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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gus L" data-source="post: 9426116" data-attributes="member: 7045072">Oh I agree - and I won't say that a game with complex rules for exploration can't do it. Only that it's not the way OD&D manages it (though it has a solid set of rules for exploration - likely better then any subsequent edition of D&D or any other system I've seen honestly - maybe Errant gets close.)So yes of course there are areas where rules/skills/stat checks are useful, generally things that players can't negotiate or talk through - like climbing checks or lock picking. However, there's a point to using obstacles that don't require these sorts of things, at least not exclusively... Every cliff that uses climbing skills needs alternatives: walk around through something dangerous...magic...waste time building a ladder out of door parts, etc. This last option is precisely what I mean by "engaging the fiction" - and yes it's a fine line. I mean... We can all pretend that most people play the OFFICAL GYGAX WAY and run 15 year campaigns in 12 hours sessions 3 days a week ... but most of us would be lying? I'm not catering my design or theory to some tiny fraction of the RPG audience that has a part time job playing RPGs?I mean we all design our adventures in different ways - if you want to run sieges that's your style. It is a style distinction though, not a mechanical one.  Personally I think trying to find what makes sense (beyond some basic coherence) to be especially useful for playing RPGs? there's no best practices here though.SHOULD is a rough word to hang onto an RPG scenario... I get it you don't like scenarios with faction intrigue. I don't like cyberpunk - but I won't claim that makes my games more real, less "stylized" or more "logical" then someone else's cyber fantasy.I use "Dungeon Crawl" as a term of art for a specific style of play - hence the caps and explanations I've put in every post I've made in this thread. I also think talking about dungeon crawls and lumping everything else in (aesthetics, vague nods, and all location based play etc.) is a boring way to start fights.  Surprisingly as a play style though it doesn't have a huge amount to do with "back in the day". There are old techniques that work and I like to give credit rather then claim I invented them, but it's a functional way to run a certain style of game that doesn't work well with every rule set.</blockquote>

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