Jul 25, 2024 1:52 pm
Hi everyone. I think I've brought this up before, but it was centered around how to run dungeon crawls in PbP. I've learned that, generally, they are not popular in PbP based on how slow they are due to the high amount of back and forth required. However, this makes me wonder, how do you make the exploration pillar of fantasy TTRPGs like D&D and Pathfinder and such engaging if exploration is inherently very back and forth as exploration requires a lot of description and tends to result in lots of questions?
Here are some ways I run exploration without using dungeon crawls, but not sure how good they are either:
Skill Challenge. In short, the party is given a task that would take longer than one or two skill checks, like navigating a dense forest, escaping an avalanche, making a good impression at a party, etc. Everyone takes turns using skills and maybe some spells to rack up successes before getting 3 failures, with 3 failures either resulting in what the party wants but at a large cost or in grave danger.
Complex Traps. As the party gets to where they want to go, they find themselves in an area where, with or without magic, a trap was set up that must be either dealt with or escaped from. These can feel like combat, but with more skills at play (though sometimes smashing something is an answer).
High Level Dungeons. Like the dungeon crawl, but far less granular. The party is given all of the information they could find without skill checks about the current dungeon or dungeon area and then asked which elements they would like to engage with. As they do, they find more information or get more things to interact with. it can be seen as a giant puzzle of sorts that expands as the players interact until they find the exit that leads to the boss or escape they were looking for.
What do you think of the above exploration ideas? Have you used any that work well on websites like this?
Here are some ways I run exploration without using dungeon crawls, but not sure how good they are either:
Skill Challenge. In short, the party is given a task that would take longer than one or two skill checks, like navigating a dense forest, escaping an avalanche, making a good impression at a party, etc. Everyone takes turns using skills and maybe some spells to rack up successes before getting 3 failures, with 3 failures either resulting in what the party wants but at a large cost or in grave danger.
Complex Traps. As the party gets to where they want to go, they find themselves in an area where, with or without magic, a trap was set up that must be either dealt with or escaped from. These can feel like combat, but with more skills at play (though sometimes smashing something is an answer).
High Level Dungeons. Like the dungeon crawl, but far less granular. The party is given all of the information they could find without skill checks about the current dungeon or dungeon area and then asked which elements they would like to engage with. As they do, they find more information or get more things to interact with. it can be seen as a giant puzzle of sorts that expands as the players interact until they find the exit that leads to the boss or escape they were looking for.
What do you think of the above exploration ideas? Have you used any that work well on websites like this?
Last edited July 25, 2024 1:54 pm