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

payn said:

I think thats why if i'm going to bother with any of this, its because there is something on the line. You plunge, take the 5D6 damage, use 3HD, and lose 3 hours. If you are trying to get to someone/thing, or get away from someone/thing, suddenly its not a napping matter.

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Non-TPK level combat/damage is also by and large pointless, unless you're depicting a wilderness so absurdly violent that you're having 6+ combat encounters a day (and if you are... how the hell do non-hero merchants/farmers/traders survive in this Diablo-esque hellscape?). Otherwise nova classes gonna nova. You need alt rest rules as well.

Jefe Bergenstein said:

Comprehend languages is a first level ritual. Deciphering runes is a non-issue at character creation. Which is part of the problem. Exploration is really hindered by 5E's quick and easy magic. And anything that challenges magic winds up being particularly hard for non-casters to overcome/contribute to, because so many old timers insist that martial = regular chump.

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Perhaps the wizard did choose Comprehend Languges as one of their precious few starting spells. I think you’re overestimated the power of the spell to say it deciphering languages is a non-issue.

• There are many situations where there isn’t a convenient to take 10 minutes to cast the spell - part of a trap, or changing element of the area. Or perhaps the folks you’re talking to aren’t happy to have a spell cast on them or wait around.
• Comprehend languages for written languages only works if you can touch the script. Again plenty of circumstances where that script might not be easily accessible to touch which can be a challenge of itself. High up, huge lettering on the side of a monument, behind glass or in a restricted area like in a museum.
• The spell only affects yourself so if there are circumstances where multiple people need to read something in combination.
• it only affects written languages. So glyphs and symbols don’t translate. So those way-markings and trail signs aren’t automatically explained.
• it also only reveal literal meaning so doesn’t reveal codes and implied meaning like Thieves Cant

So I respectfully disagree and believe there is a lot of mileage for using language in exploration.

Even if they do translate the words. The understanding of that language - who wrote it, why they wrote it, what the society is like that and how they perceive the world is interesting as well. Look at the film Arrival. This takes the concept to the extreme but the principle is that the language should tell you a bit about the place you’re exploring.

Expanding this concept I think there is space for languages that change the person that reads them. Languages so evil that they partly corrupt anyone that speaks them. Dark Spech in the Book of Vile Darkness for example or in fictional terms the Black Speech of Mordor. Or for languages that are so pure and holy they require immense energy to read. Aboleth glyphs have meanings that also can have effects on those that read them.

The Ravenor trilogy revolves around an ancient speech that formed the original language of the universe. Trying to recover enough words of power to reconstruct a lexicon. We can see similar in spells like the power word spells or divine word.

Lastly, understanding the literal meaning of the word doesn’t mean it explains the context and in exploration context is everything. I’ll post a bit later to expand on some of the written elements folks might discover.

FrozenNorth said:

I want to call this out because in far too many pre-published exploration encounters, the idea “taking damage keeps a feeling of tension and consequences high” is assumed even in cases where it doesn’t apply.

Generally speaking, in exploration encounters in overland travel, there just simply aren’t enough encounters that taking damage has any impact on the tension of the adventure.

“The rope bridge snaps under your weight, dumping you 50’ into the ravine, you take 5d6 bludgeoning damage”
“Ok, we take a short rest and I spend 3 HD. Anything else happen today?”

Even in a dungeon context, exploration encounters that cost hit points (often traps) only create tension if the resource expended is non-trivial, and recovery of the resource is non-trivial.


Spending class resources isn’t enough. Goodberry to avoid foraging is spending a class resource, but as early as 5th level, it’s not a resource that you will miss.

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The problem I see is that because injury is abstracted into Hp and exhaustion (or exhaustion-like value - LevelUp) combat ultimately doesn’t really have consequence. Or to put it another way - surviving at all is surviving entire.

Now if it was possible to sprain your ankle, break a leg, or shatter your pelvis, then all of a sudden those random encounters all of a sudden take on a new meaning. Even if the risk is low each encounter has the potential and therefore has to be taken seriously.

The challenge then is balancing injury with players getting to feel good about themselves and beat things up in combat when you do get to the destination.

Trying to get things back onto the [+] track, I will copy-paste a section of my notes, where the PCs are exploring the Preserve of the Ancients in the Radiant Citadel. The set-up is that a couple of the PCs are trying to track down a missing mother and brother (from backstories). They have established that they were fighting each other in a battle when a wild magic surge transported them to another plane. They have been directed to track down the a certain Ancient to find out which plane they need to go to to continue the search. As set up there is absolutely no combat, and the only challenge is tracking down the right Ancient. But you might stat up some of the encounters if you think PCs might initiate combat themselves. I would make the Ancients powerful celestials. I did this using theatre of the mind and lots of improv, but it could be done with a map of the Preserve, which might be divided up with hedge mazes or magical zone barriers if you wanted to take a nodal approach. Apologies, 'twas written in my sort of mental shorthand and is difficult to make sense of if you aint me, and pretty much impossible if you don't have the Radiant Citadel book to refer to.

Dawn Incarnate of Yongjing. The white flowering pear tree seeks aid for the incarnate of Atagua, a yellow quartz kapok tree. The incarnates do not communicate verbally (they are trees). A brightly coloured bird, made from an amalgam of different gems, sits in the branches of the pear tree. When the party approach, the bird flies off, and leads them to the kapok. Close examination of the kapok reveals some of the quartz crystals are blackened and cracked. If the party sleep under the kapok, they will experience a nightmare of a radiant snake fighting a massive, crumbling centipede. They awake to the smell of burning sugar with one word in their mind: “Sarire”.

Preserve of the ancients encounters (D10):

1. A Turquoise Lion menaces the party, prowling around them and roaring. It won’t speak or attack, but it will try to inconvenience the party.
2. A flock of flying monkeys passes overhead.
3. A herd of small, brightly painted roller-skating elephants passes by. They are intelligent but cannot speak Common, instead communicating in sign language.
4. A field of unicorn-horned rabbits (Almiraj). One sits on a tree stump.
5. The corpse of a sapphire wyvern.
6. A fat flightless pigeon-like bird waddles past.
7. An elderly human gardener called Boothby is taking a rest. He will assist if asked.
8. A black panther (actually the goddess Bastet) watches from the branches of a tree. She speaks Common, and will offer guidance if asked.
9. or 10. The incarnate the PCs are looking for.

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The point really, is that exploration can just consist of interesting and curious things to find, some referring back to previous adventures, or providing clues to future ones, or just jokes. It doesn't need to be all about challenge, combat and resource management.

TheSword said:

Now if it was possible to sprain your ankle, break a leg, or shatter your pelvis, then all of a sudden those random encounters all of a sudden take on a new meaning. Even if the risk is low each encounter has the potential and therefore has to be taken seriously.

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These lead to the death spiral situation, where characters are so depleted by earlier encounters that the next one becomes impossible to survive. This works in "roguelike" games, where it's expected that the PCs will die multiple times before succeeding, and this was the way early D&D usually worked, but it's not good in the modern narrative-driven game.

[+] Of course, there is no reason why players should have to play a modern narrative-driven game.

Something to remember too is not to get too tied up in refuting examples. Because it’s endless. You manipulate the setting so Comprehend Languages isn’t a problem? My GOO warlock giggles at you because he can speak every language to any being that has a language. Couple of levels and written languages stop being a barrier.

That’s the point when people bring up examples. The list is never ending. There’s always one more spell or effect or racial ability or whatever.

And you can’t just keep allowing the casters to dictate the campaign.

Well to reiterate and remain positive, there is one side of exploration that has mechanics, advice, and examples galore and one side with barely anything.

There is a magic spell that lets you translate any language.

There isn't a language that cannot be understood if translate it with a magic spell because it is always written in cyphers and only someone who actually speaks it can understand the hidden meaning.

Now you have a goal to find someone who speaks Shadespeak

Exploration is silly within the current frame of D&D and its magic largely makes challenges and obstacles meaningless...
unless one homebrews and/or steals the journey/travel rules from other fantasy RPGs.

• Food and Water (D&D should have conditions rather than just hit point loss. There is no sense in why thirst should affect a low-level fighter more so than a high-level fighter)
• Equipment deterioration (imagine having to dealing with a torn waterskin, a damaged shield, a broken holy symbol...etc)
• Clothing deterioration (a damaged boot might hinder someone's movement - trying hiking with one, dishevelled or torn clothing may offer hindrances within the social pillar. Why do we not have these conditions?
• Weather (i.e. sunburnt skin, heat irritation, biting cold extremities etc). I mean just because you made the save doesn't mean you shouldn't be suffering consequence or a condition. D&D is extremely simplistic with you make the save = no damage taken. There is no nuance.

Item Saves. D&D games generally do not include item saves for area affects or attacks. Fragile items are never affected. People should fear the devastation caused by a Fireball or Ice Storm.

Binary Skills. Skills are far too binary with their success and failure conditions. The DMG with its Degrees of Success and Success with Complication (even Failure with Complication) should be utilised to make Exploration (and Social) challenges more interesting. Fail Forward is great for pushing the story in interesting routes.
The Banes and Boons idea from A5e is a great idea IMO to tack on to D&D.

Skill Challenges. These should be viewed as a possible loose framework for the Exploration and Social Pillars for situations that are not immediate. They are very useful.

Magic OP. Introduce homebrew rules for the cost and risk of magic in the setting.
Perhaps animals can sense the arcane and shy away from it - making hunting or stealth checks more difficult
Perhaps magic leaves a residual aura or light which lasts for a certain period of time depending on the strength of the spell.
Perhaps rituals cost a Hit Dice (residual energy needed)
Being under the effect of too much magic could have the potential of making one infected with magic fever (random wild magic disturbances). I encourage one to use different wild magic tables and not just the one in the PHB.
...etc

Cure All Perfectly Phenomena. Disease, Poison, Wounds and Exhaustion (at higher levels) are overcome quite easily in the std game.
Changes will need to be made if you plan on making any of this interesting. Perhaps Cure Disease/Poison allows one to make an additional saving throw rather than just removing the disease all-together? Perhaps healing hit points does not necessarily remove a Wound?

Ancient Texts. Reading certain ancient texts with Comprehend Languages might instil temporary madness or incur some other condition such as Can't sleep (cannot long rest), hopelessness (cannot regain Willpower)...etc
Reading ancient tests could release imprisoned creatures, unravel permanent spells, offer insight into past/future...etc

Power of the Word. Perhaps certain forgotten or esoteric languages release words of power (Wild Magic) even while communicating normally. It would make the linguist in the party able to control the Wild Magic better than most.

Mounts & Vehicles. Limitations and vulnerabilities of mounts and vehicles should also be factored into Exploration.

Magical Travel. Teleportation/Planar travel may require Con checks for the discombobulation. (One could use this for Plane Shift all the way to Misty Step)

And this is before utilising a suitable encumbrance system, accounting for overland movement, lighting conditions/durations and record the keeping system for arrows/bolts ...etc

I've realised the only way to satisfy myself with much of the above detail is to partly record these details myself as I officiate the game. I do much of the record keeping on my large tv monitor. My tv monitor is plugged into my nuc (computer) box and everyone can see it. I realise not everyone has access or wishes to bother with it, but this is how my table have dealt with it (mostly for my peace of mind).

My solution to the whole exploration problem goes in the opposite direction-- don't focus on game mechanics, focus on narrative. On description. On ideas. I mean that's pretty much what we already do... but I think we then get so hung up on trying "gamify" those ideas that they supplant the actual usefulness of just describing what is happening out in the world and letting the players think of ideas to get around or use those things, no dice rolls necessarily being necessary.

You describe to your players that they are approaching a fast-moving river... how the trees cover a lot of the area around it, the river being a certain width wide, the rapids flowing over the rocks many of which are sticking up out of the water sharp and deadly were you to hit them, a large tree trunk currently spanning one section of the river allowing the party to cross. A complete narrative description of the situation. No die rolls needed.

What happens now? Well, normally the players will start coming up with ideas on how best to cross the river. They will think of narrative ideas that make sense for this scenario, they may start flipping through their character sheets to see if they have anything written on them that will trigger additional ideas on getting across the river. All of those are great! I think that's what we want! Yes, at a certain character level they might be able to "fly" across the river because they have "powerful spells"... but so what? That's the idea the players came up with! They determined they had the magic available to make it across this scenario-- weighed the cost of spending the spell slot(s) against the possibilities that might have come from failure-- and all agreed together on their idea for "solving" this narrative puzzle.

So why does this situation need "mechanical support"? Does having some set of "game mechanics" to insert into this scenario actually make this scene better or more interesting? Would this scene be improved with the DM saying "Okay! Skill challenge time! Give me your ideas on how to get across the river and make a skill check connected to them... four successes before three fails and you make it across!"... thereby completely removing the players from imagining themselves within the scenario to now purely thinking of things in game terms? Figure out their best skill checks and then jerry-rig a reason to align that check to the scenario at hand? Or if not a Skill Challenge, then the DM inserting the rules of a "Hazard" that has been given to us, written up in the DMG, which essentially gives us the same thing as a skill challenge-- identifying a series of skill checks to pass that theoretically make sense for a generic solving of this issue, but do not in any way, shape or form align to the actual narrative the DM described of the scene, nor the ideas the players come up with. The "Raging River" Hazard says the group has to do X, Y, and Z to complete the challenge and the DM has to "force" those X, Y, and Z bits into the situation even if the players make no mention of those ideas because that's the "mechanical expression" of this Hazard the game has given us.

This kind of thing is exactly why I find all the complaints about requiring "DM Adjudication" to be missing the point. Because DM Adjudication is what created this scenario in the first place... DM Adjudication described all the incidents and issues the scenario presents... DM Adjudication is what will take the ideas the players come up with and then create mechanics on the spot to determine how good those ideas were... DM Adjudication is listening to your players and reacting to what they do. There's no random chart to roll on, no pre-written list of skill checks to follow, no paragraphs giving the DM all the ways to circumvent the use of magic the players might use to try and "solve" this scenario. Instead it's just presenting the scenario, listening to their ideas on how to get past it, maybe rolling a couple checks directly related to the ideas they throw out if necessary... and then you move on. The characters make it across the river, or maybe one falls into the rapids and starts getting pulled down the river forcing the rest of the team to go chasing after them. And then the DM Adjudication starts all over again (rather than the DM needing to grab some random book that has the "PC being dragged down the river" hazard listed out with the five mechanics skill checks players have to do to rescue the other one.)

While I understand that having lists of hazards or traps or other "game rules" are good at helping teach DMs how a scene like this could play out and the mechanics that could be used to solve these situations... I really think it's better if that's all they are-- just examples for teaching purposes. And that the DM should merely understand conceptually what they are meant to do, but are not proscriptive in how to do it. But rather they should use their DM Adjudication to run these scenes and scenarios on their own by reacting to what the players do and then coming up with their own ideas of what happens next. After all... coming up with ideas is the hallmark of this game... so to me, anything we can do to facilitate players and DMs actually getting to do that by bouncing off each other is always going to be the most enjoyable and successful way to go.