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I feel that players who make the effort to map deserve all the rewards they reap from so doing! :LOL: Player maps add so much value to long term games, I think they're invaluable.

Yeah I would not agree re 4e D&D. :LOL: Maybe 4e stands comparison to Moldvay Basic D&D & similar which have a 'closed play loop' per Alexander - it has everything you need to make & run your dungeon crawl D&D game. As opposed to the most incomplete games, the worst of which are little more...

IME players only really remember the big dramatic climax when it's an organic outgrowth of play. Engineered/scripted dramatic climaxes are a dime a dozen, we see them all the time, they make no impression. The genuine organic dramatic climax is even better/more memorable than the unscripted...

I just got Forbidden Lands RPG in the post. It actually seems to be intended as a complete game, not just a game engine. Which I find rather disconcerting - perhaps showing how unusual this is. Most RPGs don't look like games, they look like instruction manuals for making a game.

Misty Vale campaign is a location-bounded sandbox. A player who wants to leave is saying they don't want to engage with the campaign. You can have sand boxes that are effectively unbounded, but this is not one. I can't see how this is a bad thing or failure.

Personally I love being surprised by the players. I'm definitely not trying to control the outcome of events, for good or ill.

No, that doesn't match my experience at all. In the vast majority of fantasy, space opera, pulp, horror etc etc campaigns, IME PC history, family, birthplace is irrelevant in play, and often a player demanding to bring it up would be seen as violating the table contract. There are exceptions...

Likewise I'm running the Dragonbane Misty Vale campaign; the published pregen PCs have backgrounds like "from the hot jungles of the south/frozen north/western cities/a Barony several days east" - none of which are on the campaign map. I don't see how that means that Free League haven't done...

IME, I never see as much happiness on the faces of my players as when they pull off some amazing, unforeseen by scenario author, way to win, and I tell them "That wasn't even supposed to be possible!" One small example - running Barrowmaze, there's a lot of "This door can only be opened by X"...

I don't agree, but clearly you're stricter than me. I could see it becoming illusionism if the GM gives the players the impression they must struggle to reach the ritual chamber in time, but really it will always be 5 rounds from completion when they arrive. If the player characters...

Yeah, I mostly run old school adventures in 5e with a lot of magic items. My Barrowmaze game has two level 10 heavy armour martial characters with AC 26. And I nerf a few spells, like Simulacrum.

They can not demand illusionism. I recruited some random people off Roll20 to run Lost Mine of Phandelver. They played poorly, certainly in Gamist terms, and PCs died a lot. Some complained that the game was not about PCs dying, it was about character & story, ie I shouldn't be killing their...

Yes, I agree. My understanding of "railroading" is that it is the GM forcefully intervening to keep the players on the story rails, when the players are attempting to go 'off script', knowingly or unknowingly. A linear campaign with player buy in may not involve any "railroading", although some...

That's my impression - Railroading techniques became prevalent in the mid to late 1980s, peaked in the 1990s, and have generally been in decline since then. OSR is generally hostile to railroading and does not seek to replicate the Saga of the Slave Lords and similar tournament modules. Paizo...

Depending on genre, I'm ok with a 'cut scene' of the "you all wake up in jail" type, normally at the start of the scenario/adventure. It's only Illusionism (& Railroading) if the GM plays through the capture, nominally using the game mechanics, but with a pre-determined outcome. I like this...

When this happens I always smile evilly and say "1 hp left! Bad luck!" and they groan. :LOL: Of course if it had 27 hp left and they do exactly 27 hp damage, I tell them that too, and they smile. :cool:

While I'm not tempted to fudge or engage in illusionism, I do keep dice rolls, enemy AC & other target numbers, and similar stuff open, partly to ensure there is no impression I might be fudging. I don't normally give players the enemy hp total but I tell players when monsters are bloodied/half...

I don't see any benefit to doing this - appear to offer a choice, but then negate that. Why have apparent branching paths with the ogre down whichever one is taken? Why not a single linear path with the ogre on it? I'm against deceiving the players. I think this is different though from...

I think you're describing a situation where you as GM have delegated certain powers, not one where you don't have power. I generally delegate where I think it aids immersion rather than detracts. Eg a PC ought to know their own backstory, friends & family etc, so I think players should have a...

At my table, people contribute what they want. This varies from nothing to 'spends more than the GM'. As GM, I contribute what I want, too. Maybe you get steak. Maybe you get a potato. Maybe you're out of luck that evening. :LOL: Same with the beer in the fridge - some players bring & leave a...