Bacon Bits
Hero
Ugh, the Quantum Ogre.
If the party didn't know about the ogre, or wasn't choosing a path in order to avoid the ogre or encounters in general, or their route doesn't make the placement of the ogre nonsensical, then the placement of the ogre doesn't violate their choice or agency.
The Quantum Ogre has the problem that it logically extends to the idea that the only campaign that does not engage in badwrongfun illusionism is one in which every single location, trap, and monster is placed before characters are generated. We overlook this because the QO presents the choice very close to the encounter, but in its simplicity it provides no guardrails against extending the separation.
I feel the Quantum Ogre is a poor, overly simplistic frame for a discussion around a nuanced topic.
This matches my feelings very well. It also matches my objections to people who object to die roll fudging well, too.
I don't see anything sacred about what I do when I prep for the night that suggests that the choices I made in the past should override what I've learned in the meantime. That would be like prepping for 6 PC, and then running the encounters unmodified for 4 PCs because two people had conflicts that night.
I don't use fudging or quantum ogres very often. I'm much more likely to use it in the PCs favor, so I'm more likely to use quantum treasure or quantum MacGuffins.
It just feels like a strange line to draw. I would wonder how people would feel about the differences between:
- Create a list of impromptu wilderness encounters. Periodically, roll whether or not a random encounter occurs. If an encounter is indicated, randomly determine which of the prepared encounters.
- Create a list of impromptu wilderness encounters. Periodically, roll whether or not a random encounter occurs. If an encounter is indicated, run the next encounter on the list.
- Create a list of impromptu wilderness encounters. Periodically, run the next encounter on the list.
- Create a list of impromptu wilderness encounters. As needed, run the next encounter on the list.
- As needed, run an appropriate impromptu encounter created on-the-fly.