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Message: <blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 8642106" data-attributes="member: 71699">[USER=6704184]@doctorbadwolf[/USER]  [USER=22779]@Hussar[/USER]  I've run many healthy journey-rich campaigns over the years. In common to them is a framework that I adopted consistent with my preference for open play (following the player-characters' interests.) It was part intuition, and part Griffin Mountain (RQ) that led to it.It may be diagrammed like thisPAR > JA* > PARP is for populated place of any type - town, citadel, manor, witch's hut - anywhere there are many NPCs with means and motivations that PCs may become involved with. (I often lean into "points of light" settings.)A and A* are differentiated arenas of proof, where skill is tested. Travel leans into navigation, resource management, tracking, skirmishes and pursuits. Places lean into negotiation, reputation management, investigation, confrontations and assassinations. There are overlaps, but these are well differentiated by context.J is for journey.R is for resolution(s), which can happen anywhere, but more often in populated places.Occasionally journey is to, or broken by - dA? - which is a small dungeon. A ruin, a well, a cave high on a mountain - part of the world, not a world unto itself.I'm still figuring out this framework (I only recently articulated it). My theory is that it works by differentiating on what is in play in each phase. A decision is made that Journey will not compete with Place. In a sense, it makes the whole surface world the "dungeon", if you think of places as rooms and journeys as corridors. Differentiation means that place challenges are not impinged by journey attrition. Journey in a sense is a cost paid to reach each place (and perhaps you see how that does work with the location of resolution.)One "problem" in higher tiers is character power to compress it intoPAR > PARI don't personally find that problematic, following the philosophy evidenced so clearly in FFVII that relieving players of the journey phase reifies their watershed in power. R is (typically) in place, so in the end everyone is where they most want to be. However, I also use something like Gritty Realism and moderately slow advancement, so it comes late and can be taxed.This all highlights for me that 5e leans hard on DMs to figure this stuff out and make decisions for their campaigns. (5e has the mechanics needed to give Jouney consistency and teeth. Wielding those is another matter!)</blockquote>

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