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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yora" data-source="post: 8507870" data-attributes="member: 6670763">I think XP for treasure would be a big one. Though if putting treasure hunting into the center is an improvement is subjective.But I think it's the key to make a campaign actually play like the hypothetical ideal of Dungeons & Dragons. A game of exploring dungeons and facing off against dragons.Once you have XP for treasure in place, you can bring back wandering monsters. Because when fighting wandering monsters offers no meaningful reward for the danger they pose, they become something that players want to avoid. And that fundamentally changes what a dungeon is and how it works as a game structure.You also have an incentive to be stealthy and smart. Not simply to get a combat advantage whe you find a monster, but to bypass it entirely if practical. This opens up a big world of creative approaches to obstacles other than rolling initiative.Using reaction rolls to randomize the initial disposition of encountered creatures is another great element. It creates uncertainy for the players if they should suprise attack creatures they sneaked up on, and it also generates a great range of unexpected interactions with monsters, that have a good chance to be memorable. And again, with XP coming from treasure, there is more incentive to negotiate for nonviolent outcomes of encounters.In such a campaign, encumbrance starts serving a purpose, as retreats become a viable option without getting The Story stuck in a dead end. Exploring a dungeon swiftly and being able to make a fast retreat become a priority, which conflicts with being prepared with the tools and supplies for a wide range of situations.If you can't do multiple short rests in a day, you have further incentives to explore smarter, and not harder. I think people's complaints about exploration not being well developed comes from the complete absence of such a structure for movement through a dungeons with constraints and conflicting priorities.Though if you want to play the game to follow an elaborate story with cool action scenes, that probably won't add anything to the experience.</blockquote>

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