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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6672626" data-attributes="member: 42582">I agree with what [MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION] said in reply to this. If the fiction hasn't yet been established, I don't see what is objectionable about the GM establishing it in such a way as to produce interesting rather than boring outcomes.If the GM can think of interesting outcomes either way, then that is a reason to call for a roll - as in my example of the angel feather, which turned out to be cursed, mentioned in my post above this one.There are some approaches to RPGing where a large amount of secret backstory is important. Gygaxian dungeon-crawling is an example of this, because part of player skill in that play style is using detection magic, plus clever action declaration around searching and listening, to acquire that backstory and therefore formulate more effective plans for killing and looting.What I find puzzling is when adherence to this approach lives on although its rationale has withered. Judging from posts on these boards, from reading contemporary rule books and adventure modules, etc, not much contemporary D&D play is Gygaxian in this way - the players using their PCs to explore a constrained environment written down in advance by the GM, the goal being to acquire information so as to better exploit that environment.If you're not playing in the Gygaxian way, then the merits of secret backstory are not all that clear to me. In action-adventure style play, for instance, the GM doesn't need to decide whether or not there is a secret door at the end of the corridor until the question actually becomes relevant in play, and s/he can then make a decision that will support the action and pacing actually unfolding at the table at that point in time.In the Gygaxian approach, there is also an argument for random determination of facts that the GM didn't (due to error, time constraints etc) write up but that get made salient by action declarations. Eg a player declares that his PC uses a wand of secret door detection in the inn which the GM is narrating off the cuff. Does the player get any useful information for having expended a charge? There is an argument that fairness requires the GM to roll rather than decide by fiat one way or another.But ability/skill checks are not instances of resource expenditure, and the amount of player resources devoted to these sorts of exploratory matters is much less in contemporary versions of the game than in classic D&D.Insisting on sticking to the Gygaxian dungeon-building practice, or on randomisation rather than GM fiat, when the rationale that underpinned those approaches is no longer relevant to the sort of play actually taking place at the table, looks a bit cargo-cultish to me.</blockquote>

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