Dungeons at Full Speed: How One-Round Encounters Change Exploration

In the realm of tabletop role-playing games (RPGs), encounter design significantly influences pacing, player engagement, and narrative flow. One innovative approach is the “One-Round Encounter,” a concept that emphasizes speed in gameplay.

What is One-Round Encounter Design?

I first heard about this design from Runehammer’s most recent blog post. The design is focusing on compressing the action of a fight into a single, decisive round of combat. The intention is to keep players engaged and the game moving swiftly.

But, why would you want that? Matt Colville’s game design for Draw Steel, emphasizes a focus on long, tactical combat—something MCDM really enjoys. A lot of people play TTRPGs for the long tactical combat. But have you ever tried tackling a Megadungeon before? Especially when every combat is lengthy and potentially lasts a bit longer than it should?

I think the real strength of the One-Round Encounter is how it speeds up the Exploration process of TTRPGs. It fixes Exploration, by streamlining Combat, maintaining a sense of urgency without sacrificing the stakes. But, before diving into that, let’s break down how it works….

How it Works

1. Combat Round Structure:

All combat encounters last 1 round, with players and enemies alternating actions.

2. If All Enemies Are Defeated:

Once all enemies are defeated, players are given a choice between two options. They can choose Spoils, where they reap treasure from the defeated foes and the scene, or they can choose Speed, which allows them to move ahead quickly in the dungeon.

3. If Both Sides Have Taken Damage and There Isn’t a Clear Winner:

The damage dealt by both sides is compared. If the heroes dealt more damage, they are considered the winners and can choose either Spoils or Speed as in rule (2).

However, if the enemies did more damage, the heroes have two options. They can choose Injury, where a hero of their choice takes additional damage, or they can choose Escape, giving them another decision to make. They can either Retreat to the previous area or allow Pursuit, where they move forward but the enemies will follow and join the next encounter.

Example:

You kick open a door—goblins. (Because of course it’s goblins.) Steel flashes, arrows fly, and the rogue is already behind them, doing rogue things. The cleric’s trying to keep everyone standing. But these goblins? Turns out they had a plan. A dozen arrows later, things aren’t looking great.

Now what? Push forward, the warrior taking another volley, to clear a path (Injury)? Duck into a side passage and pray it doesn’t lead to a dead end (Pursuit)? Or back out, weapons up, closing the entrance and looking for a way around (Retreat)?

Hopefully this thematically shows how Injury/Retreat/Pursuit would look thematically.

What Makes This Modification Great?

Exploration and Speed:

This system allows for fast-paced exploration, enabling players to explore MASSIVE dungeons that they might otherwise struggle to complete. Instead of taking weeks to complete that Megadungeon you get through the entire thing in a 5 hour play session (see Runehammer blog for proof).

High Energy and Engagement:

The gameplay feels “high octane,” it’s not just waving through encounters narratively, you are having to make quick tactical decisions or risk attrition. This should keep players constantly engaged. This avoids the potential sluggishness that can occur in longer, more drawn-out dungeon crawls.

Drawn out dungeon Example: I've noticed when GM-ing a Megadungeon that players can get a little... slow. Every corner gets checked, and they ask if anything happens with every single step or square. But honestly, it starts to feel like we’re missing the point—where’s the drama, where’s the story? We’re kind of lost in the minutia.

But hey, if that’s your jam, more power to you! There’s no wrong way to play TTRPGs. Maybe I’m just a terrible Megadungeon GM who doesn’t have the patience (or the skills) to build that tension like it should be.

Tactical Decision-Making:

Every encounter becomes a quick puzzle to crack: How can you dish out the most damage or avoid taking it, all while factoring in the new enemies, the environment, or any time-sensitive elements? It’s not just about diving into combat—it’s about using your brain to make the most of the situation and keep up with the pace.

Flexibility and Adaptability:

This is a module! A quick add on. This system is incredibly versatile and can be used with a wide range of game systems. While it works especially well with certain ones (I'll highlight that below), it’s easily adaptable for a one-shot or even a single session in any game. You don’t have to use it constantly—it’s a great tool to speed up time in your game, letting you show the passage of months or even years, in a single game session. (It’s not just for Megadungeons!)

THE VIBES:

I think it's impossible to overlook the vibes you'll get! I love mechanics that truly capture a feeling. This sounds fun to me because when you combine the 4 'pros' I've mentioned, they create a vibe that really feels like a race or a desperate escape. There's this sense of attrition as things start to go south for the party. Honestly, you just can’t discount those the concept of vibes!

I’ll also throw in the story. Just imagine how much you’d get through in a single session, and the amount of story the players would have to take away from the table. Honestly, I think a lot of the fun in TTRPGs comes from recounting heroics and epic tales afterward. This style would give your table so much to talk about for the week (or more) until your next session.

What Could be a Problem?

Need for Preparation:

You are going to get through a lot of content QUICKLY. If you don’t have a lot of content prepared, such as a full dungeon to run, then be prepared for a lot of ad-libbing. While this might work for some Dungeon Masters, it seems like a style that doesn’t blend well with the “lazy” DM approach, where less prep is done ahead of time.

• So either have a full Megadungeon ready, or a robust list of Premade encounters.

Potential for Cheesy Tactics:

If you don't have the right group of players, they might try to game the system and exploit the combat. Since the objectives differ, the rewards for how you play are also different. Players could come up with odd tactics, like a tank with two shields charging in while another takes one single attack and hides, which can lead to less cinematic or realism in your combat. This style might require the right players, who embrace the concept and assignment here, or some careful planning to prevent repetitive or cheesy strategies from popping up.

• variety is the spice of life for your encounter environments, and monsters

System Compatibility:

Ok, this is a big one, and i’m going to wax on for a moment. I think that OSR games will excel with this system, as well as games like 4th Edition. Games that either have minimal metacurrency or barebones action economies and action choice (more narrative), or games that have actions that would blend with this system well. 4th Edition has its Encounter and Daily powers, which I think would be really interesting as a resource to manage. I would probably make Encounter abilities on a timer of every 2-3 encounters, just so they aren’t too spammed, but otherwise it would work nicely.

Runehammer also ran this game with 5.5e, so it seems that any version of D&D, or games that are similar in nature to it, (DCC, Shadowdark, etc) would work well with this module.

However, games like Savage Worlds, Shadow of the Demon Lord, and Dragonbane won’t would be HARD to make work. Mainly, because they are built around specific initiative systems. SW and Dragonbane utilize cards that are dealt each round, and SoDL/WW utilizes a action economy choice each round in terms of fast or slow actions. Now, that last one might still work….but it seems like it loses some of its flair.

Draw Steel would struggle because its metacurrency requires gradual buildup from round to round. You get more powerful and can do cooler stuff as the combat progresses. 13th Age is designed for longer fights as well. Its designed that the monsters are more powerful in round 1, and as the Escalation Die increases players build power and become more effective.

Crown & Skull has a built in initiative system with its Phases, but I think that you could easily fudge how monsters work with their tactics slightly and have a good time. Where it would get interesting is how to deal the extra damage, but it would feel pretty dramatic!

Considerations for Implementation

I want to add in another wrinkle just for fun. I think that you could easily integrate a complication die into this system. When you lose a combat, you end up with this situation of; taking more injuries, losing ground and backtracking, or getting into a MUCH worse fight (double the combatants?). But you could add in a starting position for encounters. I talked about this in my article about One-Shot design. By having these Variable Starting Positions, it could add a different dial you could turn as the GM, instead of always just taking damage. Depending on the system you are porting this module into, that might be incredibly important.

You could also consider how things like Inspiration/Fate Points/Heroic Points/etc influence the game mechanics.

• Do they allow you to skip an encounter?

• Add 1 more round to a particular fight?

• Give you an extra action in that fight, which makes a huge difference in potential damage output.

• Provide crucial tactical information that influences your Variable Starting Position into a positive one?

I think that this system would be a lot of fun to play around with.

Also…I think it would be a really fun thought experiment to design a game from the ground up that is solely doing this for encounters….how would that game be designed?! Future YT video? 😁

Final Thoughts

That’s all from ol' Jface! I hope you’ve enjoyed these musings, and I’d love to hear about your experience with these rules if you give them a try. Definitely drop me some comments! Also, if you have any other topics you’d like me to dive into, I’d be all ears! I’m thinking of exploring player agency or ways to spark creativity in players next. Take care!