Exploration vs. Discovery: Rethinking the Third Pillar of D&D

[@Lurklen]

An interesting note. There is a rule system for Social that people always forget about. Persuasion is not meant to actually get someone to do things for you, or act like a pass/fail ability, it's meant to move them on the axis of disposition. Basically: Opposed, Indifferent, Friendly (with a few degrees in between). The method to aid in this involves Insight checks to detect what motivates the NPC, literally what their Personality traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws are. Having this knowledge is meant to act as triggers, or leverage that PC's can use to trigger Intimidation and/or Persuasion (or other checks) to push or pull an NPC towards or away from a level of disposition, and each of the dispositions clarify the kind of behaviors and treatment a creature will render towards the PC's. Notably, as one of the skills requires high Wisdom, and other skills high Charisma, but any stat can be used with any skill in the right context, this pattern of mechanical operation is meant to preclude "Face" characters from soloing all the social encounters, as they have to rely on more perceptive and insightful characters to give them the info they need to trigger the application of their Cha based skills. This is all in the DMG, and it's largely DM facing because the DM is in charge of calling for rolls, and of moving dispositions. It's also almost never used because players don't know about it, and DM's forget about it, if they even read the DMG. On topic, sometimes substituting a name for something helps one push aside the cobwebs of word association bias, and actually see the real meaning the name is trying to evoke. Exploration means maps and overworld to a lot of people. They might have done a better job with Discovery, or Interaction, or Environment. Conflict, Communication, and Interaction seem like better pillar names.

[@kori228]

good rewording, Interaction/Discovery is a good term

[@Lurklen]

@@kori228 Thanks. Discovery feels fantasy and adventurous enough to work, but interaction feels more accurate to what you spend the most time doing (so much of D&D is just poking at stuff and seeing what it does). But's easy to say in hindsight I guess, lol.

[@danielbeshers1689]

I think the very first Dimension 20 campaign is also a great example of making use of the "Forgotten Pillar." Realistically, almost all of the social and combat play in Fantasy High were made in support of that game's exploration play: gathering and deciphering clues about what was *really* going on.

[@Bravebear333]

Exploration is a tool to establish setting and story for me. How can I engage the players with truly meaningful choices if I don't deliver them information about what those choices mean? Exploration defines structure of the adventure in many ways. I can just give my players bunch of red buttons to press, make them really curious about those buttons and they will press them triggering some scenarios. Players don't know everything, but some NPC may know or they can go to the library (which is closed for non guild members, so go complete your quests).

[@SupergeekMike]

That’s a good way to put it!

[@ZarHakkar]

It took your video for me to realize this, but Exploration/Discovery is easily my favorite aspect of the game both as a player and the DM.

[@manueltorresart2345]

Congrats on getting a new sponsor.

[@SupergeekMike]

Thank you!

[@thebilbyguy]

Tree Stride! Haha, I laugh every time someone calls it that instead of Transport via Plants. The name is just so much more intuitive than its real one, and how many people even ever use the actual Tree Stride spell? Sorry to start off-topic. I suppose I inherently perceive the purpose of exploration to be discovery, so I never really thought of having to re-frame the perception of the activity in my games. I do wonder how my players will think of it, though. I may try out using it in my phrasing more often as they are about to explore a new region they have visited only briefly before, so it is familiar but mostly a mystery.

[@UnkillableMrStake]

Yay time for the best part of Monday!

[@bristowski]

This is a good channel. I like Mike.

[@MorningDusk7734]

I partially split my custom DM screen by these pillars, having one panel be for things I may need in social interactions (i.e. prices, names, etc.), one panel be things I need in exploratory situations (i.e. travel distances, stealth rules, trap damage), and one panel be things I need for combat (concentration rules, fall damage, etc.). I keep the last panel for player stats.

[@mathieu754]

5:50 *making their way !*

[@kelpiekit4002]

I feel there is another pillar too: Creation. Obviously the DM gets to do it a lot with all the aspects of worldbuilding, but what about when the players shape a side business or describe what they are wearing to a party. It's in combat when a fighter turns an attack action into "narrowly dodging his last attack I knock his foot with mine causing him to fall against my blade and gouge his side". It happens when a player character in the Ravenloft setting asks to capture some of the mist in a jar because it might help against Strad, even though nothing has said it should. When planning combat, social, and discovery it can be good to think what space or opportunity am I giving my players to create.

[@SupergeekMike]

How much do you lean on the Exploration pillar in your own games? Thanks so much to WorldAnvil for sponsoring this video! Visit www.worldanvil.com/supergeekmike and use the promo code SUPERGEEK to get 40% off any annual membership! www.worldanvil.com/supergeekmike

[@TheAciddragon069]

when my players are traveling i use a semi "hex crawl" system if they want to fast travel they can go 3 squares a day (each square is 8 miles) or if they wish to investigate a square thoroughly then they move 1 square and make multiple survival, perception, and investigation checks and with success they find crafting materials (i built an insane crafting system complete with ingredient tables), ruins, bandit camps, random beast encounters, random travelers or other people like hunters, fishermen, alchemists ect. it encourages them to actually travel even at high levels when they have fast travel spells because they fear missing cool stuff unless it's a path they have already worn out

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

I love exploration=discovery. Either discovering the wilderness, discovering the dragon’s lair, discovering the dungeon, discovering new planes, etc. Exploration doesn’t need to mean wilderness survival, though that is fun for me.

[@koticneutralftw7016]

Nah, the exploration pillar in Helm's Deep is met by helping Hadhod find the Hammer of Helm Hammer-hand. 3rd-age mithril war-hammer. It'll pretty much carry him through to the end game.

[@lkriticos7619]

Honestly I think exploration is the area I struggle with the least. But I also built the campaign around it and my players knew that going in. They're exploring a set of islands that are originally from another plane and there are points they've discovered for going back and forth between the island on the material plane and the other version (a plane of time). They're still relatively low level but I think the exploration is actually just gonna ramp up as they get more powerful. Once they can teleport back to the main land they'll be able to interact with plots to effect the plane more effectively and look into parts of the mainland where those plots are being hatched. I'm looking forward to seeing where they go with it and how they approach the areas and the problems once they have new solutions to hand.

[@ulrichherrndorf8486]

No 😂😂😊😂

[@armorclasshero2103]

So... Investigation?

[@mattewald9378]

THE WILDERNESS MUST BE EXPLORED!!

[@geoffdewitt6845]

MORE STRUCTURE! MOAAAAR!!!

[@Keaggan]

Some interesting ways to look at this. Presentation goes a long way to player engagement. I will say the "three pillars" ate marketing jargon that have n real basis in RPG. Not that we can't find ways to cram that square peg in the round hole but the concept and teaching of it needs to be dumped into a volcano ASAP.

[@ojphoenix7]

What an amazing shift in perspective that is!

[@liizumi3337]

Oh, I like this reframing. It makes a lot of sense!

[@Forveez]

1. Any chance you'll be making a video(s) on the changes coming with One D&D? 2. Great video, keep up the good work!

[@SupergeekMike]

Thank you so much! I definitely will make something at some point, but I tend to work far ahead (I’ve already filmed all my videos for September) because it makes it easier for me to write professional-style subtitles. I’m also still traveling for a family matter AND I’m about to move house when I get back, so I probably won’t even get a chance to submit feedback on this packet lol. But I definitely will make something related to it when I next get a chance to film - it’s a huge deal and I’m very happy with the broad strokes of their approach to One D&D (although I certainly have notes based on what I’ve gathered about the packet so far).