I'm DMing using the 5E Starter Kit and, after DMing the first few encounters, the players aren't exploring the environment sufficiently to learn all the actions they can take. Before our next session I plan to explain the nature of exploration in TTRPGs and that they can and should actively search their environment at regular intervals, but I'm not sure such a lecture will stick.
I've 5 players. Two are experienced PC gamers, and one of those plays RPGs predominantly. Two others have minor gaming experience on consoles (mostly casual), and one hasn't played much of anything beyond the occasional boardgame.
During the session, short of just telling them what to do or exposing an environments' secrets, is there a good way to prompt the players to ask questions about their surroundings?
Best Answer
Give them a reason to explore
You are most likely correct that a mini-lecture on the benefits of exploring in game will not get your players to explore more (and may annoy them, as well). You telling them that exploring is a good thing will never be as good as them realizing that they need to explore on their own. But what you can do is provide opportunities.
Think about the reasons that exploring is important to a fun, successful game, and then make those reasons super-obvious in front of your players. Some examples:
Exploring reveals nifty loot: When the players are fighting in a dungeon, have one of the adversaries pull a weapon or other equipment out of that chest that the players are supposed to search.
Exploring saves your neck: Spring traps on your players. At the beginning, avoid causing serious harm, because you don't want to run the risk of seeming adversarial and making your players resent you for it. But once it's known that traps are a thing to watch out for, it's your players' fault for not keeping an eye out.
Exploring reveals story: Plant clues in the dungeon. This one is a little more difficult to signpost. Maybe the players stumble upon the Evil Lieutenant packing up some plans into his desk. Maybe the Old Man in the Tavern literally tells the players they should be looking for something in the ruins.
This advice may or may not mesh perfectly into the published adventure you're running. Don't be afraid to tweak the details of the adventure to suit your purposes at the table, though. If that means adding some things into the environments for the players to find, go for it. If it means installing some extra traps, go for it. Pretty soon, you'll find them checking for secret doors in every room, and spending ten minutes disassembling all of the furniture when no one's looking.
My group uses a private Google+ community to organise the games, and G+ alongside Roll20 to play the games. We play entirely online on a weekly basis, mainly because we're all about the same age and have small children and families, so it's difficult to get together for a face to face game.
For D&D 5th Ed you're pretty spoiled for choice, but when it all boils down the best two options are this:
Roll20, either in conjunction with G+ or on it's own. You can create an account and run your campaign through it for free, and the biggest pro (in my opinion) was the ease of use when it integrates with G+. Most everyone has a google account these days, so they also have a G+ account whether they know it or not. Once you've created your game in Roll20, you can choose to launch it in a g+ hangout.
Once you've done that for the first time, whenever you launch a G+ hangout the Roll20 app will be present, and you can launch it and select your campaign from within the hangout. Running the game each week becomes as simple as scheduling a G+ hangout event and showing up - the players don't even need Roll20 accounts, they just click the hangout invite link and game on. The D&D 5e character sheet for Roll20 seems pretty excellent too, with some dice rolling automation built into it. We're taking it for a test run soon hopefully.
The other main option right now, though it can get pricy, is Fantasy Grounds. It's not as simple for the players as Roll20 (which is, as i've said, just a link click), but if they're willing to install the program (available on Steam now as well), Fantasy Grounds is now the official online tool for D&D 5th, in partnership with Wizards of the Coast. It has excellent integration with the rules system and character sheets, as well as supporting hero lab. Some friends of mine swear by it, though it is a bit more complicated to get set up and running.
Both solutions support full voice, and I know Roll20 supports full video both in the app itself and through hangouts, as well as an online tabletop for maps, images, handouts and whatever else you like. This made it a lot easier for us to retain that "social tabletop" feeling, despite playing entirely remote. Using a large enough screen and a good set of speakers and microphone, you could play partial remote (with only a few players remote) or even with everyone in the room and disabling the voice and video altogether if you wanted.
Either way, if you do plan on getting in to running your games online through virtual tabletops, Google+ is your friend! There is a massive community of people there who will be more than happy to lend any assistance required.
Set up a session where you can show them the concepts and be explicit about what you are doing:
This is a short session to show you what D&D is like, to see if you like it and want to play more. We will have four encounters and to make it easy for you I'm going to tell you now that you deal with them this way: role-playing, combat, exploration and combat. These are the character sheets, don't worry about what the numbers mean: I'll tell you when you get to them. I will also show you how taking a "short rest" works just before the last combat.
You then run a session where a guy gives them a job (role-playing) to track down the goblins (combat) who are in a small cave complex (with a trap or two) (exploration) and at then end of that is, I don't know, some skeletons because its a tomb (combat). Make sure you ham up the role-playing part.
You then show them how each of these parts work - emphasising the flow of the game (DM narrates -> Players decide what they want to do -> DM tells results). Suggest options as to what they could do:
Jim, you are playing a big strong barbarian - you are best when you get in close and hit things with your axe. You can do this thing called "raging" but only once a day which allows you to hit harder and take less damage when you get hit. Remember, I gave you a heads up that there will only be two combats today so you can do it now or later but not both. Normally you wouldn't know that. Do you want to rage now?
When you call for a die roll from the players or make one yourself explain what you are doing and how the mechanics work:
This goblin is shooting at your rogue with his bow. The range is 70 feet which is further than short range for a short bow so he makes the shot with disadvantage so I will roll 2 dice and take the worst [roll]: a 7 and a 16 so we take the 7. The goblin's attack bonus is +4 so the 7 becomes an 11. Your armour class here [point] is 14 so that is a miss: the arrow falls short hitting the ground at your feet: if you had been closer it would have hit you in the chest because 16+4 is 20 which is more than your AC.
Best Answer
Give them a reason to explore
You are most likely correct that a mini-lecture on the benefits of exploring in game will not get your players to explore more (and may annoy them, as well). You telling them that exploring is a good thing will never be as good as them realizing that they need to explore on their own. But what you can do is provide opportunities.
Think about the reasons that exploring is important to a fun, successful game, and then make those reasons super-obvious in front of your players. Some examples:
This advice may or may not mesh perfectly into the published adventure you're running. Don't be afraid to tweak the details of the adventure to suit your purposes at the table, though. If that means adding some things into the environments for the players to find, go for it. If it means installing some extra traps, go for it. Pretty soon, you'll find them checking for secret doors in every room, and spending ten minutes disassembling all of the furniture when no one's looking.