Playing for Discovery

Since I have a page up on spiritual matters, I figure my first proper post can feature gaming content. I haven't played much in the OSR, but I have been reading in and around the scene for more than a decade. It's generally invigorating to me and has been a counterpoint to the story games and traditional assumptions that I have played under when I play with friends.

Lately, I have been reading more intensely because the way the OSR often treats exploration dovetails with how I want to center exploration and discovery in my games. Exploration of places, definitely, but also the exploration of people and communities. It's no surprise, I'm sure, that I have been so excited to stumble on Anne's now hoary and classic articulation of the landmark-hidden-secret framework for dungeon design as well as Amanda P's not quite so hoary discussion of its application to characters.

(I won't summarize either post; they are so clear in themselves!

I find it a little easier to think about the application of landmark-hidden-secret distinctions to characters if I describe it as a distinction between portrait-private-secret information. I will probably use those terms if I talk about the "how to run" side of this for me.)

I have seen a lot of discussion of this on the module writing and running side of things, but not so much for players. I know for many of the people I have played with, the intuitions that guide landmark-hidden-secret design are counter to their own. How would I help prepare them to play a game with different sorts of intuitions than their own? (if you know of discussions and texts I am missing out on in this regard, let me know! I read around a lot but I am not really "in the scene.").

I have been toying with "how to play" advice from an imaginary rule book and come up with something like this:

As a player, use your character to explore and interact with the world in which your character finds themself. How you explore shapes what and who you encounter; the degree of danger, wonder, and hospitality you face; and how likely you are to overcome or succumb to challenges.

The person running the game will provide you with descriptions of characters and places. You can ask for more information based on what your character's senses and background provide but exploring the places and interacting with the characters will be the primary means to learn more about them. When you do this, tell the person running the game what your character is doing to learn more. That could be running your fingers over an oddly stained book to get better sense of what caused the staining as easily as it could be getting on your horse and riding over to the next town to learn whether a rumor about it is true or not.

The person running the game will provide more about details and interactions that you can respond to. Sometimes your actions have surprising results that may directly impact your character, like becoming poisoned because the stains were left by a poisonous ooze. Sometimes the person running the game will tell you that your actions have triggered a situation that will require you to roll dice to determine its outcome.

(Don't worry about when to roll dice; the person running the game will tell you when you need to roll them. Focus on your character's situation and explore it.)

Maybe that would set the expectations properly?