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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Monayuris" data-source="post: 8051777" data-attributes="member: 6859536">I think several things are needed to make Exploration fun. (Really long post, sorry... I hope it makes some sense and doesn't come off wrong).1. It has to be the point of the adventure, or at least it should not be sub-optimal. This means either the adventure is  "Explore these ruins" or the adventure is "You have some time before all hell breaks loose... and here are some places you can go during that time that you can explore and maybe find something of use to you".2. The environment to be explored needs to be interesting. There should be something to be found in these places. A reason to make the effort. This is hard to do, and I have had issues with this. If I put a location on my map, what would entice players to go there? I've kind of reached the decision to just take my list of locations and literally tell the players: Name of location, What monsters lurk there, What treasure is held there. Players can then have all the information they need to decide if they should go explore it. If the ranger wants a magic bow and there is one to be found at a location... they have a reason to go.3. When running an exploration, there should be a consequence for every choice a player makes. Every action taken should have some cost or some effect. In older editions, this was handled by tracking dungeon turns. A turn was 10 minutes and was considered the quantum of dungeon activity (outside of combat). If you search a room, it was X number of turns. If you listen at a door, a turn passes. And so on. As turns pass, several things happen... 1. Torches or light sources deplete, 2. Wandering monsters were checked. In older editions, wandering monsters were bad news... you get experience for treasure, and wanderers had none. They would just deplete resources (hit points, spells) for no reward. As a result, you had to carefully manage your activity. Every action you take provokes a potential encounter that is just going to cause attrition for no gain. Whatever the method, consequences are important. For doors... I give the choice: you can bash it down quickly with a strength check. If you succeed you will get surprise over any monsters in the room. If you fail you alert them to your presence. OR you can hack the door apart, it takes time, but will auto succeed but is also noisy and will result in a wandering monster check. If you have a thief pick the lock, you can open the door quietly and failure will not alert the monsters. Of course, I run dungeons where one door isn't going to impede all progress. Sometimes the players will just move on to the next area.4. When asking for rolls there needs to be a reason. Skill rolls are meant to handle uncertainty. But in order for them to work, you need to know what happens if you succeed and fail. If you can't clearly describe an interesting result with what happens when a skill roll succeeds and when a skill roll fails, then you shouldn't ask for a roll. 5. The environment should usually provide useful information. A comment made by Undrave was the meaninglessness of going one way or the other in a dungeon. Usually, there should be some clues provided. As a DM when I run a dungeon, I am constantly looking a few rooms down the hall and looking to things that I can provide as signs. If there are giant bees three rooms down to the East, I'll describe the sound of buzzing wings in the distance. Keep looking 2-4 rooms ahead.Of course sometimes East or West have no discernable difference. It may feel like an arbitrary choice, but it isn't. As you explore further the choice will be more clear. If you go to a new neighborhood in a new city and at an intersection choose to go left instead of right, is that a meaningless choice? I say no, because choosing that direction informs you more of the neighborhood. Maybe it leads to Little Italy, or maybe it leads to where you can get wholesale fabrics. The next time you go back, you now have information that makes that choice meaningful.6. Traps and such should have some kind of tell. It doesn't have to be obvious but there should be something in the description. I tend to telegraph traps and let players try to figure it out. I tend to give more information than I think I should. The one thing I have learned in running games is that it is easy to make assumptions about what you know against what you think your players know. As DM, I have perfect knowledge of the environment. Players are 100% dependent on me providing them information. Sometimes I fail at properly describing something and I don't even know I failed. Sometimes players do what seems like dumb things. Usually, it is because I communicated poorly. I try to clear these things up and double-check they understand the situation. When describing traps, weird stuff, and dungeon rooms, it is important to be on the same page.</blockquote>

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