D&D General Why Exploration Is the Worst Pillar

[Stalker0]

I don't think exploration is a bad pillar from a player's perspective...but I do think rules wise this pillar gets the least amount of love.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I agree with OP, combat and social interaction are the two best parts of D&D.

Combat works well because it's a game-within-a-game. This is most true of 4e and also, to a lesser extent, 3e and 5e. Player decisions matter. Something is at stake. There is predictability - the rules are known - but also unpredictability - dice rolls, NPC capabilities. It's not a game of 'guess what the GM is thinking'. These are the features of a good game, whether it's an rpg or not.

Social interaction is the most distinctive aspect of ttrpgs. Few other activities resemble it, except perhaps improvisational theatre. It's immediate and immersive. It's the only part of the game where what the players are doing is the same as what the PCs are doing.

Exploration is, by 5e's definition, everything else. It's buying equipment. It's choosing spells. It's determining watch order. It's marking off ammo and iron rations. It's map making. It's saying "we check the chest for a secret bottom". It's tapping the wall to see if it's hollow. It's spending a session scaling an ice cliff. (I've experienced this.)

 

[Doug McCrae]

1e AD&D DMG (emphasis mine):
"Use actual time to keep track of game time spent exploring and mapping (somewhat tedious but necessary)."
"Assume that your players are continually wasting time (thus making the so-called adventure drag out into a boring session of dice rolling and delay) if they are checking endlessly for traps and listening at every door."

I don't think it's a coincidence that activities Gary Gygax describes as "tedious" and "boring" are both part of the exploration pillar.

 

[Reynard]

I don't think exploration is a bad pillar from a player's perspective...but I do think rules wise this pillar gets the least amount of love.

You think there are more rules for the social pillar than the exploration pillar?

 

[Hriston]

@Hriston I guess I see roleplaying different than combat. Sure you can say something in character during a fight, but when a player starts "role-playing" their character in the midst of a dangerous fight, that's when I get miffed.
"I'm going to heal the monsters during the fight because I'm a pacifist."
"I'm going to grapple the cleric because it would be funny."
"My character is paranoid and I think your character could be a doppelganger (even though there's no evidence) so I'm going to attack a fellow party member."
All of these have happened in my games. It's annoying. Get that crap out of my combat.

I don't think it's useful to equate roleplaying in combat with disruptive play, which is how these examples read to me. Why are players' decisions to heal their allies, grapple their enemies, and attack actual doppelgangers not considered roleplaying by you? In other words, why is playing the combat mini-game not considered roleplaying unless the players are being disruptive?

 

[Li Shenron]

You think there are more rules for the social pillar than the exploration pillar?

I don't think he meant there are less rules, but there are maybe too many bypass options and abilities made specifically for players who wanted to skip explorations. Even though there are also spells for social interactions, they are rarely intsta-win.

 

[Hriston]

1e AD&D DMG (emphasis mine):
"Use actual time to keep track of game time spent exploring and mapping (somewhat tedious but necessary)."
"Assume that your players are continually wasting time (thus making the so-called adventure drag out into a boring session of dice rolling and delay) if they are checking endlessly for traps and listening at every door."

I don't think it's a coincidence that activities Gary Gygax describes as "tedious" and "boring" are both part of the exploration pillar.

I think what Gary is saying there is that if the players make the game boring, it's on them.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I think what Gary is saying there is that if the players make the game boring, it's on them.

The point is which pillar is this happening in, not who's responsible. I searched on the words "tedious", "boring" and "dull" in the 1e DMG. They are only ever applied to activities in the exploration pillar, never combat or social interaction.

 

[Reynard]

The point is which pillar is this happening in, not who's responsible. I searched on the words "tedious", "boring" and "dull" in the 1e DMG. They are only ever applied to activities in the exploration pillar, never combat or social interaction.

Plenty of folks -- in this very thread, even -- find combat tedious.

Also, using the 1E DMG as a guide for what may or may not be fun in 5E is pretty thin.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Also, using the 1E DMG as a guide for what may or may not be fun in 5E is pretty thin.

5e DMG (emphasis mine):
"How do you avoid creating a boring play session of uninterrupted slogging across a rocky wasteland?"
"Strict application of the movement rules can turn a potentially exciting chase into a dull, predictable affair."

The second quotation's pillar is a bit tricky to evaluate. Technically, by 5e's definition it's exploration. We could place it in a hypothetical action pillar, which would include combat.