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<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 9090757" data-attributes="member: 6779196"><p>I think “pillars” is a weird way to categorize D&D gameplay, and “combat, exploration, and social interaction” are a weird set of activities to identify as said “pillars.” I think a better framework would be modes of play; as in, activities that are governed by different rules systems. I think under that framework, the major modes of play would be combat, exploration, travel, and downtime. Note that hexcrawling would fall under travel, not exploration. There may be better names for these modes of play, but point is, there’s the mode of play governed by initiative and turns and action/bonus action/movement economy, there’s the mode of play governed by the conversation of play, typically involving hidden information and describing actions to try to uncover that hidden information, there’s the mode of play governed by movement pace and ongoing tasks, and there’s the mode of play governed by reoccurring expenses and periodic activities. This would be where domain management would fall, in editions where that was a thing.</p><p></p><p>Social interaction, in my opinion, is a thing that can occur during any of those modes of play, and is therefore misplaced in being identified as a “pillar” of play. I think this misidentification may also be part of why the latter two modes of play are much more anemic this edition.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 9090757, member: 6779196"] I think “pillars” is a weird way to categorize D&D gameplay, and “combat, exploration, and social interaction” are a weird set of activities to identify as said “pillars.” I think a better framework would be modes of play; as in, activities that are governed by different rules systems. I think under that framework, the major modes of play would be combat, exploration, travel, and downtime. Note that hexcrawling would fall under travel, not exploration. There may be better names for these modes of play, but point is, there’s the mode of play governed by initiative and turns and action/bonus action/movement economy, there’s the mode of play governed by the conversation of play, typically involving hidden information and describing actions to try to uncover that hidden information, there’s the mode of play governed by movement pace and ongoing tasks, and there’s the mode of play governed by reoccurring expenses and periodic activities. This would be where domain management would fall, in editions where that was a thing. Social interaction, in my opinion, is a thing that can occur during any of those modes of play, and is therefore misplaced in being identified as a “pillar” of play. I think this misidentification may also be part of why the latter two modes of play are much more anemic this edition. [/QUOTE]
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