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Ok, let’s say, in a game you run, there’s a tavern. That means there’s a tavernkeeper, yes? When do you decide the tavernkeeper exists? When the players find the tavern (which I’m sure requires a die roll in your games), or when they walk inside, sidle up to the bar, and say “Barkeep! Ales for...

Ok, so what do you call it when the PCs meet with an NPC or event in a way that calls for character action? It’s clear you think the term is based in trad games, meaning D&D, meaning combat. But that’s not true. Yes, there are a lot of combat encounters out there, but if you haven’t realized by...

Ackully, this is you not accepting that these games use a lot of the same elements, just with different terms used. So there. Seriously, at what point did I ever say D&D-style encounters were the norm? In fact, by repeatly talking about social encounters, and to a lesser degree exploration...

Yes. And then the players bypassed it rather than face it. No. There was the potential for an encounter.

So his inability is that he doesn’t recognize that different people are, in fact, different people who may phrase things differently? He doesn’t even accept or recognize one version. Like I told you, he was completely baffled by the idea I didn’t force my players into an encounter and that I...

Yes, same thing in Monster of the Week, which I run, and in other PbtA games I’ve read and played. “Future Badness.” And if the players decide to track down the source of the footprints and succeed, then the future badness becomes current badness (or not, if the source of the footprints ends up...

Yes, thank you, possibilities. Exactly what I’ve been talking about. But that’s not even the point, because the point is the players see something, like footprints, and decide to go around. Whatever caused those footprints—whether decided then or later—is bypassed.

That’s not what @pemerton has been saying to me. He has very clearly expressed an inability to understand not engaging in an encounter—a very odd thing for someone who has actually played D&D to not understand. And this wasn’t the first time; several thousand posts ago, I off-handedly mentioned...

I’m that paragraph, I’m not even talking about encounters. I’m talking about thinking about what the things I say mean. If I’m improvising a scene and I say there are footprints, at that same time I’m also thinking about what made those footprints. Thus, an encounter with what made the...

So why is this such a sticking point for you? What is it about this concept that is just too difficult for you to understand? Prepped game: I write down an encounter, or the clues that would lead to the encounter. If the players deliberately decide to not engage with the encounter or follow the...

You can’t think to ask “is such-and-such here?” Extrapolate from the available data! Make stuff up and see what sticks!

Wrong. I set up an encounter. The players may or may not choose to engage. I can make assumptions based on my past experiences with that group as to how they will react, but I fail to see how that would affect how the players act now.

I have repeatedly said that it doesn’t have to.

Because you didn’t discuss those events, there were no encounters to be bypassed. Tell me: do you really think we don’t know that these are imaginary worlds? Do you not suspend your disbelief and pretend the world exists while you play, or do you say, “my character, who doesn’t actually exist...

How about the GM’s imagination? They’re allowed to use that when improvising and not relying on prep, right?

No, see, the players aren’t allowed to think, ask questions, use reference guides, make assumptions of any sort, or contribute in any way. They’re only allowed to use the paltry information the GM deigns to grant them.

So, in a Burning Wheel game, would your PC, in the fiction of the game, say “I want to locate an inn with rooms for us, and but this town is so crowded that’s an ob 3 test”? Or would you accept that’s you talking out of character? Ok, maybe you never, ever talk OOC at the table, but you do...

As I’ve said, it doesn’t have to be a hostile or combat encounter. A social encounter is an encounter. An exploration challenge is an encounter. If the players follow the tracks and discover a basket of perfectly normal kittens, that’s an encounter. If the GM plans it out ahead of time, it’s an...

Thanks!

Do you have a link?