This game is a dungeon crawler at its core. You're in a dream, but effectively, mechanically, it's a dungeon. That means, above all, you're traveling through a dangerous location at a steady pace, trying to achieve a goal while trying to not die.

There is skill to dungeon crawling.
In other games, during a dungeon crawl, a player at level 1 can be infinitely more effective than another player at max level, because the first player knows how to navigate a dungeon.

Here's how to dungeon crawl.

Asking Questions

Your number one tool in a dungeon crawl is asking questions.
If something's nagging in your mind, if something seems missing, ask.
Ask about how something feels, ask to look more closely, ask what the room smells like, ask, ask, ask.

Now, there is a purpose to these questions, which is what will guide what questions to ask.

One of your goals with these questions is determining danger. There will be things in the dream that exist solely to hurt you, or to waste your time.

Poke everything with a long stick

By polearm, or a simple 10 foot pole, you want to jab things. The walls and floor could be fake, a trap could be triggered by pressure, a monster may hide in plain sight, there could be A Spider in that urn.

Just poke it first. You won't go wrong.

Fight in corridors if outnumbered, in rooms if you have the advantage.

Corridors are 10ft by 10ft. That means at most, you only have 4 people poking you with long sticks at worst.

This is weighed against a large room, which factoring in archers and such, could have as many people trying to poke you full of holes as there are tiles. Remember, the DM is rolling a d100 for those troglodytes you find in the depths.

Potions and you

You're bound to find bottles of Silly Juice in the depths.
Don't drink it. It looks tastey! But don't drink it.

It could be a number of things:

• Drinking it could be the wrong application. You wouldn't drink magical oil or gas, would you?
• It could be poison. Poison is a save vs death. Do you want to gamble your life for possible a d10 of healing?
• It could be cursed. Worst than death, you may become charmed and an active threat to your fellow party.

So what to do?
Waft it! Just like in lab safety, give it a good waft, not a sniffa. An alchemist friend taught you this technique before you grabbed your dad's halberd and went off into the depths.
The smell could indicate a few things, like how deadly it is.

If it is deadly, coat your blade in it! An expired potion becomes a poison! Make THEM save vs death!
Or continue the ruse. Offer a potion to the wizard's vile minions, or spike that wine you brought with it. Say it's for healing and good spirits. It's fine. Just don't let the paladin see you do it.

Or, just keep it. There's people who can ID it.

There's people in that there village you came from!

You most assuredly came from a village. If it's decent sized, there's people there. Skilled people of various trades useful to you and the things you find in the dungeon.

The local alchemist will be able to ID your potions, or brew some up, after some time and for a price

The town sage might know a thing or two about the dungeon and surrounding wilderness. They clearly have the time to sit around and read all day, and would be glad to share, for a price.

The jeweler will sell off your wares to nobles, for a cut.

The blacksmith can eventually outfit your fighters with prim proper platemail.

The wizard might be able to ID your more esoteric items you've plundered.

And of course, you can resupply at a merchant. Get those oil and rope, you'll always need more of it.

How to use the item list

You've glanced at the item list, but why is there a mirror on there?

Think of the old myths you've read. Of Perseus slaying the gorgon. His shield mirror polished allowed him to see the gorgon without its stony gaze turning him into a statue.

Thus, a mirror. Use it to look around corners.

The pole's used to poke shit.

Rope is rope. Tie up doors, monsters, your party if you must navigate blind, use it to build simple machines and to get down cliff faces and drops.

Soap lets you scrub yourself free of acids, and to neutralize any sitting acids you might find around! Also, removing your scent from things so some monsters don't track you by scent is always valuable.

Iron spikes lets you keep doors open and closed. Remember, the dungeon hates you, and you must force its doors to obey. They're always open for monsters, and a third of the doors you find will simply, magically, refuse to open. So, keep 'em open.

Wine lets you barter with the denizens of the deep. The orc warband might open up a bit if you offer wine, true and fresh. Turn a bloodbath into a chat. Or, get some animals drunk off it. Or simply ignite it.

The utility of a bullseye lantern is simple: It runs on oil, and you can close it without it going out. The light stops, but your light is only a motion away, as opposed to lighting a torch.