What is meant by Exploration play?

[trancejeremy]

This is my concern as well.

Yes, let's be concerned (Mortified, even) that a game called "Dungeons & Dragons" has dungeons and dungeon exploration in it.

I mean, how gauche?

I always thought it was more like what we did in a certain Runequest campaign and another Rolemaster campaign: wander around and discover the wonders of a brand new world. See new places, learn their history and culture, imbibe their exotic herbs and fight their indigenous monsters and try to avoid any political problems. Learn the gods and cosmology and legends, and get caught up in quests.

Are you seriously saying that was invented in Runequest and Rolemaster (of all systems)? D&D basically borrowed from an old game called Outdoor Survival, and AD&D has a huge chapter on outdoor exploration.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I always thought it was more like what we did in a certain Runequest campaign and another Rolemaster campaign: wander around and discover the wonders of a brand new world. See new places, learn their history and culture, imbibe their exotic herbs and fight their indigenous monsters and try to avoid any political problems. Learn the gods and cosmology and legends, and get caught up in quests.

That's how I took it too. If this aspect of play is given extensive support I'll be very happy with it. I consider dungeon crawling to be exploration too, but more focused on "what's down there?" then on "I need a 10' pole and a big bag of iron spikes."

 

[Kynn]

That's how I took it too. If this aspect of play is given extensive support I'll be very happy with it.

What kind of extensive support do you feel could be given for the aspect of play you like? What kind of support has it gotten in previous editions? I'm wondering how you see the rules doing this support.

I hear about "supporting exploration" but really all it does feel like is ten foot poles and bags of door spikes, honestly.

 

[Tony Vargas]

When they say "exploring", what sort of play are they describing? What do exploration skills mean, etc?

The exploration style of play is very old-school. You go down into a dungeon, and your party's designated 'mapper' draws a staircase in the middle of a blank piece of graph paper. Your DM says something like "the entrance opens out into a natural cavern, a rough elipse arpoximately 20' by 30' with the entrance on the south wall, neatly centered, there are exits to north, north north east and north east walls, the first 10' wide and clearly natural, the second only 5'x8' and aprently supported by heavy timbers, like a mining tunnel, the last is blocked by a crude iron-bound single door. The mapper tries to get that down, and play continues as you search the room, go down corridors (mapping all the way), listen at doors, get killed by trapped, infected by ear seakers, and eaten by monsters.

It was a lot of fun, at the time. But remember that videogames were primitive, TVs got only a handfull of stations, and there was no internet (well, the military and various scientist were on the internet).

 

[Mattachine]

Combat Play: players vs. monsters: attacks, damage, saves

Exploration Play: players vs. environment: maps, traps, secrets

Social Play: players vs. NPCs: negotiation, information, intrigue


All three include as much or as little roleplay as you wish, despite claims to the contrary.

 

[nedjer]

The wafer-thin definition of exploring as an exercise in turning discovery, exploration and roaming into a mechanisation of open gameplay akin to the uber-mechanisation of character design and combat, or the 'thou shalt not metagame' skills check is so completely not old school it's hard to believe it could be seen that way.

OS is about GMs balancing, player choice and having a laugh/ stuffing the rules lawyer in a cupboard. Simply carrying over the previous relentless march towards a mechanic for everything will simply suck more life out of the imaginative side of the game and complete the conversion from headlining RPG to just another win-mentality wargame.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

What kind of extensive support do you feel could be given for the aspect of play you like? What kind of support has it gotten in previous editions? I'm wondering how you see the rules doing this support.

I hear about "supporting exploration" but really all it does feel like is ten foot poles and bags of door spikes, honestly.

Off the top of my head, systems for wilderness travel challenges, i.e. skills, challenges, a couple of hundred wilderness encounters of which less than half are combat, and incorporation of real-life challenges of travel into the game in a fun and easy to use manner. Also, lots and lots of fluff, so that when you go somewhere there's rich detail to show how it's different than where you were, i.e. terrain, culture, accent, language, flora and fauna, religion, methods of trade, monster encounters, etc.

 

[Hassassin]

My definition of exploration: Interacting with the setting of the game world and finding out what makes it tick.

I'm more confused about what they mean by the role-playing "pillar", since to me "role-playing" is the whole game.

 

[howandwhy99]

I get exploration. "We explore the multiverse and load up on treasure"
I get combat. "Let's get tactical and kick butt"

What I don't get is "Role playing" as the 3rd element. Isn't all of this role playing?
I think they mean socialization or perhaps some highlighted characterization with rules supporting "Let me tell you about my character" play. But is anyone ever not engaged in characterization? I guess I still don't know what this means..

 

[Tallifer]

Are you seriously saying that was invented in Runequest and Rolemaster (of all systems)? D&D basically borrowed from an old game called Outdoor Survival, and AD&D has a huge chapter on outdoor exploration.

You completely misunderstand me. I nowhere said that those systems invented exploration. I said that I played in certain campaigns of exploration using those systems. And I hope that such exploration (not just dungeon delving) is well-supported in the Fifth Edition published settings and adventures. I also read the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, so I read the stuff on the wider world: unfortunately my AD&D dungeon masters mostly put us through dungeons or railroad quests.