Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7582046" data-attributes="member: 29398">Of course.  But let's add a few more variables, shall we?  Let's say F fiction was established at time 1, and X is being introduced somewhat later at time 2; and the fiction that came between these events is, in sum total, FF. Back at 1, F was established using the known information at the time - information of which X would have been a part had it been introduced at or before 1; and from there FF proceeded.Now we get to 2, and X is introduced.  And while you can come up with many versions of R that maintain FF, my contention is that had X been known at 1 then the resulting fiction could just as easily have been GG or HH or II or JJ by now - all different fictions that are not FF that could have happened but did not because X wasn't known about.  This calls all of FF into question, and in the worst case renders it completely invalid.We don't already know that one or more Ns are not valid candidates - just because they weren't what was played out doesn't invalidate them - and had X been known back at time 1 then who knows where the fiction might have gone.  It might have stayed true to FF, for all we know - but the very fact that it might not have is what calls it into question.Put another way, introducing X now in effect retcons X as having been present all along; meaning the fiction needs to also be retconned in order to account for the presnece of X the entire time.  And as retcons are bad, the simplest way to prevent this is to veto X on the spot.Yeah, the whole bit about where do they come from, how come there's a seemingly infinite supply of them, why don't they beat each other up more often when of clearly opposed types, and all that.  Never been a fan of it, paticularly in a closed dungeon setting.Some module authors are wise enough to give the DM a total for each wandering monster type (and sometimes they even note where they'll be found if not met wandering) which then gets counted down by the DM as the PCs knock them off, until none are left.  This is an excellent start; now all I have to consider is whether the different types of wandering monsters will get along. (e.g. what are the odds of the 2d4 wandering guards [based in room 14] getting in a fight with the 1d3 wandering giant ants [from the nest in cave 23] should they ever happen to meet; and how many of each would survive?)</blockquote>

Verification