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Why Exploration Is the Worst Pillar
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<blockquote data-quote="NotAYakk" data-source="post: 8371612" data-attributes="member: 72555"><p>For exploration to suck less, make it matter.</p><p></p><p>In combat, what happens matters. Your characters live or die, foes escape or not. There is complex dependency between PC action and combat state.</p><p></p><p>In social encounters, NPCs like or dislike your PCs.</p><p></p><p>The boring exploration described, this doesn't seem to be happening.</p><p></p><p>The "classic" D&D exploration was the dungeon. A dungeon is a series of rooms connected complex ways, with secret doors and short cuts, and what you see along one branch changes what happens or what you find in another.</p><p></p><p>If the players are "blind" in the dungeon, then the decisions the players make -- left or right, up or down -- doesn't matter. </p><p></p><p>If the players are not blind -- if information can be gained, and from that, decisions made -- then the decisions matter, and the decisions can make a story.</p><p></p><p>Even a relatively boring dungeon, where you enter and there is a corridor to the left and one to the right. If scouting (or even barging in) along the left finds undead, and the right finds kobolds, once the players know this they now have a meaningful decision to make at that fork in the road.</p><p></p><p>We can extend this to a hexcrawl. The interesting thing about exploration isn't counting rations the like, it is gathering information about the world, then using it to inform later decision making.</p><p></p><p>Exploration isn't about the traps, or the listen checks, or counting rations. It is about learning about the adventuring "area", gaining useful information, and being able to apply that to make meaningful decisions.</p><p></p><p>...</p><p></p><p>So how can we do this in a game?</p><p></p><p>Well, ye old graph is always an option. In the campaign I'm working on (tm), T2 is going to be Indiana-jones inspired. Information about a bunch of dungeons (ancient "doors" to pocket dimensions made long ago) to plunder and explore is available to the PCs.</p><p></p><p>Picking which Dungeon to seek, finding those dungeons, exploring those dungeons, and getting the MacGuffins in them before rival powers do is the plot.</p><p></p><p>This is exploration -- seeing the world, picking where to go, having your choices matter. It interacts with Social (What factions are the PCs allies with? Which rivals? Who are their friends and enemies?) and Combat (What creatures will they fight? How well will the fights go?) but is neither.</p><p></p><p>When a group decides <strong>what to explore</strong>, and there are consequences, that is the exploration pillar.</p><p></p><p>When a group walks down the one and only path and searches for traps, or has no way to know which path leads where, that is a sad exploration puddle.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="NotAYakk, post: 8371612, member: 72555"] For exploration to suck less, make it matter. In combat, what happens matters. Your characters live or die, foes escape or not. There is complex dependency between PC action and combat state. In social encounters, NPCs like or dislike your PCs. The boring exploration described, this doesn't seem to be happening. The "classic" D&D exploration was the dungeon. A dungeon is a series of rooms connected complex ways, with secret doors and short cuts, and what you see along one branch changes what happens or what you find in another. If the players are "blind" in the dungeon, then the decisions the players make -- left or right, up or down -- doesn't matter. If the players are not blind -- if information can be gained, and from that, decisions made -- then the decisions matter, and the decisions can make a story. Even a relatively boring dungeon, where you enter and there is a corridor to the left and one to the right. If scouting (or even barging in) along the left finds undead, and the right finds kobolds, once the players know this they now have a meaningful decision to make at that fork in the road. We can extend this to a hexcrawl. The interesting thing about exploration isn't counting rations the like, it is gathering information about the world, then using it to inform later decision making. Exploration isn't about the traps, or the listen checks, or counting rations. It is about learning about the adventuring "area", gaining useful information, and being able to apply that to make meaningful decisions. ... So how can we do this in a game? Well, ye old graph is always an option. In the campaign I'm working on (tm), T2 is going to be Indiana-jones inspired. Information about a bunch of dungeons (ancient "doors" to pocket dimensions made long ago) to plunder and explore is available to the PCs. Picking which Dungeon to seek, finding those dungeons, exploring those dungeons, and getting the MacGuffins in them before rival powers do is the plot. This is exploration -- seeing the world, picking where to go, having your choices matter. It interacts with Social (What factions are the PCs allies with? Which rivals? Who are their friends and enemies?) and Combat (What creatures will they fight? How well will the fights go?) but is neither. When a group decides [b]what to explore[/b], and there are consequences, that is the exploration pillar. When a group walks down the one and only path and searches for traps, or has no way to know which path leads where, that is a sad exploration puddle. [/QUOTE]
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