What is 'adventuring'

[Jack Spencer Jr]

The reasons for adventuring will be the same as why you adventure in any RPG, myriad and based upon what the GM and players have decided they want to do for the evening.

I pulled this quote from another thread because it got me thinking. What is an "adventure?" I'm more interested in collecting opinions at this point than responses or rebutal to those opinions.

To me, the term adventure is a misnomer. It suggests content that may or may not be present. "What the GM and players have decided they want to do for the evening" could be a straightforward romance or a My Dinner With Andre conversation. Nothing that could technically be called an "adventure." I think that D&D fantasy has effected RPGs a little deeper than I had originally thought. If D&D or some other form of Fantasy isn't used, then a game uses another genre that is part of the narrow "adventure" spectrum as if this is the only thing RPGs can do or are good at.

[Valamir]

Adventure:
1) Any rationale be it thin, convoluted, cliched, or completely nonsensical for going out and killing things to take their stuff.
2) The act of killing things and taking their stuff.
3) The process by which some entity either a) vastly more powerful than the party and capable of squashing it like a bug, or b) weaker than the party but possessing plot immunity order you to go out and kill things and take their stuff.

See also Adventurers: people who kill things and take their stuff often under the guise of glory, honor, or freedom.

Dinner at Andre's is an adventure, only if Andre winds up dead and someone walks out with the silverware.

[Kester Pelagius]

Greetings Jack,

Howdy everybody!

Let me just preface my comments to Mr. Spencer's questions by noting that what I meant by that is this:  I am a firm believer in giving the "GM" room to assert their creativity.  In fact most of the games I have GMed have been my own creations, which means I probably approach game creation with a certain bias.  Mainly assuming that most GMs would rather have a 'loose' set of idea starters rather than game premises set in stone.

Thus...

The reasons for adventuring will be the same as why you adventure in any RPG, myriad and based upon what the GM and players have decided they want to do for the evening.

I pulled this quote from another thread because it got me thinking. What is an "adventure?" I'm more interested in collecting opinions at this point than responses or rebutal to those opinions.

To go out and see what there is to see, to explore, meet the NPCs and interact with them, and otherwise frustrate the GM into reacting to what I, the player, wants to do.  ;)

It depends.  If there is a set goal then, obviously, the adventuring bit is what makes up the getting to that goal.  If there is no set goal, then the adventur bit is pretty much what I said in my flippant remark above.

To me, the term adventure is a misnomer. It suggests content that may or may not be present. "What the GM and players have decided they want to do for the evening" could be a straightforward romance or a My Dinner With Andre conversation.

Exactly.

And, to put this quote back into context, Crystal Spheres (the setting about which I was commenting) could quite literally allow for just this sort of thing.  Ergo: Whatever the players and GM come up with.

Nothing that could technically be called an "adventure." I think that D&D fantasy has effected RPGs a little deeper than I had originally thought. If D&D or some other form of Fantasy isn't used, then a game uses another genre that is part of the narrow "adventure" spectrum as if this is the only thing RPGs can do or are good at.

Hmm.

That statement is real food for thought.  I never really thought about it but, you know, I think you're right.

Why did I use the word 'adventure'?  *scratches head*

Was it really because of xD&D influence? True, the discussion had me thinking of campaigns past.  Most rooted in xD&D premises and. . .

Wow.  I suddenly feel old and anachronistic.


Kind Regards,

Kester Pelagius

[Mike Holmes]

Never underestimate the influence of D&D. Campaign, anyone, as a series of adventures?

Is it lost on anyone that these are both originally military terms?

Like the term Player Character, and Gamemaster, however, they have become jargon terms to mean things specific to RPGS.

And we all know intuitively what an adventure is from that standpoint. It means the coherent sum of all the planned action that's centered around one specific GM plot.

This is why Sorcerer does not mention adventures. In fact, Sorcerers might go off on some sort of adventure. But the implication of GM plot in the RPG context makes it unsuitable for Sorcerer.

Mike

[M. J. Young]

Ralph's humorous cynicism aside, I agree that "adventure" is not so good a word.

In the longest running D&D game in which I ran a player character, we never went on any "adventures" and never used that word. I wrote a journal several hundred pages long (typed single spaced), and doubt I used the word even once. My character was lawful, disciplined, and I suppose shrewd. He organized parties and went on ventures.

The difference? A venture, it seems, is an activity with a specific defined goal in which there may be risks. An adventure is more about the risks--going on an adventure seems to mean I'm going to go somewhere where something dangerous may happen to me, for that reason. My character was always ready for danger, but he earnestly hoped it wouldn't come. Whether it was to recover stolen property from a distant castle or return a princess to her family in the underdark or establish a trade route through dangerous territory, he was focused on a goal, not looking for excitement.

I knew a lot of characters who were adventurers. They came with mine because they hoped something dangerous would happen and they could feed their desire for thrill, and maybe get outrageously wealthy by accident in the process. I didn't invite them to come on adventures, and I never appealed to that sense of danger--I didn't even like these risk-seekers with me, but needed to have people with certain skills and they were the ones who were available.

Perhaps adventure is a good description of many such journeys after the fact. It could easily be said that most of the things my character did proved to be adventures. Before the fact, though, to say you're going on an adventure suggests that you're looking for trouble, hoping that the risks are going to be realized. Sure, there are people like that. Personally, I have trouble understanding them, despite years of white water canoeing and wilderness camping.

--M. J. Young

[Johannes]

Hmm...

It's very common to use the word adventure to denote any kind of PC activity or plot episode regardless of content which is quite funny. To me it has a bit more spesific meaning though.

By adventure (Finnish seikkailu) our group means a subplot which pulls the PCs out of the "flow" of the campaing. (our campaings tend not to be series of adventures in my sense) Adventure is a whole which is connected to the other campaing stuff only in the beginning and the end. Usually it has some kind of aristotelian arch also and problems presented in an adventure are expected to be solvable within the adventure.

Secondarily adventure also means some sort of physical threat and challenge to the PCs (classic adventure stuff) but that is not as important as the above criteria. We have social adventures and city adventures which do not present physical challenfges or danger.

Adventure modules are definetly adventures. It's a funny feeling that I get when my PC enters a tavern and then the GM looks something up in a adventure module: "Whoops! I slipped into a adventure." It is also interesting that I can usually tell from the in-game events which are part of the adventure and which are being made up by the GM. I expect that most players are quite good at this.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

Dinner at Andre's is an adventure, only if Andre winds up dead and someone walks out with the silverware.

Har! Har!

Actually, at one point in the flick, Andre & Wally get on the subject of relationships in the weird metaphysical sense most of their conversation. Andre notes how the more you learn about someone the less you know. He says that two people can have an "adventure" together there in the same room. I use quotes because he used the word.

I find this interesting. I agree with the fairly specific meaning of "adventure" in the RPG sense that has come about, but I'm starting to think that the word can have a broader meaning that found in RPG circles.

[Mike Holmes]

I find this interesting. I agree with the fairly specific meaning of "adventure" in the RPG sense that has come about, but I'm starting to think that the word can have a broader meaning that found in RPG circles.

Well, of course it can have a broader meaning. The definition of Jargon is a term used in a way that's different from it's common usage by a specific community to imply some technical meaning.

So as I've pointed out, in terms of RPGs Adventure means something very specific. As Johannes, says, you can feel when you've slipped into an Adventure. That's because it's a GM originated plot, and the signs will show.

But, of course, advanture has a larger meaning in everyday use. Basically as MJ points out, it refers to going to do something risky. As such, one could make a point by calling a conversation an Adventure. You risk baring yourself.

And if that risk is part of the GMs plot, then it can be an RPG adventure as well.

Not one I want to play, but still...

Mike

[Kester Pelagius]

Greetings,

As I was re-reading the posts here something struck me that I never really thought about before.

"Adventure"

It's a genre label unto itself!

And, the more that I think about it, the term "city adventure" does not really properly explain what's gone on in most of the campaigns I've been in where play shifted from dungeon crawls and wilderness explorations to the machinations of city life, ripe with hedge-wizards, intra guild politics, and dealing with money changers.

I'm not sure what else it could be called, aside from 'boring' to those that weren't involved at the time.  Though there must be a more. . . neutral? . . . term that could be used.  Save maybe 'experience', yet we can't really use that either.


Kind Regards,

Kester Pelagius

[JMendes]

Hey, there, :)

I'd like to point out that the group of people I play with have generally abandoned the term 'adventure' in favor of the more generic 'scenario'.

Cheers,

J.

[Johannes]

Hey, there, :)
I'd like to point out that the group of people I play with have generally abandoned the term 'adventure' in favor of the more generic 'scenario'.

Our group uses that term also but for us it doesn't mean the same as adventure. Basicly scenario (for us) is the (static) begining configuration of fictional elements: characters, situation, setting and the realtionships between them.

Adventure is scenario in motion. When a scenario is played it becomes an adventure.