D&D 5E [+]Exploration Falls Short For Many Groups, Let’s Talk About It

[Maxperson]

For the duration, you understand the literal meaning of any spoken language that you hear.

Why the link to the language list?

 

[FrozenNorth]

It's not a bad way to design an exploration adventure. But, it does have the disadvantage of being somewhat labour intensive. You'd need that bank of X number of "nodes" because doing that on the fly is likely not going to work.

The trickier element is ensuring each node costs the party more resources than a typical encounter, since the party will likely recover half their HD snd all their hp and spell slots every 2-3 nodes.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Now is time for my now traditional post where I ask people to recommend products that will help make exploration more engaging.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Ability checks are game mechanics. They're a "game". And one has to play the character creation game to get their stats together and decide what they want to focus on, and then when the time comes for making decisions on what to do in the story the player will need to decide whether or not to do things based upon the game mechanics of DCs and such. So my "collaborative storytelling" does not remove the "game"... it just is a different type of game-- one that is based upon only using it when there's a question of success.

People have attempted to "gamify" the Social pillar to match the Combat pillar for decades by creating all manner of "social combat" rules in all manner of RPGs... and they never seem to stick. Why? Because we almost all have realized that the actual roleplaying-- the presentation of character and their wants and desires and the ideas we come up with for argument and disagreement and discussion between PC and NPCs are easier and more powerful of a decision-maker. Sure, you can throw in a couple Persuasion checks too if necessary, but we're even specifically told in the rules we shouldn't bother with those if in the DM's opinion the Social work and roleplaying the players did to convince the guard to open the town gates worked just fine on its own. And we don't need to roll the dice for the game, because in that regard... the discussion between PC and NPC is the "game".

And the same exact thing can be true with the Exploration pillar. Players coming up with ideas to get around obstacles (and using the occasional die roll for a result) is as much of a game as the player and DM "arguing" in character and then possibly rolling a Persuasion check to see if they were able to adjust the other's opinion.

If someone wants more than that... an Exploration mini-game that is as involved as Combat... that's what most of the people in this thread have been bandying about over the last 25 pages or so. And hopefully they've all been able to cobble something together to create something of worth. But if not? Maybe my idea of just letting the mini-game concept go and instead just relying on player creativity and DM reaction to said creativity could be enough.

I'm sure it can be enough...for you. Just don't expect everyone else to train along on that idea.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Now is time for my now traditional post where I ask people to recommend products that will help make exploration more engaging.

Well @Micah Sweet has already recommended Level Up's Exploration rules, I cannot really recommend C7's Extraordinary Journeys. I think it is too crunchy for what it does. It is limited to journey from haven to haven.
It could probably be stripped back to a core that is more flexible, I would be interested in hearing about others.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well @Micah Sweet has already recommended Level Up's Exploration rules, I cannot really recommend C7's Extraordinary Journeys. I think it is too crunchy for what it does. It is limited to journey from haven to haven.
It could probably be stripped back to a core that is more flexible, I would be interested in hearing about others.

There are also a wide variety of hexcrawl rules and similar material that would interface just fine with 5e. To pick one that won't get me yelled at, I recommend The Monster Overhaul, one of the best source books for fantasy gaming I have ever seen.

 

[TheSword]

Why the link to the language list?

I just copied the direct quote from the web

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Death spirals are underrated. Maybe if you're suffering from lingering injuries that make you less effective in combat, you should...stop engaging in unnecessary combat until you can have that seen to?

I know, sounds crazy. No one would do that in they were playing their PCs realistically.

If it's possible for the party to stop and recover there is no death spiral. If it's possible to spend six weeks resting in a Tiny Hut whilst a broken leg recovers we can assume that is what the party will do, so they will be at full strength for every encounter.

In order for attrition to matter you need to limit recovery, with limited supplies, or a death clock, or something of that sort.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The whole point of the discussion has been that prior encounters during exploration be it traps, hazards, exhaustion etc have no impact on future effectiveness.

I don't see that as a problem.

But you seem to be saying any impact on future effectiveness is critical problem?

It might be. But not if you are happy with "everyone dies" as a not unlikely outcome.

For something to be a game, it should be possible to lose.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If it's possible for the party to stop and recover there is no death spiral. If it's possible to spend six weeks resting in a Tiny Hut whilst a broken leg recovers we can assume that is what the party will do, so they will be at full strength for every encounter.

In order for attrition to matter you need to limit recovery, with limited supplies, or a death clock, or something of that sort.

Sounds good to me. Limited recovery, limited supplies, death clocks, I am all for it. Make situations that are supposed to be dangerous actually dangerous. And for the love of Gary, please give me something between "perfectly fine" and "dead". I don't care how you do it.