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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gradine" data-source="post: 8048029" data-attributes="member: 57112">Loathe as I am to otherwise link to him, this is a point at which the Angry GM hits the nail on the head.[URL unfurl="true"]https://theangrygm.com/gaming-for-fun-part-1-eight-kinds-of-fun/[/URL]When we apply the Eight Aesthetics of Play (a video game design theory but applies well to all forms of games) to D&D and three pillars especially, we see that the Exploration pillar fits really well with Discovery, but takes work to fit in Fantasy or Challenge, and I would guess struggles mightily to include any other Aesthetics. The base mechanics of 5e certainly don't support expanding upon Exploration, because the Combat and Role-Play pillars can combine to cover pretty much everything on their own. In that sense, the Exploration pillar is practically vestigial to 5e; a paean to editions past where it played a much larger role.The "dungeon" is really the last vestige of the pillar in 5e, but even this is being streamlined out of the core experience, and where it does play a role it is mostly as part of the Combat Challenge moreso than Discovery, where the Exploration becomes a game of resource management more than anything.</blockquote>