D&D General Why Exploration Is the Worst Pillar

[Scott Christian]

Nothing totally is a punishment. It's NOTHING. It's a waste of time and session time is precious enough. Don't give me a hallway with eight doors, only to have seven of them be empty and the last one leading to ANOTHER hallway of doors. At that point I'm gonna check out and not bother going into details anymore, I'll just go "we check all the doors until something happens.".

Good DM'ing and dungeon design are essential for creating that exploration layer in this scenario.

The DM could wrap up the seven rooms as a few sentences: "The seven rooms you check out all have the faint smell of chocolate, but outside of that they are all just common quarters with little or no belongings." That, to me, would be good DM'ing rather that having us open each door, look under each bed, etc. Of course, if the DM was trying to open the plot up, by say, having each room holding a piece of the plot - that is good too. But, timing and description is key.
Then there is dungeon design. It is something I really have a hard time wrapping my head around sometimes. It needs to flow, can't be too big, be ecologically sound and maintain logic. A hard thing to do sometimes, as is evident by the many books I have. Some would take our group 10 sessions just to get through.

 

[Undrave]

Every room in a dungeon should have something beneficial hidden in it, but don't tell the players that. But you want to reward them for taking the time to check the rooms you carefully designed. When they search, if they fail, give them a smaller reward like an individual's treasure worth of gold. If they succeed, grant them something like the key to a locked door or a hint to one of the BBEG's weaknesses as well as the individual's treasure. The constant rewards keep them from continuously trying. Of course, if there's absolutely no pressure, then they should get everything of interest in the room from the sheer fact that they thought to check something.

Doesn't even need to be beneficial. I'd rather run into a random encounter than an empty room (and that could even be useful if that enemy can't surprise you from behind later). Maybe it's just lore as to what the dungeon was FOR, who lived there and what happened, or ways to pinpoint when it was built (every day objects, furniture design flourishes, books, etc) Maybe it's rations or corpse of a prey that hint at who is currently inhabiting the dungeon.

ANYTHING is better than 'nothing'.

 

[robus]

To me, exploration is the pillar that TTRPGs (including and perhaps especially D&D) does better than any other game form. I think it explains the enduring popularity of D&D and Call of Cthulhu (where the particular form of exploration is often investigation).

When I think back to the (very few) times I played D&D as a teen, the lingering memory is what I imagined my character seeing as the adventure got going. I don't remember the character class (or any of the combat) just the intriguing image of the castle that lay ahead and the adventure it must contain.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

When I think back to the (very few) times I played D&D as a teen, the lingering memory is what I imagined my character seeing as the adventure got going. I don't remember the character class (or any of the combat) just the intriguing image of the castle that lay ahead and the adventure it must contain.

Agree completely. Even to this day, I still have those faint memories of wonder that surface when I think of my earliest days playing D&D, and the wonder is never about yet another combat, or another character, but the feelings I had as I first explored some new dungeon, or module, or country, as I filled in a map that was a great unknown, as I learned about the world my character inhabited.

To each their own, of course. But I would not trade the exploration for any other part.

 

[Vael]

Exploration needs to be better integrated for other types of campaigns. I'm in the midst of two urban campaigns: I'm in an Eberron campaign set in Sharn, and running Dragon Heist, a Waterdeep focused campaigns. So all these rules for journeys and hex crawls as such aren't quite cutting it.

 

[Retreater]

The "you find an empty room" model of dungeon exploration is boring to me, and a waste of time. This is why my group hated Dungeon of the Mad Mage - it's around 75% "empty" (or at least, without interesting features). If a room doesn't have a challenge to the party or elaborate on why the party is there, it doesn't need to be there. Edit lean, guys.
I know many DMs talk about how resource management is an integral part of the game. Why not just give fewer resources and focus on the encounters that matter? Why not just roll random dice between encounters to see how much food, torches, etc., have been used during meaningless hours (days) of exploration?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

The "you find an empty room" model of dungeon exploration is boring to me, and a waste of time. This is why my group hated Dungeon of the Mad Mage - it's around 75% "empty" (or at least, without interesting features). If a room doesn't have a challenge to the party or elaborate on why the party is there, it doesn't need to be there. Edit lean, guys.
I know many DMs talk about how resource management is an integral part of the game. Why not just give fewer resources and focus on the encounters that matter? Why not just roll random dice between encounters to see how much food, torches, etc., have been used during meaningless hours (days) of exploration?

Not all things are for all people.

You prefer the PC-centric view of the world; in essence, only interesting things ever happen because playing the game is akin to a scripted drama. It's all Chekhov's guns; why bother having an empty room?

Others might prefer more verisimilitude to their areas; that there isn't a constant "tell" of what isn't important.

Neither is better or worse, by the way.

Finally, while some people do enjoy dungeon spelunking and/or resource management, that is not the alpha and the omega of exploration. Exploration is literally what it sounds like- exploring. Finding new areas. Cool new things. My favorite adventures have always had the sublime thrill of the unexpected over the next hill and around the next corner.

But if you prefer the fight fight, talk talk, fight fight, that's good too.

 

[Retreater]

Not all things are for all people.

You prefer the PC-centric view of the world; in essence, only interesting things ever happen because playing the game is akin to a scripted drama. It's all Chekhov's guns; why bother having an empty room?

Others might prefer more verisimilitude to their areas; that there isn't a constant "tell" of what isn't important.

Neither is better or worse, by the way.

Finally, while some people do enjoy dungeon spelunking and/or resource management, that is not the alpha and the omega of exploration. Exploration is literally what it sounds like- exploring. Finding new areas. Cool new things. My favorite adventures have always had the sublime thrill of the unexpected over the next hill and around the next corner.

But if you prefer the fight fight, talk talk, fight fight, that's good too.

I'm traditionally a DM. But in the 10% of the time that I get to play, I really dislike sitting there for hours while nothing happens, and a DM just describes clouds, role-plays with himself, and has us spend 3 hours of precious game time following a lead in a mystery that means nothing. Cut to the chase. We're all adults. We have to realize that we're playing a game - skip to the good part.
It's like playing Monopoly and having to stop to change the tires of your metal car token.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I'm traditionally a DM. But in the 10% of the time that I get to play, I really dislike sitting there for hours while nothing happens, and a DM just describes clouds, role-plays with himself, and has us spend 3 hours of precious game time following a lead in a mystery that means nothing. Cut to the chase. We're all adults. We have to realize that we're playing a game - skip to the good part.
It's like playing Monopoly and having to stop to change the tires of your metal car token.

Some people prefer a five minute youtube compilation of skateboarding fails. Other people prefer a Terence Malick movie.

It is best not to confuse a debatable preference with a universal prerogative.

 

[Asisreo]

I'm traditionally a DM. But in the 10% of the time that I get to play, I really dislike sitting there for hours while nothing happens, and a DM just describes clouds, role-plays with himself, and has us spend 3 hours of precious game time following a lead in a mystery that means nothing. Cut to the chase. We're all adults. We have to realize that we're playing a game - skip to the good part.
It's like playing Monopoly and having to stop to change the tires of your metal car token.

I tend to agree. It would be nice if we can indulge in the meaningless just for it's own sake, but we have kids, spouses, houses, and jobs. Having extraneous information in our games and being mislead ultimately means we're wasting time to what we came to do: accomplish our goal.

I'm lucky enough to have seen the end of a couple campaigns, but more often they're put on hold due to outside responsibilities and haven't restarted in years. And it's unsatisfying when we think back on how the 500+ hrs we put in the game was 60% inconsequential.