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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ClaytonCross" data-source="post: 8086807" data-attributes="member: 6880599">Its completely a matter of semantics. What you consider to exploring and what you consider to be character creation are much much smaller than I want I include.You have to define exploration before you can contrast it to story. You can explore a topic, you can explore a new place, you can explore an idea. I think D&D using explore as an official pillar name is too small a word for the pillar it represents. A Story can be an exploration. 2000 Leagues under the see for example was 90% a story about exploration and discovering new places and creatures. Any exploration done in D&D is expressed within a story but some of story is not exploration. Which is why I say "Story is one of the three pillars of D&D".Your looking at Character Creation as a one and done act. Every time I play my character creates changes to the world, the world creates changes to the character, and the characters create changes in each other. There is a social aspect to it both in game and between player/the GM outside the game. On forums and posts. I rarely show up with character that has all their backstory on sesson one or having any real idea of the identity of my characters. Every session I play something happens which helps me define and learn who my character is. The GM sees I add some backstory based on him asking why I did or chose X last time and creates story hooks based on the growth of my character and new background details created in response to me learning more about my character. Most of the time one or two players will have talked about their characters and said... hay wouldn't it be cool if when your character meet my character after that thing happened to your but before this happened to mine and thats how we know each other. Then one character invited the other to the party when they relised they needed x skill set.Its completely a matter of semantics. What you define as a character creation or chracters in D&D is a sliver of what I include. My post right after the one in which this is reply lists out the vast number of ways that "character creation" effects a campaign and grows with it and that "character creation" includes alot of social D&D beyond the gaming sessions as well.The existence and long history of war games says thats not true. Combat has and always will exist on its own with meaning simply because people like completion. All sports are perfect examples of this. HOWEVER... removing any of these pillars makes it no longer D&D. If you remove story and characters (or expiration and social if you prefer) leaving only armies on grid, its basically another chess variant. Poeple love chess but chess is not D&D. Poeple love stories and/or exploring, but without combat and characters/social elements joining together, your just some people sitting in circle listening to a story teller. Chracters are fun to make and talk about as a social thing, but without the story and combat to give them meaning they are uninteresting and meaningless. D&D is what you get when you combine those pillars but its also doesn't stand the same on those pillars at any two tables.</blockquote>

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