Dora Explore

[Lise Henton]

Wealso recognize patterns of three.

We count to three (or down from it) in races. Ready. Set Go.

We also quickly recognize three steps. Beginning. Middle. End.

We use it in storytelling. Inciting Incident. Complication or twist. Resolution.

As a GM, you can give your players the 3 steps, right at the beginning of the quest. The wizard quest-giver says to go to the location, and suggests you talk to an old adventurer that travelled there years ago. The party finds the old adventurer, who says that in order to get to the mountain, they first must cross the mile wide chasm (there is a sketchy but passable bridge), then travel uphill through the overgrown forest filled with fey, then climb the mountain pass until they reach the Cave of Doom.

If the party has this information upfront, it also gives them a general idea of the obstacles they might face, or the areas they might explore; just enough to whet their appetite for exploration and kick-start their imaginations into high gear.

What if the bridge is more rotted than expected, and even more dangerous to traverse? Is there another way through, or around? Is there something at the bottom of the chasm? What lives in it? What if a Roc moved in?

And what about the fey forest? What kinds of tricksters, sentient plants, or wild magic zones might they encounter? Will there be patches that feel like the Feywild, or others that like the Shadowfell? Bargains with fey, or battles with undead? And what kind of OLDER ruins might they find?

Whatever method or variations you choose, this is your structure. The overall goal is to traverse the three landmarks to reach the final destination. And what are the landmarks? Bridge. Forest. Mountain.

A dungeon has a very clear structure: Rooms with doors, traps, monsters, and treasure.

Combat has a very clear structure: Initiative, 6 second rounds, turns, actions, bonus actions, and reactions.

Travelling and exploration do not have a clear structure. How do I run travel and exploration? What overarching recipe do I plug my ingredients into?

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Hi, my name is Kimberly Wolf. you don't need to know the rest....As i am a mom, I am really careful of what my children watch. I have two little girls, Gabi is eight, and Josie is five. Before I had Josie, I banned Dora in my house. This might sound silly because you might be telling yourself, "Isn't Dora the Explorer supposed to be a kid's show?" Yes, Yes, it is, but I banned it from an experience I will never forget.

When Gabi was two years old. She usually liked Disney Junior, which had Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First, her two favorite shows. Almost every day though, she would turn to Nick Jr. and watch Dora when her favorite shows weren't on. Since she watched Dora on a daily basis, I probably thought she would like a Dora DVD. Since my husband was home and I wanted to be quick, I decided to go to Cumberland Farms. If you don't know about this chain, it Is weird

On December 24 2013, we had our Christmas party we have every year. When we opened our presents, Gabi got that Dora DVD I got for her. She thanked me for it. But she Do Not watch it until Christmas day.

So now Gabi had all her presents from Santa Claus opened. I think it was before dinner she watched it. She had her own DVD player for her TV, so I popped the DVD in the player and left her to watch it. When she came out of her room, she said, "Mommy, Daddy, Dora is scary, I don't wanna see her."

But I could see it in her eyes. She looked pale like snow, her eyes were very tired, her lips were dry, she looked exactly like she had a fever. I told her, "Do Not worry, Gabi. There is nothing to be scared about. Lay in bed and rest for a while." But there WAS something to be scared about, Dora's real life.

At 10:00 pm, It came to my conclusion to test the video, even though I considered smashing it into bits for a while. But anyway, I found a portable DVD player I got on eBay and put the DVD in there. But before I actually did, I examined the DVD. It was a DVD that you use to record things with or burn other videos on. "Why is this not a Dora DVD?" I whispered to myself. Anyway, I put it in the player.

The DVD started and showed the Paramount logo. The difference was, it had that fanfare instead of being silent, as the DVD logo was. I liked to hum the fanfare, so I did. But it seemed to get off key at the end. "Uh, that was creepy," I thought. Anyway, it had a Nick Jr. logo which made me jump. Guess what it was, the orange "Nick" beating the blue "Jr." mercilessly. Who in their dirty minds would do this? Did they think this, as in child abuse, was a joke?

The theme song started. It was the theme in the earlier episodes, but with many changes. The song sounded perfectly fine, but here are all the changes. The french doors were brown and opened with a creaking noise, the arts and crafts table had a sign saying,"No tengo a nadie con quien hablar, que me ayude (I have no one to talk to, help me)" the room was dimly lighted, the orange cushion was replaced with, some kind of dark shadow, and lastly the computer was an old white 1990s computer instead of a green one. The Dora computer game had nobody except Dora, which made me feel uneasy, then when it showed the logo, Dora looked depressed, she pretended to smile, but her eyes told everything, almost like the expression of someone about to hang his/herself.

The episode started with a text saying," Margarita Maza de Juarez, Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico" It featured an orange, the Mediterranean looking home, which I assumed was Dora's. It seemed rusty and boarded up, it had toys scattered all over. It zoomed into a front window that featured a messy bedroom with chipped wallpaper. The bed had an unkempt Dora with ratty hair. She woke up and said," Hola, soy Dora," then she pulled out a stuffed monkey resembling Boots and said, "And I'm Boots!" Boots was actually a stuffed animal?

Dora continued on," I need your help. Will you help me find something to do?........ You will? Come on, vmonos! Let's go!" Then after she got downstairs, she told her parents she was exploring, but they weren't answering. Dora just continued and said," I think I know where we can go Boots! Where? To the big city! But Dora, how do we get to the big city? Let's stop and think...Who do we ask for help, when we don't know which way to go?....... Say map! Say map!"

Dora pulled out a scribbled on piece of paper, and Dora imitated Map saying we have to cross the the troll bridge, go in the spooky forest, and then to the big city. Then as usual, "Map" told me to say it with him, just like regularly. Dora then repeated the destinations, and when she said vamanos, she also whispered," Seor, por favor aydame a cambiar este mundo , Amn (Lord, please help me change this world, Amen.)."

Dora walks for a few yards, then stops and asks where the troll bridge is, although there is no bridge in sight. She randomly goes a path and says gracias and vamanos. She sings her " Where are we going?" song while walking down a hill. She randomly stops and says,"We made it to the troll bridge!"

Then Dora asks where the spooky forest is, thank you, says vamanos, and then sings. This is when things get worse. The streets get more polluted and you can see more graffiti and gangs. Dora stops and says, "We made it to the spooky forest. Be careful, there can be spooky bats and witches!"

After that little strip of conflict, Dora said, "Me Siento tan solo , debera acabar con ella ? Qu es la vida? (I feel so alone, should I end it? What is life?)" She started to tear up and silently cry, while walking to the "big city". When she finally got to the big city, she was extremely worn out. Her eyes were red from crying, she had blisters on her knees from Swiper's attack, and her Boots doll was dirtier. She said in a depressed voice, "We made it to the big city. We did it..." Dora tried to sing her trademark "We did it" song, but miserably failed due to depression. She said, "What was your favorite part?......... I didn't like any parts." Dora then walks up to the screen and says, "I need to confess, your adventures with me... were never true. Boots was my stuffed animal all my life, the troll is a homeless man who begs for money, not riddles. Swiper is a man who wants to kill me, and all the others, were never real. I never had friends, I had to make up my own, so I found you guys. We did everything, until now. I can't explore with you guys anymore. I'm sorry. I couldn't have done it, making friends, without you. Thanks for helping."

The screen stays black for a while. I was about to eject the DVD until the screen faded white and read, "3 days later" It faded to a forest. It revealed to be that on one tree, you can clearly see a decayed Dora, with intestines dangled in a grotesquely real fashion, blue-colored fingers, gouged out eyes, and other disgustingly real features. The Boots doll was near the tree, he had many rips in his fabric and stuffing was popping out. A note on the tree read, "El Seor me ha salvado de esta mala muerte infierno de un lugar , que fue un suicidio. el suicidio es su escape. (The Lord has saved me from this bad death hell of a place, which was a suicide. Suicide is your escape.)"

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