light sources, wandering monster checks, et cetera.

Thanks for the replies! Keep em coming! I feel like I'm learning a lot too just by looking at how each table does it.

Also, since we're on the topic, how would you reveal fog of war to players, let's say if using graph paper or gridded maps?

Quote from: mudbanks on February 23, 2022, 07:29:38 PM
Thanks for the replies! Keep em coming! I feel like I'm learning a lot too just by looking at how each table does it.

Also, since we're on the topic, how would you reveal fog of war to players, let's say if using graph paper or gridded maps?

Years ago our DM was gifted several resin cast terrain dungeon sets.  He planned a short dungeon crawl campaign for the summer with "fog of war".  Each section was covered with paper and slowly revealed when we investigated.  It was pretty amazing how adding miniatures and terrain awakens imagination.  It inspired me to take cheaper routes with a battle mat and dry-erase dungeon tiles.  Using dungeon tiles can be easier as you can draw up the rooms, halls, and encounters before hand.  I've been using those dungeon tiles for city encounters since they're not as connected as a dungeon.

I just do scenes/encounters/rounds (D6 system) if time and danger are not a pressing concern; describing each terrain "block" in between like "outside the room a damp stone hallway stretches down and to your left into darkness, at least 100 or more feet you judge by the dancing torch light and echoes" and if they are not all about proceed with caution and check for traps then i will just summarize, a descriptive montage if you will, (a scene essentially) of the intervening time and travel until the next significant event/encounter/terrain block.

Scenes can include skill checks to get through and are faster/looser than an encounter, which is different in that it has the potential to "collapse" into combat rounds. Scenes are setup and exposition and story telling, sometimes with an attached skill check or two like rolling opposing command skills to determine which side ends the scene with an advantage in the way they have deployed their troops. Or perhaps a diplomacy roll at a described feast whose outcome will impact the composition of the next scene or it's encounters, failing to convince a noble to lend you some troops for the battle in the next scene that takes place a few weeks after. Think of it like this; combat rounds are the lowest tier component of gameflow, and they fit inside/under an encounter (which need not actually have combat), and encounters fit inside/under scenes though a scene need not technically have an encounter.

Kinda like:

Scene 1: you creep through dark tunnels beneath the tower looking for a hidden treasure room.
Encounter 1: Giant rats amid bones in a pit, random dead guy loot to be had.
combat round 1: kenny attempts to mount a rat, rat does not feel the romance.
so on...
Encounter 2: Searching the marked area (TN 15) reveals hidden door to treasure room (see index card) guarded by 2 gargoyles (see index card).
combat rounds: gargoyle fight

Encounter 3: discover imprisoned squire, social skill rolls and roleplay to see how this turns out hope it doesn't become combat rounds, and hey, maybe a free squire to carry your loot!

Quote from: AtomicPope on February 23, 2022, 08:24:47 PM
Years ago our DM was gifted several resin cast terrain dungeon sets.  He planned a short dungeon crawl campaign for the summer with "fog of war".  Each section was covered with paper and slowly revealed when we investigated.  It was pretty amazing how adding miniatures and terrain awakens imagination.  It inspired me to take cheaper routes with a battle mat and dry-erase dungeon tiles.  Using dungeon tiles can be easier as you can draw up the rooms, halls, and encounters before hand.  I've been using those dungeon tiles for city encounters since they're not as connected as a dungeon.

I got a colour laser printer & laminator, this lets me print out rooms/scenes in advance from electronic maps, an 8"x11" area for around 20p in ink & laminate I think. My friend Matt also left his 3D Dwarven Forge with me though so I often use that instead.

Quote from: mudbanks on February 23, 2022, 07:29:38 PM
Thanks for the replies! Keep em coming! I feel like I'm learning a lot too just by looking at how each table does it.

Also, since we're on the topic, how would you reveal fog of war to players, let's say if using graph paper or gridded maps?

See my notes in the prior post.

First D&D I played the DM game descriptions and the mapper, me, plotted them out on graph paper as we went.

Or the DM can draw it for them as they go.

Or use tiles and place them as they go.

Or have parts of the dungeon map covered with strips of paper removed as they go.

Or use a program that reveals the map as they go.

And likely many others.

Quote from: mudbanks on February 23, 2022, 07:29:38 PM
Also, since we're on the topic, how would you reveal fog of war to players, let's say if using graph paper or gridded maps?

The players map as they go. I'll correct mistakes if the mistakes would be obvious to the PCs (i.e., if the mapping error is from poor communication between me and the mapping player, like a door misplaced on a different wall, or something like that).

I don't often use a battlemat for dungeon exploration, but if I do I'd draw what the PCs can see, as they go.

Quote from: mudbanks on February 23, 2022, 07:29:38 PM
Thanks for the replies! Keep em coming! I feel like I'm learning a lot too just by looking at how each table does it.

Also, since we're on the topic, how would you reveal fog of war to players, let's say if using graph paper or gridded maps?

Fog of war takes care of itself if you remember that (1) it is the DM's job to verbally describe what the characters see, and (2) it is the players job to draw a map from that description (if they want one).

Quote from: Vidgrip on February 24, 2022, 03:57:45 PM
Fog of war takes care of itself if you remember that (1) it is the DM's job to verbally describe what the characters see, and (2) it is the players job to draw a map from that description (if they want one).

Yes, exactly.

And for mapping, if the PCs map is "wrong" because of a failure in the DM to player communication (such that the error would be obvious to the PC given what they can perceive), I'll correct it. If the map is off a bit but the error is one the PC could easily make given what they can perceive, then I won't correct it.

Quote from: Philotomy Jurament on February 25, 2022, 10:59:38 PM

Quote from: Vidgrip on February 24, 2022, 03:57:45 PM
Fog of war takes care of itself if you remember that (1) it is the DM's job to verbally describe what the characters see, and (2) it is the players job to draw a map from that description (if they want one).

Yes, exactly.

And for mapping, if the PCs map is "wrong" because of a failure in the DM to player communication (such that the error would be obvious to the PC given what they can perceive), I'll correct it. If the map is off a bit but the error is one the PC could easily make given what they can perceive, then I won't correct it.

100% all of this for fog of war.

For movement, I keep it similarly simple: I let the players tell me what they do and where they go and I periodically estimate how much time has passed and note it (aloud). I never bought into the idea of time and distance being tightly coupled. Movement rates vary. Activities vary. Some corridors are slower than others.

Quote from: mudbanks on February 21, 2022, 09:46:53 PM
So, I love me a good dungeon crawl, and one of the ways in which I do it is to label each corridor/room and populate it. This means when the party moves, they don't move square by square, but rather room by room. This also means I'm less likely to do random encounters unless the party decides to take a rest.

But at the same time I'm wondering if anyone else here does it differently. I don't play in public games, only with people that I am very familiar with. Also, I'm the only GM as no one else in the group has any experience with it. So, how do you do party movement in your dungeon crawls?

Theater of the mind. Players say where they are and what they are doing.

Depends on what's happening.
You got a dungeon with nice, smooth floors and straight halls movement ain't hard. You got one with potholes, cracks, sharp rocks everywhere then that's different.
Does the party just charge down the hall looking like that Monty Python movie all bunched together or do they send some scouts while the others hang back to see what happens?
Figure what they did. They go in with light gear. They find the dragons horde! They stuff as much as they can in whatever they got they ain't moving back as fast as when they got there. Dragon comes back and chases them they better ditch the loot or else.
How big is the place?

Graph paper is pretty cheap.