What is adventuring?

[RenleyRenfield]

I know the answers to the poll above are not complete and have odd choices. (It is intentionally an odd list) They are there to start the conversation for you to think about and highlight something you think, your own ideas of ONE feature that - without it - a rpg just doesn't feel like and 'adventure'. So choose from above, but more importantly, post your ONE thing below and tell us why and a little about it.

What is the ONE thing that really makes an ttRPG feel like your character goes in adventures (that you enjoy)??

But also.....
Can you go on adventures in games like Vampire the Masquerade modern times?

Can a rpg feel like an series of adventures if you never level up?

Can you ever say you went on an adventure in an rpg if you never had a combat?

 

[CleverNickName]

Combat is always my least-favorite part of an adventure game.

 

[Hriston]

I don't know if this can be generalized across TTRPGs, but I think "adventuring" can be equated to the interesting parts of a story that take a fair amount of telling as opposed to the less interesting parts that can be passed over easily.

 

[MGibster]

I tend to use adventure and scenario interchangeably when it comes to RPGs. An adventure is a self-contained series of encounters that may or may not be connected to other adventures to form a campaign. What happens in an adventure is largely dependent on the game you're playing. If you're playing D&D expect a lot of combat whereas if you're playing Call of Cthulhu you can expect a lot of interviews with NPCs and research at the library.

 

[dbm]

Experiencing novelty and overcoming adversity- those things make up adventure in my mind. Levelling and treasure are how we measure progress, but not an end in their own right.

 

[Corinnguard]

What is the ONE thing that really makes an ttRPG feel like your character goes in adventures (that you enjoy)??

I don't think anyone can easily distill what is an adventure into a single thing that can make your character go on one. At best, you can distill it down to three things- combat, exploration and social interaction. You get to fight various kinds of monsters and villains. You get to travel through the lands that make up a setting and interact with various NPCs. And like what @MGibster said, what happens in adventure is largely dependent on the game. Some adventures will see more combat and less exploration and less social interaction while with others it is just the reverse.

Can you go on adventures in games like Vampire the Masquerade modern times?

I am more likely to if some RPG company and turned a popular Manwha like Solo Leveling into an RPG.

Can a rpg feel like an series of adventures if you never level up?

IMHO, the answer is no. When a character starts adventuring, they are just starting at being an adventurer. They're learning how to fight off a monster and the various minions who work for a particular villain within the setting. They're going out into the wider world and they're interacting with other people in the outside world, some of whom they had only heard in stories the bards have told to them. But as they continue to adventure, they become stronger and more powerful. Leveling up in an RPG is the metric by which we, the player, know as to how powerful our characters have become. Without that metric, can we really tell where our characters are in terms of ability and power?

Can you ever say you went on an adventure in an rpg if you never had a combat?

Nope. Combat is one of the three pillars of adventuring in D&D. I have yet to see a D&D adventure where combat wasn't present in some fashion.

 

[aco175]

People gather around the table to roll some dice and get away from reality for a while. Without the excitement of combat, I could just read a book. The other parts are also needed with treasure and cool leveling things, but that only leads to more combat and cooler monsters to kill.

Like the PSA about taking drugs to be able to work more- to make more money- to... do more drugs. To work more....

 

[TiQuinn]

I chose combat because it most resembles what I want to say: there has to be a thrill of danger and excitement. There has to be some sort of stakes involved. Combat is the easiest way to encapsulate that.

 

[Hriston]

Nope. Combat is one of the three pillars of adventuring in D&D. I have yet to see a D&D adventure where combat wasn't present in some fashion.

This is not a "D&D" thread. It's in the *TTRPGs General forum, and the question was about RPGs in general.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Re: adventuring, it is as Peep Show put it:

If there's no criminal or quasi-criminal element (such as trespassing, tomb robbing, etc.), is it even adventuring? Certainly in the real world virtually every person who has ever been labelled an "adventurer" could easily be labelled a "serious criminal".