**You *enter* turn-based action when you need to track time* that closely. You leave it as soon as you don't need that close tracking.**

Turn-based time tracking dominates combat, but it can also be used for chases (DMG 252), complex traps (DMG 121), even tense social scenes. That said, it's a really clunky mechanism, right up there with alignment and "what HPs mean" for likelihood of starting an argument.

You're right: while the books say that initiative is rolled at the start of every combat encounter**, they say nothing about when to *leave* initiative. Common sense has to be our guide: we clearly don't want to *always* be in "combat-time," or we'd never get from one side of town to the other. Given that we will sometimes not be in combat-time, the question is then: when? *Whenever you don't need it--initiative, and combat turns/rounds, are a tool for you to use or not as you need.*

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<sup>* - To the extent that initiative and turns/rounds even do that.</sup>

<sup>** - Which can be a little clunky, like a voice from the gods screaming *"MURDER NOW!"* To fix this I ask players for a set of initiative rolls each time we *leave* turn-order, to have on hand the next time it arises.</sup>