Action economy of dungeon crawling

Hi y’all!

I published a blog post this morning about how the original 1974 edition of D&D has an implicit economy of dungeon crawling: marcia's blog: time, movement, and action economy in dungeon games

I was curious whether any of y’all had a similar reading of the text, or if there are other D&D editions or clones which do something similar. I checked OSE to see whether the 1981 edition prescribes one die roll per participating character, and instead it has what seems to be the standard of the hobby: the party acts as a unit once per turn, and the die roll encompasses the total chance of success (which, due to only one die being rolled, is dwarfed by OD&D).

Have any of you done something similar to what OD&D describes, and if so how did it turn out for you?

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I’m not sure i fully understood the blog, but:

I let players do different things during the turn, and everyone gets to roll on the action they’re doing (everyone gets to search for loot… because more eyes find loot faster!).

I don’t really look at movement rates, I just play it by ear. When I feel 10 minutes have passed, of if a search, listen etc action has been made, I mentally check off a turn.

I might not tell players how long they’re taking though. It doesnt really matter if it takes 10 minutes or 10 seconds to listen at a door, it is still 1 step closer to a wandering monster check, torches burning out etc.

My players are not super into tracking resources themselves, so it would all fall on me. I just ignore a good deal of it all, and focus on immersion. It feels consistent, fair and sufficiently simulation-y for me.

I am reading Knock #2 though, and it’s making me feel guilty about all this!

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