>>47219254

Searching quests?

>>47219254
next session they'll arrive at a town, and a course of action won't be clear to them. There will be a number of sidequests available for them to find - monster in the woods eating hunters, haunted mansion on the hill, strange noises coming from the well- that sort of thing

don't shove these things in their faces, let them find it somewhat organically. They'll not doubt go to the local inn, so have people in there gossiping about how they swear they saw a ghost in the old estate up the hill, etc

maybe an shopkeep asks them to collect some monster components, and what do you know, those components can be obtained from the same creatures that are infesting the well (there is also a reward for clearing them out)

it's ez to set this stuff up, problem is your players finding it and stuff. My players need me to hit them over the fucking head with something before they'll decide to go check out the mansion.

Give them an incentive, resources for their army or arcane secrets to discover.

>>47221426
>my players need me to hit them over the fucking head with something before they'll decide to go check out the mansion.

If I had a dollar for every time I've had this happen to me... Is it just that players hate looking, or are we as GMs failing to make these quests obvious enough to them?

>>47219254

Exploration is a large part of resource gain. Information gain is a large part of it, as you can't hit up a bounty board or tavern to find an adventure seed. This will have to be gleaned from observation, inference, and study (or, if you go the Humboldt route, ask the locals about the environment, which is sadly a revolutionary idea in science).

Resource gain is a lot different, because goods and services readily available in civilization have to be imported or have difficulty being manufactured, and then there's import times and shipping costs tacked on.

However, there's a lot of rewards. Cartography is perhaps the most obvious, maps will be bought for rather ridiculous sums of money so other explorers can follow the trail. Not only that, but prospecting is HUGE. Iron veins, new timber sources, gold, silver, freshwater, furs... Any conceivable resource that's a raw good for civilization is a potential resource for money. The more valuable or readily available, the better, since harder to gather resources would be left by the wayside because of the cost.

After that, it's pure information and scientific study. New types of crops, new animals, new materials. New medicinal plants like aloe vera, things like rubber trees, sugar, silk... You find new stuff with new properties and people will be clamoring to get their hands on it for new stuff, and even that opens up new possibilities for goods and services.

Basically, you find stuff, record, research, catalogue, and then sell that to the old world for mad dosh. Employers might have different focuses and incentivise looking for one thing to the exclusion to another.

>>47219254
Give your players a blank map, or one where the area they're in just says "Here there be monsters"

Players can't resist a blank map. They have a nearly compulsive need to find out everything they can about the world they're playing in. If you dump them in an unexplored area, they'll explore it.

>>47221426
>problem is your players finding it and stuff. My players need me to hit them over the fucking head with something before they'll decide to go check out the mansion.

It's actually quite interesting how this happens and I really don't know the proper mix between railroading and freeform to let them find it organically. The problem is, most players are so used to their DMs delivering things to them that if the DM doesn't explicitly say something is there, the players will assume it doesn't exist. Pretty much the only thing players will assume exists in a town is the inn and that's about it, so all of your quests have to start in an inn.

I've gotten around this problem a little by drawing a map of every single town they go to and then showing it to them upon arrival. Then they'll go "oh there's a blacksmith, let's go there" or "ooh a temple, let's check that out."

>>47222480
I think it's the former, but I'm a GM.

In my experience, players hate anything that involves in universe thinking. Or, put another way, having to imagine things from the point of view of their characters, then think through what would be logical in universe hurts their brains.

I personally choose to believe that it's because GMs are the superior master race, but I know there's other theories out there.

>>47219254
Treasure maps.
Inaccurate treasure maps.

>>47219254
Play Ryuutama.

>>47222235

This.

Discovery:

If the GM isn't dull as dishwater this alone will interest all but the most abject of murderhobos.

>>47222836
>Give your players a blank map, or one where the area they're in just says "Here there be monsters"

And do it literally - let THEM draw the map as they explore.
And stick to what they draw. They draw the evil swamp way too close to the village of Happysburg? fuck it, that's where the swamp is now.

>>47225540
Seconded.
Came here to post exactly that.

>>47227520
Bump.

Play Cypher system.

>>47219254
>exploration a central corner stone of your game

>central corner stone

Nitpicking aside, have an overworld map and let the players know they don't have hard deadlines for the main quests. So they have as much time as they want to screw around side-questing or poking around a swamp somewhere.

>>47219254
Create a stealth campaign where the characters need a high dex. Everyone must be an assassin or a thief of some kind. Have fun.

>>47227520

Dungeon world does this, and it's frankly a great way to get them invested in what they're exploring. Let them fill in a few facts about it, maybe a legend, a brief description, maybe some menacing fact, and suddenly the lines they've put on the board have depth for them to explore.

Also, creating a relationship between different points is something. Maybe the relationship between Happysburg and Evil Swamp isn't so coincidental. Maybe the Evil Swamp is evil for the same reason that Happysburg is happy.