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This is one of those glorious kitchen-sink threads, where everything gets talked about at once rather than in fifteen different threads each with its own more focussed topic.

In which case yes, they're hosed. Roll up new characters. That they all got captured without even one managing to avoid it, however, seems odd....unless the PCs collectively and individually have no sense of self-preservation. And if one character avoids capture then the party can continue...

I think it might hinge on the level of in-fiction contrivance required to keep making things happen where logic says nothing should.

Thing is, a conflict-neutral or low-no stakes event now may - or may not - have all kinds of consequences down the road. And as you don't know what "down the road" is going to consist of until after you've got there and beyond, I say the default should be to play them out unless the players say...

If the players are inhabiting their characters then when it comes to obstacles wouldn't these two things kind of run in lockstep? That said, I can think of loads of times where the characters weren't having any fun at all (usually at the hands of each other) and yet the players were roaring...

Which can be fine even in the sandbox-iest of games. They've found or self-generated a mission, completion of that mission requires their getting though this obstacle, and they can't do it. Which means, while the game as a whole can go forward if-when they go do something else, that particular...

The cool thing for me personally is that Neil played in my game some decades ago (he's responsible for the best-worst character name ever: Sir Kalvin of Hobbes); he once introduced me as his first DM, but technically I was his second.

More commonly IME - particularly at very low levels - they need to turn around and go back to get new characters to replace what they lost; getting new supplies is done at the same time, helped (sometimes greatly!) by any treasure they've thus far managed to scoop from the place. But I have...

It's not an arms race, it's merely remembering and then ensuring that the rules apply to PCs and NPCs alike. Or put another way, it's a question of ensuring the NPCs sometimes actually use the arms they already have.

I'd also accept the first one but not the second, as one of the provisos I put on Suggestion is that the suggested action has to have a definable point of completion. "Hike to the nearest village and tell them we're under attack" is perfect; once those things have been done the suggested action...

5e took out Warp Wood? Druid spell? And indeed, it's possible they don't have the correct resources. Again, so be it - go back and get 'em. The whole point of an obstacle is to slow or prevent progress. Unlike modern game design, I don't want to ignore or toss out the "or prevent" piece; I...

Question: how does having a single (potential) point of failure have any relation to direct storytelling?

I'm a "crueller despot" than that; if they all fall into a pit trap they can't get out of then they roll up new characters. That said, it'd have to be a very odd/unusual situation to a) have them all fall in to the same trap and b) not have any way of getting at least one character out. And...

Sure, not all of these are going to work every time, but the options are still there to try. IME most mages try to get their mitts on Knock as soon as they can, also in my game it doesn't have the alarm-bell feature that 5e gave it. And if the door opens toward you, the hinges have to be on...

Yes. What's good for the goose... If you're playing your NPCs true to character this simply should not be an issue, and ideally the players have been well warned about this ahead of time.

It also depends on how important the characters' gear and equipment are to play. In a game where gear and equipment are carefully tracked and-or can be vital to success, forgetting to pick up something while in town can have big consequences later and thus at least doing the basic "adding items...

Can the door not be opened any other way than by picking the lock? Forcefully-applied boots? Repeated use of an axe or hammer? Removal of hinges? Knock spell? Shrink spell? Warp Wood spell (if the door has any wood to it)? Someone goes gaseous or shapeshifts into something really small or...

To a point, after which enough detail gets lost or skipped that continuity starts to suffer. Given it's supposedly the GM's job to frame scenes, my assumption would appear valid. Nope. The scenes could be framed in the moment as they arise, but the end result is the same: the GM drives the...

My take on that is if it's going to implode, let it. Just make sure the brawling stays in character. :) The party I'm running right now has three Thieves in it - two pure and one multi-classed with Illusionist - out of seven characters total. All of them have some ve-ery shady things in their...

I tell them to do what their characters would do. If someone roleplays their way out of the party then, depending on the player's intentions, one of - or a combination of - several things might happen: --- the departed character retires and the player rolls up a new one (or cycles a...