Exploration Matters

It's likely you're here because of the Essential Ranger. That's great! But if you've wandered here for other reasons, that's great too: We welcome all those who wander - and explore!

So, first posts are about introductions and, since I'm all about great stories, let me tell you a bit of a story about myself. I'm The Itinerant Bastard, "Tib" for short, and this story is a simple one called, "Why Tib Plays Roleplaying Games". It's my mission statement of sorts and, if successful, it tells you why you're here: You're also all about great stories - together, we're going to make each other even better at telling them.

Appropriately enough, we begin my story with someone else's to illustrate and elevate my own: A brilliant scene in Stranger Things Season 4, Episode 1, in which a game of Dungeons & Dragons is contrasted with one of basketball. It's a four minute segment which feels like a short film. It ends triumphantly when, after the fall of the Cult of Vecna, our Dungeon Master, Eddie Munson, declares,

It's wonderfully played and makes me grin every time I watch it. It reminds me of my first game of D&D (1e): I was maybe 6 years old, a barely literate tag-along to my older brother and his friends. I was a bard, with no understanding of what that meant. We killed a god, and that I absolutely understood.

We were ordinary kids but we did something extraordinary: Together, we told a great story. It remains a core memory for me today, a happy one to which I frequently return when I need to escape the other ones.

So I roleplay to escape, sure, but it's much more than just escapism. Roleplaying games offer something utterly unique against any other hobby. They are unqualifiable and unquantifiable, the details of why highly specific to each individual.

Part of my utterly unique, highly specific why for playing is my love for exploring. When I explore, whether it’s a trail in the deep woods or at the game table, my imagination is constantly active. I love sharing that imagination, and the joy I experience when players explore with me, discover, and create the extraordinary where they least expect it, that joy is my takeaway when the game ends.

Don't worry, I'm not going to wax poetic about that why thing any longer, try and answer it, or make a big ol' list of  great things about roleplaying games. It’s been done, and the truth is I don't think there's one answer, and that in itself is the answer.

The best roleplaying sessions stick with us for the rest of our lives, and they're better than any movie or television show because we're the ones wielding sword and spell against The Cult of Vecna; we're those who live to tell the tale.

We're bards killing gods.

But when we play, there's a whole world beyond statblocks, combat, and even roleplaying, a world of pure imagination (video). And here's where we return to that mission statement I mentioned above, the why of you joining my Patreon to see where this adventure takes us.

(In journalism, this is called "burying the lede". So let's dig!)

D&D defines what it calls the "Exploration Pillar" as follows:

A lot has been written about the Exploration Pillar, often regarding how thin that pillar is compared to the "Combat Pillar" and "Social Pillar", how it’s ill-defined or even forgotten.

I'm not here to tell you how to use the Exploration Pillar.

I'm here to show you.

I approach roleplaying games much like one might direct a film: Combat, Conflict, and the Rules therein are the scripts we are given that guide a performance; Roleplaying is the performance itself as improvisational actors bring scripts to life; Exploration is everything else: It's the costume design (video); set design (article) and set decoration (article); cinematography (article); music (article), sound design (video), and the art of foley** (video); and it's all the little things, the secrets and Easter eggs (article) hidden for us to discover and delight upon.

* "Paul Thomas Anderson is widely considered one of the medium’s greatest living directors. He is famous for being improvisational and working on shots and scenes at the moment, waiting to see what the context of the day’s shooting will bring to the work." - Sounds a great deal like a GM and an RPG, doesn't it?

** We'll return to the art of foley in an upcoming article about how understanding sound in film will improve your descriptions and, in turn, help you tell better stories.

In short, the Exploration Pillar is overflowing with magic waiting to be revealed. It's a vivid backdrop that gives games life by uniting Combat and Conflict with Roleplaying to tell a great story. Without a rich Exploration Pillar we're effectively playing in front of a green screen (video), with cardboard props in our pajamas and Crocs.

("Props & Crocs" sounds kinda fun, actually, but I digress!)

So let's talk about how this translates to "content". That's why you're here, isn't it?

For GMs, my content (adventures and the like) provides Exploration in detail so that, in-game, conveying it to your players feels natural, fun, and evocative, maybe even "easy". I want you and your players to remember the places you've been and the treasures you've won just as much (or more!) as battles fought, villains vanquished, and lovers scorned or won (or both) along the way.

For players, I think you'll find plenty here of interest even if you're a Never-GM. Whether it's new character options like the Essential Ranger, different ways to approach roleplaying, or just a fun forum to discuss the games you love, make yourself at home.

You can expect timeless themes that work for most any game; visceral plotting that maintains verisimilitude*; deep characters and motivated minions with lives beyond the antagonists or protagonists whom they serve. Nothing is just a statblock or a gold piece value, everything exists to be explored. Items matter. Rooms matter, even empty ones. Every creature has a story, and every story hints to the next.

(* One of my favorite words, "verisimilitude". Things have to make sense!)

And to be clear, even when I'm writing articles - an act of telling - I still aim to show as much as possible: My thought process, inspirations and examples from media, design diaries, and I'll always offer you something you can take away to use in your games.

In return, I’m sure you’ll show me a thing or two I’ll use in mine.

When we focus on Exploration, players pay attention to the little things perhaps more than we realize. It's the little things that drive imagination and give games life beyond pen, paper, and all the GM prep in the world. We learn that orcs who wear their treasure as gold and silver coins with holes drilled through, each strung between bones and teeth on gauche necklaces, don't need to serve any plot. They just are, their purpose is to be extraordinary in and of themselves, present, intimate, and alive, with stories and secrets perhaps worth exploring, or perhaps not.

That will be up to the players in your game, of course. Perhaps they negotiate with extreme prejudice and those orcs die like any other. But their coins with holes drilled through? Don't be surprised if they never get spent, and at least one of the players at your table has "orc coins with holes in them" written in the margin of their character sheet, or under "Notes" with the important stuff, never to see an eraser.

To that player the orcs and their coins weren't just a throwaway bit of color, they were an important part of a great story to be remembered when things aren’t so great.

It's why Exploration matters. When we explore, the reasons why each player joins us at the table are more readily revealed. Each makes their own contributions, and each takes with them something unique when the game ends. Exploration matters because we're not telling just one story. We're telling each player’s story, ones unique to them and why they play. So...

Great stories - Together.

That's why we play.