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Three pillars: what is "exploration"?
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<blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 7168637" data-attributes="member: 6801286"><p>Indeed. I like to do both. When I'm not partial to what they encounter, I roll randomly. But then if it doesn't fit, I may reroll, or simply pick something from my list. And some of the things that I randomly roll (such as rivers, swamps, mountains) can dramatically affect the lay out of the region, while others could lead the players to discover a dungeon that perhaps I hadn't planned at all. But it's also nice as a DM to be surprised every now and then by what they discover.</p><p></p><p>One of the best examples of this, was a large crevice in the side of a cliff of one of the islands in my campaign. It lead to a large lake in the middle of a valley, surrounded by steep walls of rock. The crevice was just large enough for the players to squeeze their ship through. And now they are planning to make this location that they discovered, their own pirate base. </p><p></p><p>I rolled this landmark completely random, and made up the rest of the details on the spot. Such as, that the valley walls were littered with old wooden scaffolding from some long lost tribe of islanders (which they had to carefully navigate). They explored the place, and found indications that the original inhabitants were killed and/or driven off by the local cannibal tribe. This is a pretty straight forward way to link the random discovery to another plot thread and make it feel to the players like a coherent whole.</p><p></p><p>I feel that one of the key things in making the players 'feel' like explorers, is to not only throw in combat encounters. Most of the random encounters I write, are none-combat encounters.</p><p></p><p><strong>-An ancient statue/shrine/pillar from some long lost civilization.</strong></p><p><strong>-Tracks that lead to another random encounter, if they choose to follow them.</strong></p><p><strong>-An old sign post, that gives rough directions to other random encounters nearby.</strong></p><p><strong>-A watchtower that provides the players with a view, so they can see any tall structures and geographical features that are nearby.</strong></p><p><strong>-An old weapons cache, buried by other pirates.</strong></p><p><strong>-A tree full of fruit, with random tropical fruit of course. And beware, some fruit can make you sick if not properly prepared!</strong></p><p><strong>-An ancient inactive golem.</strong></p><p><strong>-A sleeping giant.</strong></p><p><strong>-A parrot sitting on the branch of a tree, who repeats phrases from previous pirates that visited.</strong></p><p></p><p>I just want to throw in things that are interesting, and may provoke some cool roleplaying opportunities. Or things that I can easily tie to the current narrative. If you were to venture into a jungle in real life, I doubt that you'd be immediately jumped by a hungry tiger or a bunch of cannibals. Plus I feel a combat encounter with one of those baddies is far more interesting, if it has first been build up by other discoveries. Maybe they first encounter an abandoned cannibal watchtower, or one of their victims dangling from a tree? Maybe they first find tracks, or poop from a tiger, but the beast probably hunts at night? If you can make your players afraid to revisit the same place at night, you've already succeeded in creating suspense, without any combat at all.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Imaculata, post: 7168637, member: 6801286"] Indeed. I like to do both. When I'm not partial to what they encounter, I roll randomly. But then if it doesn't fit, I may reroll, or simply pick something from my list. And some of the things that I randomly roll (such as rivers, swamps, mountains) can dramatically affect the lay out of the region, while others could lead the players to discover a dungeon that perhaps I hadn't planned at all. But it's also nice as a DM to be surprised every now and then by what they discover. One of the best examples of this, was a large crevice in the side of a cliff of one of the islands in my campaign. It lead to a large lake in the middle of a valley, surrounded by steep walls of rock. The crevice was just large enough for the players to squeeze their ship through. And now they are planning to make this location that they discovered, their own pirate base. I rolled this landmark completely random, and made up the rest of the details on the spot. Such as, that the valley walls were littered with old wooden scaffolding from some long lost tribe of islanders (which they had to carefully navigate). They explored the place, and found indications that the original inhabitants were killed and/or driven off by the local cannibal tribe. This is a pretty straight forward way to link the random discovery to another plot thread and make it feel to the players like a coherent whole. I feel that one of the key things in making the players 'feel' like explorers, is to not only throw in combat encounters. Most of the random encounters I write, are none-combat encounters. [B]-An ancient statue/shrine/pillar from some long lost civilization. -Tracks that lead to another random encounter, if they choose to follow them. -An old sign post, that gives rough directions to other random encounters nearby. -A watchtower that provides the players with a view, so they can see any tall structures and geographical features that are nearby. -An old weapons cache, buried by other pirates. -A tree full of fruit, with random tropical fruit of course. And beware, some fruit can make you sick if not properly prepared! -An ancient inactive golem. -A sleeping giant. -A parrot sitting on the branch of a tree, who repeats phrases from previous pirates that visited.[/B] I just want to throw in things that are interesting, and may provoke some cool roleplaying opportunities. Or things that I can easily tie to the current narrative. If you were to venture into a jungle in real life, I doubt that you'd be immediately jumped by a hungry tiger or a bunch of cannibals. Plus I feel a combat encounter with one of those baddies is far more interesting, if it has first been build up by other discoveries. Maybe they first encounter an abandoned cannibal watchtower, or one of their victims dangling from a tree? Maybe they first find tracks, or poop from a tiger, but the beast probably hunts at night? If you can make your players afraid to revisit the same place at night, you've already succeeded in creating suspense, without any combat at all. [/QUOTE]
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