Expeditions

Everyone talks about dungeon crawling or narrative playing or whatever and to be honest I think a lot of RPGs just boil down to being expeditions.

An expedition into Chult. An expedition into Baravoia. An expedition into the Maze of the Blue Medusa. In and out of danger, carrying back treasure and scars, chasing threats and rescuing the good people and duking it out with bosses and then hauling that all back home. It's going into the dark continent but without all the racist vibes and coming back a changed person.

The expedition is also perfect for emergent storytelling. You never know what's going to go on just over the ridge. One more bend in Qelong's river and who knows what you'll find. Dive into the megadungeon and leave it again--dungeons are just another form of wilderness, really, even if they are mythic underworlds. Get some hirelings to go with you to help manage things. Bring your friends. Dodge traps, cults, enemy powers, and everything else in between. Eat poison berries. Find a random herd of aurochs. Discover a waterfall and behind it treasure hidden by someone or something.

Nothing for the City of the Dragon Wives this post. Just some interesting thoughts about how most games in the D&D sphere tend to play.