Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 9427602" data-attributes="member: 5142">Giving this topic a bit more thought:I think the primary reason that dungeon exploration can feel like an unfun slog has nothing to do with how light or heavy the rules are. It has almost everything to do with whether or not the game (in the abstract sense) cares about dungeon exploration and finds it fun. Do the rules of this game care about exploring dungeons: yes or no? For example, I would suggest that 5e, on the whole, doesn't care much about dungeon exploration. The game feels and plays as if it doesn't want to be in the dungeon in the first place. It doesn't really care about the dungeon as a survival game. It ignores or glosses over a lot of the dungeon procedures of old. It doesn't really care too much about resource management and tracking equipment, encumbrance, and time. The game swims in gold like Scrooge McDuck, so it doesn't care about Gold for XP. Nonetheless, a bunch of dungeoneering elements are there mostly for the sake of appeasing the legacy and continuity of the game.The game has dungeons, but they are an aesthetic. In 5e the dungeon does not exist to test your character or your player skill. In 5e the dungeon exists as a set piece backdrop for showcasing your character's abilities and/or showcasing the GM's/Adventure's cool story. On the GM side of things, 5e cares about cool adventures, stories, and worlds. On the player side of things, 5e cares about cool characters and abilities.It feels like slog because the players would rather be somewhere else and doing something else other than dungeon exploration. You could make a super light Basic version of 5e and players would still view the dungeon exploration game with disdain because that is not what they are there for and the rules don't care about it either.While I do think that a lot of OSR weirdly fetishizes rules being "light" as opposed to being "good" or "fun," the OSR community ultimately cares about dungeon exploration and tends to find it fun. It's a style of play that loves being in the dungeon. It wants to be there. It wants dungeon exploration to matter.I don't think that dungeon exploration requires light rules to be fun. Instead, I think that the game system only has to care about dungeon exploration. It's as simple as that.</blockquote>

Verification