I am looking for ways to improve my exploration gameplay in a Theater of the Mind type game where there is no map and no need for detailed environmental descriptions, if that makes sense; I don't want to have to keep track of corridors and turns, and that sort of thing.
Ideally I would like a system or ruleset that allows me to randomly generate interesting exploration gameplay without relying on having to map out everything. Preferably system agnostic so I can use it in various games.
Here's an example of the sort of thing I'm looking for, but would like to see alternatives that are a bit more in depth, or have more options:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11ZsTOh40-sMvukWXMtDOP5hli_DdYm2HtmMXL5ooa00/mobilebasic
Maybe thinking about the exploration in your game as a point crawl could serve you well.
Think up a bunch of interesting locations and encounters for your players to experience, then for each encounter/location roll 1d4-1, that is how many other encounters it links to, randomly pick from your other encounters/locations for each link.
For how to generate the encounters/locations there are many tool sets to draw ideas from. Books like the Tome of Adventure Design, Worlds Without Number, Knave, Shadowdark, etc. Online tools from don jon, hexroll, or others.
Let me know if you would like other specific recommendations and happy gaming!
...cubicle 7's uncharted journeys does exactly what you're describing: it abstracts the exploration pillar into a series of encounter vignettes driven by characters assuming leader / outrider / quartermaster / sentry roles to engage the system mechanics...
...while it absolutely can be adapted to old-fashioned hex-crawl resource management, uncharted journeys is written to support exploration as a theatre-of-the-mind montage sequence, accounting for preparation + decision-making with tangible consequences upon reaching a journey's end...
...it's good stuff!..