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The master thief would also note movement under the door, listen for sounds at the door, and/or look through a window to note the cook. He would also try to quietly pick the lock so as not to alert possible people on the other side.

Okay. Let me try and explain. So if a random encounter is successfully rolled, that monster is in that spot. Period. It was always going to be in that spot. When the party goes through that area, they will encounter that monster. If the party decides before the time of the random encounter...

You need to rephrase that if you want me to answer it. I'm not sure what you are asking.

Nope. It doesn't do that, either. The monster is there even if the PCs never go that direction is all. If they do, then the roll is just to see if at someone point the party traveling through intersects with a monster already present.

About 15 years ago I was at Yellowstone when the tour bus stopped at a bunch of cars to see what wildlife everyone was looking at. I was at the very front of the bus directly across from a park ranger. A few seconds later a black bear came walking down the street and when it got to the ranger...

Not to an extent. It's completely true. You can in fact play D&D like that. This is in my opinion most of what makes D&D so popular. With a few tweaks(optional rules and homebrew), you can play pretty much any playstyle out there. It isn't truly great at any of them, but it's decent to very...

Except not. The monster will be there in that location at that exact time whether or not the PCs are there. The cook is both in the kitchen and not in the kitchen based on the sleight of hand skill of the PC combined with a roll to open locks. Oh, and whether or not the PC has thieves' tools...

There have been many threads over the years that were longer, not just 3. :P

It doesn't have to be. Nor is anything retroactively added. If the DM has only narrated a few things, then one of those few things will be what is used for the ambush. In the traditional game, no retroactive additions are happening unless the DM doesn't know what he is doing. Retroactive...

That person posted an incorrect assertion about the surprise mechanics and tried to equate two very different methods of introducing an NPC(farrier vs cook or guards) when they weren't the same.

Sure, but to complete the analogy. The Spanish chefs then follow with, "And we also don't like American grilled cheese because of the anchovies in it." Both sides are claiming understanding the other side's style while misstating the style that they claim to understand.

Yes. He makes up what was there all along that existed independently of the PCs. Nothing is made up FOR THE PCs. The cook is both there and not there based on the skill of the person opening the lock combined with the result of the roll. In this case there is 1) no situation where the monster...

Several years ago my mother and a bunch of her girlfriends(about 10 in total) went on a women's retreat to a ranch in Central California that one of them owned. Towards the end of the retreat, they took a group photo along the ranch fence along one of the local roads. It wasn't until the...

This is pretty wrong. If the DM failed to note than the grass on the plains the party entered was very tall when they initially entered, that's a pretty big DM blunder. That sort of detail is narrated all the time. And yes, if the height of the grass changes that significantly, I narrate it...

There is no pretense. Rolling specifically for a random encounter is very different than having an encounter because you decided to take a bite out of a poisoned orange and rolled a saving throw. One is connected directly to having the encounter, and the other is ridiculous, since a con save...

I missed this earlier. As the person who came up with the high grass, I specifically mentioned it as being narrated prior to the encounter. When a surprise encounter happens, DMs typically resolve the surprise within the bounds of what has already been narrated. Sneaking up through the high...

For like the umpteenth time, there is no teleportation or quantum involved with wandering monsters. None. These are all monsters that live in the habitat they are encountered in and the party is traveling through.

What makes you think the two situations are the same? The only way they could be the same is if the cook was a wandering monster and would or would not be in the kitchen regardless of the pick lock roll.

I mean, it's at 677 pages already. ;)

Then take your pick of already narrated features that would work. Nothing has to retroactively happen.