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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mrpopstar" data-source="post: 8373030" data-attributes="member: 25352">I don't approach threaded discussion like I'm in combat with my fellow posters. You said the game is like X because of the Dungeon Master and the players want Y. I said that is largely dependent upon the DM. ?This is where my eyes start glazing over. Once we start discussing "praxis," and "player agency over the state of the fiction," and "neo-traditional play," I just don't know how to proceed.Dungeons & Dragons is produced by a toy company. It's a game. I approach it with the same level of simplistic joy that I approach Hasbro's other properties: My Little Pony, Monopoly, etc.I receive a lot of flack for that in this community and I really don't know why.I place a lot of emphasis on the simple tools for personality and background in the Player's Handbook, and on the simple tools for social interaction in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Those tools give social interaction a lot of concrete structure. Players can approach roleplay descriptively or actively, but it's clear to everyone what's happening and what they're trying to achieve with that aspect of the game.The tools for exploration are the same. They're simple, easy, straightforward, not overthought.Dungeon Masters are free to dismiss the concrete tools provided in either pillar, because they require "good roleplay," or because they require meticulous levels of detail without relying on using ability scores, but those are deviations from the rules of the game. I'm not saying those things are wrong, but they're different than how the rules teach us to play the game.But it's okay for players to use the hammers provided in any given pillar. Using their ability scores, traits, features, and capabilities is welcome and expected.I thought the premise of this thread was "why exploration is the worst pillar." My contributions here have mostly been clarifications on how the concrete structures of the pillar work.Nobody said anything was invalid.</blockquote>

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