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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MrMyth" data-source="post: 5429332" data-attributes="member: 61155">Hmm. Let's see what I can dig up.  DMG, pg 20: "Over the course of a session of D&D, the game shifts in and out of five basic modes—setup, exploration, conversation, encounter, and passing time. The five modes are also five different kinds of tasks or activities the characters engage in during their adventures." "In exploration mode, the characters move through the adventure setting, making decisions about their course and perhaps searching for traps, treasure, or clues. The game spends a lot of game time in exploration mode. It’s what usually fills the space between encounters. It usually ends when an encounter begins." "Describe the environment. Outline the options available to the characters by telling them where they are and what’s around them. ... Listen. Once you’re done describing the area, the players tell you what their characters want to do. ... Narrate the results of the characters’ actions." So, that seems to say that exploration is a big part of the game, and central to the process of players making the decisions on what their characters will do.  Now, on the next page, we do find the section you seem to be thinking of:  DMG, pg 21: "The game has a rhythm and flow, and the action in the game is interspersed with lulls. These lulls are like the places where a movie fades to black and comes up again with the understanding that some time has passed. Don’t give these situations any more time than the movies do. When a rest period passes uneventfully, tell the players that and move on. Don’t make the players spend time discussing which character cooks what for dinner (unless the kind of group you are playing with finds this useful for building characters). Gloss over the mundane, unexciting details and get back to the heroic action as quickly as possible." Hmm. That doesn't actually say to "simply summarize what happens between the encounters." It instead says that you can gloss over details like what is being cooked for dinner.  Note as well that it doesn't say that all rest periods pass without incident. Instead, when they are uneventful, it recommends skipping past them.  And it even has a disclaimer that you can include these details if it is a style the party enjoys.  In the end, there is a very big difference between "don't obsess over minute details" and "summarize and skip past everything that occurs out of combat."  I think the first, which the books actually says, is decent advice. I think the second is, indeed, something to avoid - and, fortunately, seems entirely absent from the 4E DMG.  If you've got an actual quote of where it says that, feel free to provide it, but I certainly don't see anything along those lines - and plenty of advice that is the exact opposite.</blockquote>

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