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A GMing telling the players about the gameworld is not like real life
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7595203" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>In and of that particular instant and looking at nothing else, both are equally realistic and consistent and valid.</p><p></p><p>But there's a bigger picture to consider: first the easy one, whether the right-hand path being more travelled makes sense with what has been determined in the fiction leading up to this point; and second the harder one, whether that determination now is going to risk leading to things appearing later that should have (or could have) been known or telegraphed sooner.</p><p></p><p>In a pre-mapped situation the GM [and maybe everyone, depending whether a) the map is already known or b) someone in the party has flight capabilities and went up to scout] will in theory know what both paths lead to before the party get to the junction, and that knowledge will then inform the tracking results. Internal logic is maintained.</p><p></p><p>Because unless the entire idea of setting exploration is denied to the group, the players don't know what's out there that they haven't seen yet. If for example the GM already knows that the left path leads to an orcish village while the right path leads to a rarely-used dock on a lake then the GM could have in various ways telegraphed or breadcrumbed these things earlier had the opportunity arisen. But if the GM doesn't know these things then she can't telegraph anything; she can't describe elements of the scene that might very logically be there (e.g. that the traffic on the left path is probably all orc) because she has no way of knowing yet that they would exist.</p><p></p><p>I don't have to have in this case, if a dumb bozo like me can see how easily it'd fall apart.</p><p></p><p>The only way it wouldn't happen is if the players were extremely forgiving of inconsistency (which IMO is close to unforgivable if it happens all the time) or simply didn't care enough.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7595203, member: 29398"] In and of that particular instant and looking at nothing else, both are equally realistic and consistent and valid. But there's a bigger picture to consider: first the easy one, whether the right-hand path being more travelled makes sense with what has been determined in the fiction leading up to this point; and second the harder one, whether that determination now is going to risk leading to things appearing later that should have (or could have) been known or telegraphed sooner. In a pre-mapped situation the GM [and maybe everyone, depending whether a) the map is already known or b) someone in the party has flight capabilities and went up to scout] will in theory know what both paths lead to before the party get to the junction, and that knowledge will then inform the tracking results. Internal logic is maintained. Because unless the entire idea of setting exploration is denied to the group, the players don't know what's out there that they haven't seen yet. If for example the GM already knows that the left path leads to an orcish village while the right path leads to a rarely-used dock on a lake then the GM could have in various ways telegraphed or breadcrumbed these things earlier had the opportunity arisen. But if the GM doesn't know these things then she can't telegraph anything; she can't describe elements of the scene that might very logically be there (e.g. that the traffic on the left path is probably all orc) because she has no way of knowing yet that they would exist. I don't have to have in this case, if a dumb bozo like me can see how easily it'd fall apart. The only way it wouldn't happen is if the players were extremely forgiving of inconsistency (which IMO is close to unforgivable if it happens all the time) or simply didn't care enough. [/QUOTE]
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