The mistakes of my players are just as important as their successes in determining the fate of my world...

[Calithorne]

The mistakes of my players are just as important as their successes in determining the fate of my world.

Sometimes, the fate of my world has been critically altered because the players refused the quest.

As the most extreme example, a halfling country was protected from invasion by a magic tree. But the tree was dying, due to the machinations of an evil duke, and he was preparing his musket and cannon-armed army to invade.

It was up to the players to organize the halflings to defend their kingdom. But the players decided that would be too hard, so they refused the quest.

As a result, the duke's army invaded. He built musket and cannon factories in the halfling country, turning a pastoral paradise into an industrial nightmare of coal pollution and harsh labor conditions. Thing, the Scouring of the Shire, but permanent because the players refused to save them.

 

[Blue]

A technique I picked up from a DM back when I was in my teens was to throw a lot more plots at the players then they could or would follow up. So things that they aren't involved in continue to grow (or get opposed). Makes a rich and vibrant world that's dynamic.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

My PCs in my first Neverwinter campaign absorbed the power of a magic water rune of dwarven origin as one of the PCs was a dwarf of the right bloodline. It gave him a nice boost - which he shared with the other PCs with lesser versions - but they don't realise that it freed a city of the aboleth that had petrified (a la Golismorga in the Savage Tide adventure path) due to water being completely removed from the city by this powerful rune.

My next Neverwinter campaign, which is likely to include one or more of those same players, will have to deal with the aboleth threat as they process of awakening only finished after we completed the last campaign.

 

[Lwaxy]

If I allow them to change the world one way or the other, they will. If I don't want the poor Hobbits to suffer I can always send NPC adventurers to later make fun of the original group of cowards.

 

[CydKnight]

The mistakes of my players are just as important as their successes in determining the fate of my world.

Sometimes, the fate of my world has been critically altered because the players refused the quest.

As the most extreme example, a halfling country was protected from invasion by a magic tree. But the tree was dying, due to the machinations of an evil duke, and he was preparing his musket and cannon-armed army to invade.

It was up to the players to organize the halflings to defend their kingdom. But the players decided that would be too hard, so they refused the quest.

As a result, the duke's army invaded. He built musket and cannon factories in the halfling country, turning a pastoral paradise into an industrial nightmare of coal pollution and harsh labor conditions. Thing, the Scouring of the Shire, but permanent because the players refused to save them.

But was the Halfling Kingdom altered because the players refused to act or were the players simply allowing the progression of wheels already set in motion completely apart from them? Perhaps it was simply fate being fate? It seems strange to me to blame the players for not acting when it was the "evil duke" who enable this scenario and saw it to fruition. I realize this is a game and acting out the scenario is necessary for the game to progress but I often see similar logic applied in real life and wonder if we are really playing a game.