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Here’s the other thing that the exploration pillar offers the game: variety of pacing. If the PCs are constantly being challenged the players are going to burn out. Exploration offers a break from high stakes do or die moments and allow deeper aspects of the world to be brought into focus. Those...

In the spirit of illumination (and sorry if you’ve been asked earlier) but what are some of those games and would others here lamenting the sorry state of 5e exploration agree that their rule sets (appropriately adapted) would address the issue? I’m genuinely curious and the discussion seems to...

Put another way, exploration sets up a dramatic question and an encounter (combat or social) answers it one way or another. Though sometimes the dramatic question is “can the party make it across death valley before succumbing?” so that could be an extended exploration encounter :)

He’s got his issues, but there’s no denying the elegance of this: It Cannot Be Seen, Cannot Be Smelt: Hacking Time in D&D

Not sure I get the push back on the time pool idea ?! :D it‘s a simple and effective tool that doesn’t require particular environmental conditions. But I guess different strokes for different folks.

Right, but there’s no system.

Too abstract for my taste :) I want a clock.

Yeah I want the players to be able to follow the time too so they are aware that they’re taking a risk when dilly-dallying. The time pool system is fantastic and simple and should absolutely be in the DMG (or PHB).

Except for the most critical of all: time keeping. :) I can see that there is plenty of room for improvement though, even if just in presentation.

I’ll check out 5 torches deep (though my understanding is it’s mostly a dungeon delver?) I did come up with my own travel system when I read that the One Ring had a new approach because I hate the typical 0 or 1 encounter per day. So do I think 5e could be better in the exploration rules...

I guess I just look at exploration as covering absolutely everything else in the world and attempting to codify that beyond the core gameplay loop and some examples seems like an impossible task? However I do think one of the biggest holes that causes a lot of trouble with the exploration...

I would respond that this is exactly where the DM finds their fun by creating interesting things for players to encounter. I don’t want to consult a massive rule book to build exploration challenges, I just want to throw stuff at the players and make it interesting for them. As soon as things...

It is. Exploration is literally everything that isn’t combat or social interaction. It can also have encounters, in that the PCs are encountering stuff that is interesting or puzzling or dangerous or something other than a combat encounter or social interaction encounter.

This might be a hot take, but I think we’re finding out that the exploration pillar requires some modicum of effort from the DM…

Yep, the time pool idea works really well with that because it makes the passing time visible to the players and thus the threat of a random encounter larger and larger as time passes. I totally sucked at time keeping in the long campaign I ran, and my game was weaker for it. The fact the DMG...

Good to know it’s getting better, but it still has a long way to go. They really need a Dungeon Apprentice’s Guide :)

This is exactly my feeling about the Starter Set too. It’s an intro the 5e rules for experienced players. It’s not great for introducing a bunch of newbs. That first encounter? Wow.

To me the reward is “meaning” the exploration provides much of the “why” the adventure is happening. It is the context within which the combats and social encounters have meaning. Without exploration providing that context (or connective tissue) then the other pillars become meaningless...

This is what was so enlightening about your adjudication guide, it put context around the basic ability check framework. It made a lightbulb go off in my head at least.

I finally went back and read it and after a number of years of running the game and now I was able to grok what it’s offering. It’s still completely ass-backwards. And the fact that it offers no practical way of tracking game world time is shocking, given how so much is geared around specific...