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<blockquote data-quote="Teemu" data-source="post: 8221062" data-attributes="member: 30788">I think it serves two functions: a GM guidance tool, and if desired, a way to add tracking of time to exploration and social encounters and challenges.The first function can help GMs adjudicate common scenarios. For example, a sneaky PC wants to scout out ahead -- the exploration mode rules tell the GM to apply the Scout activity, which grants the party a bonus to initiative checks (and the guidance on starting a fight tell about placing the party in suitable positions). Or the whole party wants to be stealthy in a dangerous environment. The exploration rules would then guide the GM to ask for Stealth checks from the party, and if speed matters, the Avoid Notice activity tells how fast you can move. Furthermore, the less sneaky PCs could get help from the experts, instead of just almost automatically failing, so the GM lets them Follow the Expert and gain a higher bonus to the Stealth rolls. A game like 5e mostly leaves all that up to GM judgment, which can sometimes overwhelm GMs or maybe create situations where similar scenarios end up rather different because the GM couldn't decide on a uniform approach.The second function allows the GM to make time matter. Maybe the party has until midnight to stop the evil ritual -- instead of handwaving the passage of time or creating more abstract losses of time (say, fail a check and it takes longer to get to an important scene), the exploration mode rules let the GM divide most everything into chunks of 10 minutes. Maybe the party has 6 &quot;rounds&quot;, aka 60 minutes before the ritual goes off. Or in another scenario, the GM could decide that the party has 30 minutes before the next group of hostile forces arrive on the scene, so the party has 3 &quot;rounds&quot; of exploration activities available to them.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Teemu, post: 8221062, member: 30788"] I think it serves two functions: a GM guidance tool, and if desired, a way to add tracking of time to exploration and social encounters and challenges. The first function can help GMs adjudicate common scenarios. For example, a sneaky PC wants to scout out ahead -- the exploration mode rules tell the GM to apply the Scout activity, which grants the party a bonus to initiative checks (and the guidance on starting a fight tell about placing the party in suitable positions). Or the whole party wants to be stealthy in a dangerous environment. The exploration rules would then guide the GM to ask for Stealth checks from the party, and if speed matters, the Avoid Notice activity tells how fast you can move. Furthermore, the less sneaky PCs could get help from the experts, instead of just almost automatically failing, so the GM lets them Follow the Expert and gain a higher bonus to the Stealth rolls. A game like 5e mostly leaves all that up to GM judgment, which can sometimes overwhelm GMs or maybe create situations where similar scenarios end up rather different because the GM couldn't decide on a uniform approach. The second function allows the GM to make time matter. Maybe the party has until midnight to stop the evil ritual -- instead of handwaving the passage of time or creating more abstract losses of time (say, fail a check and it takes longer to get to an important scene), the exploration mode rules let the GM divide most everything into chunks of 10 minutes. Maybe the party has 6 "rounds", aka 60 minutes before the ritual goes off. Or in another scenario, the GM could decide that the party has 30 minutes before the next group of hostile forces arrive on the scene, so the party has 3 "rounds" of exploration activities available to them. [/QUOTE]

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