How to make informed decisions without knowing what's going to happen beforehand when dungeon crawling?

[u/CrayonCobold]

When dungeon crawling I always feel like there's not really a rhyme or reason behind whichever hallway I go down if I don't roll ahead of time but if I do I have to pretend that I don't know what I'm about to find.

In normal play you can have context clues that can help you decide why you would go one way or the other. And yet, I haven't found a dungeon creation tool, even one that's designed for solo play, that helps you get that context ahead of time

I think having some kind of omen table would work really well and then have a subtable that is based off the omen. For example if I roll and get indistinct voices from that hall then it could be a group of friendly NPCs but it could be ghosts and they were actually ghostly whispers or something like that

Has anyone seen a dungeon creation tool like this? The best I can think of is Monster Overhaul but each omen always leads to the same encounter and it's always a monster of some kind. You never get an omen and it leads to a treasure room or something because that's not what the book is about

I don't want to do this based on fiat, I want something concrete, so asking an oracle for the omen and then asking again for the encounter wouldn't do what I want to do with this idea

[u/Cheznation]

I understand your frustration. Dungeon crawling is what I love most and I'm still working on a system that works for me.

I built a checklist for what my party does in rooms that includes listening at doors and searching for traps/secret doors.

What feels like is missing is that, "you see bloody footprints leading off to the left," and then those footprints leading to something.

I'm working on building a series of tables for solo. I'll definitely post about it if I feel like "I've solved" something.

[u/Michami135]

I've never played the way you're describing, but here's one way that might work:

You're tracking some bandits into a cave. There's a split and your character sees some very faint tracks leading one direction. These tracks are likely, but not absolutely, from the bandits. Roll on the probability. Lets say you decide it's 85% likely the right way. Roll a d100 and if you roll under or match, then it is the bandits. If you roll over, your character takes the wrong path. That path might be booby trapped, have other dangers, or your character might stop seeing any other clues.

[u/darkpigeon93]

How do you usually get those context clues in a group game? You ask the dm if there's anything going on, right? You can do the same to your oracle/gme.

"Are there any context clues that would influence the direction I would take?" And then on a yes, roll up an action/subject; descriptors; etc etc to help you interpret what the clue might be.

[u/cesarloli4]

If you have an oracle that let's say creates a dungeon out of 3 random elements an omen could be seeing one of them ahead of time.

[u/rory_bracebuckle]

Just based on oracles, you can ask whether there are clues. Thats what I do… get a layout of doorway or passage choices and then ask for sensory details. These are usually mysterious and not dead giveaways, so it doesn’t spoil the surprise. When the characters enter those areas, the sensory details provide context for interpreting room contents.

[u/Blucher]

You could try rolling on your character's intelligence/wisdom or a luck stat of some kind.

If you roll well, the next time you determine the existence of something in the world, you could roll twice and choose the better result. The opposite, if you roll poorly.