There is that whole otherkin thing: the idea that every fictional world exists in some other world or alternate reality, and bleed psychically into our reality, inspiring the artists who create the fiction, and spawning the mis-placed souls who are reminded of their true place when they encounter that fiction.Uhhhh, are you implying that your settings do exist?
Uhhhh, are you implying that your settings do exist?
While, clearly, the setting of a fictional campaign isn't real, you still have to make sure it has an internal consistency, the NPCs should make sense and, if returned to, should have had experiences while the PCs were gone.
Some early modules would fail this test: if you walk into the dungeon, then go away for a month, and return, do you find the bodies of orcs, kobolds, etc. who have all died of thirst or starvation?
Why would they not be able to go out and forage for food and water?
I don't know why they never do this, but ANY time the adventurers enter the dungeon, they are ALWAYS at their assigned post. When the adventurers enter room #11, they encounter three guards with bows strung. Room #11 is never empty, with the usual inhabitants out foraging.