What is exploration & why is it fun?

[JRRNeiklot]

Exploration?

You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.

 

[Thalionalfirin]

exploration?

You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.

zork!!!!

 

[Celestian]

I was taken aback to find Exploration as one of the 3 pillars of D&D. I describe my experiences with D&D as “Tactical miniatures games with in character chat”, which covers the other two “pillars”.

Your description of your experiences with D&D sound like a board game, not an RPG.

Do you not want to explore the woods? Find the fabled lost ruins in the desert? Rob a tomb taking everything not nailed down? Sail across the sea to find out what is on the other side? Delve into the depths of a massive cavern to see what's at the bottom?

My D&D games center on exploration and adventure. Tactical miniatures are not even involved.

 

[MortalPlague]

It was a thrilling moment in which we the players did all the heavy lifting. No skill checks were rolled, and in fact it would have been short-circuited if anyone had known Dwarven. There was tension and drama; we learned more about the campaign world and engaged meaningfully with the environment; we got sucked into the gameworld completely for a few minutes.

That's an awesome story! This surely is exploration at its best.

What isn't exploration? To me, exploring is everything from finding out what the layout of the pub's kitchen is (and arguing with the chef about his choice in spices) to finding out where the passage in the mountains goes to poking the wall searching for a hidden door.

Great imagery!

Exploration is what some easily distracted members of the party do as they sneak away from their friends, in search of easy riches.

Interaction is what the remainder of the party do as they try to convince the grinning BBEG, who's just found them caught short, not to attack.

Combat is a euphemism for the carnage that gets subsequently inflicted.

I laughed.

 

[Hussar]

Your description of your experiences with D&D sound like a board game, not an RPG.

Do you not want to explore the woods? Find the fabled lost ruins in the desert? Rob a tomb taking everything not nailed down? Sail across the sea to find out what is on the other side? Delve into the depths of a massive cavern to see what's at the bottom?

My D&D games center on exploration and adventure. Tactical miniatures are not even involved.

Did we really need to go down this road? Just because it's not something you might like, does not make it "not-roleplaying". Nice onetruewayism there.

 

[Li Shenron]

I consider at least the following elements to belong to the exploration phase:

- any-distance travel with possible hazards to prepare against and then avoid or face, including weather, and handling means of transportation and arranging equipment distribution

- navigation of a complex area made of different locales, either open (a city district) or close (a dungeon) in search of a target place/person/creature/object... or the exit!

- monitoring the presence of dangers, visible or hidden, including traps

- handling reduced illumination, arranging scouting and recognition

- solving riddles and puzzles, deciphering maps or any unclear message/instruction/clue

- discovering hidden/concealed locations or objects, including handling illusions

- overcoming obstacles blocking locations or objects (closed doors, difficult terrain, static hazards, chasms, perilous bridges, heights etc.)

- arranging rests/camps and guard duties

 

[Grogg of the North]

You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.

Hello Sailor!

 

[Celestian]

Did we really need to go down this road? Just because it's not something you might like, does not make it "not-roleplaying". Nice onetruewayism there.

Where did I say I didn't like his experiences with D&D or that it wasn't roleplaying?

I said it sounded like a board game.

 

[Agamon]

Where did I say I didn't like his experiences with D&D or that it wasn't roleplaying?

I said it sounded like a board game.

Well, you did append that with "not an RPG". The post did sound a bit superior and dismissive. People play different ways and the OP was just asking a question.

Personally, though, I agree with your underlying sentiment. I probably wouldn't be playing D&D if it was just chatting and pushing minis around. Exploration is a pretty big pillar for me.

 

[Pickles JG]

Your description of your experiences with D&D sound like a board game, not an RPG.

Where did I say I didn't like his experiences with D&D or that it wasn't roleplaying?

Still it's what we called a role playing game before the character actors & story tellers coopted the name.

Thanks for all of the input. I guess a lot of what I would call interaction has been categorised as exploration (solving mysteries & finding out about the chef's spices) & those bits I do like.
I am more of a red dotted line on a map guy when it comes to the finding out about the world kind of exploration. It's a way of getting between cool scenes to act in. I also find it hard to get excited about taking the corridor on the left with the smoke or the one on the right with the dire wolf spoor. We are going both ways eventually. I am a bit worried about Caves of Chaos for this reason. Not only does it batter my limits of plausibility but it seems to be a giant monster buffet. (That's giant buffet not giant monsters...)