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And in every other situation? Or do your players only go to places that haven't been disturbed in ages. Not in every game it isn't. You can get some very interesting results if the players are "allowed" to weigh in. Which you're not actually playing in. I don't think anyone signs up for a...

Except that nothing is fixed anyway--that's why you roll the dice, to find out what the outcome will be.

I never got to that point. The part where Tom Bombadill, well, deus ex'd the group from the barrow-wights and then dressed them up like dolls made me throw the book across the room (not really; I respect books, even those I don't like). Personally, I can't stand most "Appendix N" books. I...

Then that's not a game where progression is locked behind a single roll.

Then the next question is, does "nothing happens" clearly make the most sense, or does it seem to because it's what you're used to? If they know they get a choice in the matter, they might be more willing to work against their characters. If they have to worry about a GM laying down the law all...

In DungeonWorld (which I haven't played), the thief has a move called Tricks of the Trade. On a 7-9 (partial success), the player gets to choose what happens--but they must pick from two of suspicion, danger, or cost. They don't get to say "nothing happens" because something happens. So here...

I don't use random encounters. I don't bother figuring out the CR for the adversaries I use (since I rarely run monsters straight out of the book) because it's annoying and I find the CR system to be inexact and un-useful. They're all over the place, power-wise, anyway. My sandbox is a city...

Is a character who is being seriously injured by a monster in combat having fun? Some might be, but I'd bet a lot would realistically be scared or desperate. I, their player, could be having tons of fun. And I, the player, would not be having fun because I had to spend multiple sessions just...

That would be a perfectly logical, consequence in a fail-forward situation. It merely requires that the GM alert the PCs to the existence of the grue ahead of time.

Really? I had the players in my city-based game meet a potential adversary (potential in the sense that the players chose to talk their way out of combat rather than engage) who was... well, I don't even bother to calculate CR anymore, but she was a caster many levels higher than the PCs were...

Rule of storytelling: Deus ex machina is frequently cheap and/or boring. If an NPC is going to bust them out, it should be a known individual who has both the reasons and means to do so, not a random person who just showed up to save the day. Rule of reality: A secret admirer who is willing to...

Are they? You've looked at every sandbox ever made, including the homebrew ones, and determined this is the case all the time? It's funny. You: sandboxes have to be done this way. Me: No they don't. You: THAT'S NOT HOW SANDBOXES ARE SUPPOSED TO GO!!! Maybe you should stop One True Scotsmanning...

That's a huge assumption. It's incredibly easy to come up with something interesting that is 100% in the fiction. Example: they're in an area where there are monsters or guards. They take too long to do something and those monsters or guards (or someone who then alerts the monsters or guards)...

Because these cases are rarely about things like outdoor survival rolls. They're usually more about things like the Very Important Thing is in a secret compartment, behind a locked door, or requires a riddle to be answered, requiring a single roll or very small number of rolls, and getting past...

I hardly think having something interesting happen instead of having nothing happen is making reality bend over backwards.

Like I said, never in my experience. Hmm. No, I just don't see it. The characters may not be having fun, but the players should be.

And that makes a major assumption about how groups play. I've never had a group go partway into a dungeon, then turn around and go back to get new supplies. But how is preventing progress at all fun or interesting?

Real life is often boring, frustrating, or all-around awful, none of which are good things for a game. If the players are actually enjoying roleplaying through failing to do a thing, then that's one thing, but if they're doing it because they have no other choice, that's another thing.

I agree. The idea that you can't get past by this one particular way should be used sparingly at best, but there should always be ways to pass through that are interesting and let the game move on.

That depends on the GM. Also the edition. Two of the above spells don't exist in 5e, for example. It's also possible that the casters didn't prepare the "right" spell, which is entirely unfair of the GM to think, because the character only has so many spell slots and they can't prepare...