NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steampunkette" data-source="post: 8267936" data-attributes="member: 6796468">I also don't think D&D spellcasting is handled better than other RPGs... but most of them -are- combat-focused was the general thrust.As for what D&D doesn't cover: Exploration-focused gameplay. Gameification of travel. Things of that nature.Most of D&D travel is just presented as "Roll on a series of tables and describe the results and then run specific (usually combat) encounters based on the tables". Exploration isn't the game, it's just the place where the game tends to happen. It's got rules for getting lost, which is a nice start, but there's not a lot of stuff about what to do when you -are- lost except roll a fresh check to see if you -stay- lost. Unless you've got a Ranger in the party, in which case you never roll to get lost in the first place.Don't get me wrong, random combat encounters are absolutely a core part of travel in a high fantasy setting. But most encounters are going to amount to "Here is monster, here is environment, here is current weather. Kill pls. You gain an XP!" A DM making a dungeon for exploration certainly has the option to put in skill challenges, but the direct result of many of them (Traps, pits, other physical obstacles) is still going to be lost hit points, lost spell slots, lost gear, and slightly less effectiveness for your next combat encounter because that's what the actual gameplay is mostly focused on. There's no game elements specifically -about- exploring in D&D.Meanwhile LevelUp, for example, gameifies travel through the Journey System. It creates a separate resource-pool that the party relies on, spends, and replenishes during travel. It gives combat and non-combat encounters a way to interact with that resource pool that doesn't have to involve combat-effectiveness. It also adds a wealth of interesting activities to pursue while journeying that are specific to the journey in an interesting way. Like Befriending an animal as you travel through a region and getting an "Early Warning System" for danger out of it.Bunch of worms infested the ship's stores? Best get to clearing them out and check the supplies to find out how bad it hit our "Travel Hit Points" and how much time we're now going to have to devote to replenishing our stocks during the journey. Storm struck? We'd best avoid the shoals and head to deeper water to avoid getting shipwrecked, adding to travel times.It even adds an Exploration-System element to combat encounters, because those supplies are essential. Bandits attack you and the party on the road? They might not all try to fight or die when a few of them can sneak out of the woods to steal some of your supplies and run away.Ultimately, of course, the system comes down to Fatigue, in the end, which plays into combat as the penalty for hitting 0 before a long rest... But it adds -so much- before it gets to that point that I can't even be mad at it.I'm hoping there's similar social gameification coming... though I wrote up a Journey System alternative to gameify the gaining of wealth/prestige as a character in an urban campaign, because one doesn't exist, yet, and the Journey System is pretty adaptable to that purpose.</blockquote>

Verification