MichaelSomething
Legend
Exploration is strongly related to adventure design. Though more advice is usually helpful.
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D&D General Why Exploration Is the Worst Pillar
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Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
One of the best games I played and a defining moment for Orbril the
Gnome was a series of ‘encounters’ on the way to the planned adventure.
The adventure officially was a hunt for a griffon who had been terrorising travellers on the north road, but we never actually go to the griffon (so technically failed, though I suspect it may have been pretence).
However on the first night of the trek our camp was targetted by a herd of carnivorous hamsters searching for a meal. We had to get rid of them and Orbril decided he wanted to capture and tame a couple of them - after getting nets and sleeping gas (Orbrils an alchemist) we succeeded in that and Orbril eventuallyused the hamsters to create his Travelling Circus.
A couple of days afterwards, on that same adventure (with the Hamsters tied to wagon) we got lost and heard cries for help. That lead to another adventure where we went into a lost crypt and were chased by serpent headed mummies. We susrvived and headed back to the town to report that to the authorities.
Anyway my advice is to treat the Wilderness as a Dungeon made up of open spaces and linking paths AND make the exploration part of the Adventures.
1 You should be able to use the approach to the crypt/caves/castle as an interesting part of the story where you can find information about your goal, find useful resources/tools and explore options.
2 Describe the big landmarks (Mountains, River, Town) to give the Players map references, but
3 PC should be using navigation and survival skills and the Players should draw their own map (keep the players active so they’re not just responding to the4 DM)
4 Have a safe path and an open sandbox created entirely by a List- if the PCs use the safe path they get to the encounter quickly, if they go off path they might get lost
5 Get lost = Have an Encounter but Don’t use Random Encounters - encounters should be flexible and varied but they should offer the PCs something more than just gold and XP farming.
6 Remember that Random encounters dont have to be monsters - seeing smoke in the distance, or cut marks on a tree trunk are encounters too. (Remember to explore in 3 dimensions and if your in the right place spot things in the distance (smoke, circling vultures), weird noises)
7 encounters with useful resources, unusual flora and sites of interest are good especially if those resources can be used in later encounters.
8 Make PCs keep track of supplies and encumbrance (as this also keeps PC active). They may have to gather food, water and other supplies as part of their exploration now
Gnome was a series of ‘encounters’ on the way to the planned adventure.
The adventure officially was a hunt for a griffon who had been terrorising travellers on the north road, but we never actually go to the griffon (so technically failed, though I suspect it may have been pretence).
However on the first night of the trek our camp was targetted by a herd of carnivorous hamsters searching for a meal. We had to get rid of them and Orbril decided he wanted to capture and tame a couple of them - after getting nets and sleeping gas (Orbrils an alchemist) we succeeded in that and Orbril eventuallyused the hamsters to create his Travelling Circus.
A couple of days afterwards, on that same adventure (with the Hamsters tied to wagon) we got lost and heard cries for help. That lead to another adventure where we went into a lost crypt and were chased by serpent headed mummies. We susrvived and headed back to the town to report that to the authorities.
Anyway my advice is to treat the Wilderness as a Dungeon made up of open spaces and linking paths AND make the exploration part of the Adventures.
1 You should be able to use the approach to the crypt/caves/castle as an interesting part of the story where you can find information about your goal, find useful resources/tools and explore options.
2 Describe the big landmarks (Mountains, River, Town) to give the Players map references, but
3 PC should be using navigation and survival skills and the Players should draw their own map (keep the players active so they’re not just responding to the4 DM)
4 Have a safe path and an open sandbox created entirely by a List- if the PCs use the safe path they get to the encounter quickly, if they go off path they might get lost
5 Get lost = Have an Encounter but Don’t use Random Encounters - encounters should be flexible and varied but they should offer the PCs something more than just gold and XP farming.
6 Remember that Random encounters dont have to be monsters - seeing smoke in the distance, or cut marks on a tree trunk are encounters too. (Remember to explore in 3 dimensions and if your in the right place spot things in the distance (smoke, circling vultures), weird noises)
7 encounters with useful resources, unusual flora and sites of interest are good especially if those resources can be used in later encounters.
8 Make PCs keep track of supplies and encumbrance (as this also keeps PC active). They may have to gather food, water and other supplies as part of their exploration now
I think it's a matter of taste and style. I'm old school, so for me Exploration is the primary pillar. I've worked out an exploration turn system for exploring dungeons, small site, settlements, and even overland travel. By adding in random encounters and/or time based events (the encounters are not necessarily combat), it makes the amount of time the players spend exploring matter, while also giving them player agency to decide what is and is not important. For a group of players like the OP, they could easily jump between points of interest quickly, at the risk of missing something important. Conversely, a group of players like myself could spend a lot of time in and out of character checking out everything, at the risk of extra hazards.
For a short concept of it, I break down exploration time into turns that represent an amount of time based on where things are taking place. Dungeons are 1 minute, small sites are 10 minutes, settlements are 1 hour, while overland travel is set into times of day (dawn, morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night). The players set their standard activities, similar to the standard travel rules, but I break things up a bit (searching for enemies, searching for traps/secrets, searching an area/large object). If the party comes across something different the players want/must interact with, it starts a new turn (with new activities based on what appeared).
For a short concept of it, I break down exploration time into turns that represent an amount of time based on where things are taking place. Dungeons are 1 minute, small sites are 10 minutes, settlements are 1 hour, while overland travel is set into times of day (dawn, morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night). The players set their standard activities, similar to the standard travel rules, but I break things up a bit (searching for enemies, searching for traps/secrets, searching an area/large object). If the party comes across something different the players want/must interact with, it starts a new turn (with new activities based on what appeared).
Of course. AiME is a 5E game. The rules are designed to be used with 5E, and they’re great.
The One Ring rules which inspired them are better though.
MNblockhead
A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
For me exploration IS the game. You could just replace "adventurers" with "explorers."
I think it was easier in more old-school dungeon crawling. Especially the fun-house style dungeons that seemed more common in the 80s. They were full of traps, hidden areas, puzzles, and other exploration-based challenges. Also, when XP was earned for gold, combat was not the reason and goal, it was challenge and obstacle to maybe be defeated, but often to be avoided through sneaking or role play.
Outside the dungeon it is more challenging. In one sense, the whole world is a dungeon in D&D, but you generally are not going to be able to have a wilderness area or city as detailed out as a dungeon.
What has helped me is to realize that travelling =/= exploration. Just because the party is going from A to B doesn't mean that I have to shoe horn exploration. I use montage scenes, sometime using 4e-style skill challenges (based on Matt Coleville's advice) to make the "getting there" more interesting. Sometimes I just handwave it and you are there.
I think of it like the old Indiana Jones movies. The dotted line moving across the world map is not exploration, that's just travel. But when you get to exotic, foreign location, the exploration starts. The exploration will lead to encounters and those encounters may be social encounters or combat encounters. Between those encounters there is research to do, sneaking around, staking out an antagonists lair, traps to avoid, and so forth.
Even the most rail-roady campaigns need the illusion of exploration to stitch encounters together, but the best games have at least portions that are sandboxes. Exploration is where players have the most agency. Where players decide to go and what they decide to do during their explorations is what makes running games fun for me. I very much am along for the ride.
I think it was easier in more old-school dungeon crawling. Especially the fun-house style dungeons that seemed more common in the 80s. They were full of traps, hidden areas, puzzles, and other exploration-based challenges. Also, when XP was earned for gold, combat was not the reason and goal, it was challenge and obstacle to maybe be defeated, but often to be avoided through sneaking or role play.
Outside the dungeon it is more challenging. In one sense, the whole world is a dungeon in D&D, but you generally are not going to be able to have a wilderness area or city as detailed out as a dungeon.
What has helped me is to realize that travelling =/= exploration. Just because the party is going from A to B doesn't mean that I have to shoe horn exploration. I use montage scenes, sometime using 4e-style skill challenges (based on Matt Coleville's advice) to make the "getting there" more interesting. Sometimes I just handwave it and you are there.
I think of it like the old Indiana Jones movies. The dotted line moving across the world map is not exploration, that's just travel. But when you get to exotic, foreign location, the exploration starts. The exploration will lead to encounters and those encounters may be social encounters or combat encounters. Between those encounters there is research to do, sneaking around, staking out an antagonists lair, traps to avoid, and so forth.
Even the most rail-roady campaigns need the illusion of exploration to stitch encounters together, but the best games have at least portions that are sandboxes. Exploration is where players have the most agency. Where players decide to go and what they decide to do during their explorations is what makes running games fun for me. I very much am along for the ride.
Orcslayer78
Explorer
Or Adventures in Middle Earth for the 5E players.
[edit] I din't read your second answer about AME before posting
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Orcslayer78
Explorer
I disagree with the OP, the problem is that modern rpgs don't have rules for journeys, and those who have them are not very well known like the official D&D 5E.
Exploration was much more fun when D&D used hexcrawl, that made exploration interesting and dangerous, now modern D&D is mostly about skipping the journey so that the players can get into the game, without realizing that journeys and explorations are part of the game, and with good rules and a good DM, they become essential parts.
Exploration was much more fun when D&D used hexcrawl, that made exploration interesting and dangerous, now modern D&D is mostly about skipping the journey so that the players can get into the game, without realizing that journeys and explorations are part of the game, and with good rules and a good DM, they become essential parts.
Orcslayer78
Explorer
It shouldn't be so hard I think: you can use History instead then Traditions, then according to the lore of the setting you're using decide the initial attitude of the person in charge towards the spokeperson of the party, you don't need a whole tab for your world, you can just decide one Audience at a time.
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