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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8129645" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I think that what matters most is that the players’ choice has an impact. So if the GM has presented a forking path in their road and says that one goes into the Dark Forest and the other heads to the Grim Chasm, then the results of that choice should be different in some way that matters.So, if the GM has prepped an encounter with giant spiders in the forest and one with Tuscan Raider type sandpeople in the Grim Chasm, that’s not illusionism despite the fact that these encounters are preset. Nor would it be illusionism if the GM took the choice into consideration, and then crafted an encounter based on that choice. Where it could be illusionism is if the GM has an encounter with some ogres planned and it happens in the Forest or the Chasm. Likewise, if the GM is crafting details on the fly and uses the same enemy stats, but simply labels the enemies by a different name. So his 2HD humanoids that have a +2 to hit are Orcs in the Forest or Sandpeople in the Chasm....that’s illusionism as well, I’d say. There needs to be meaningful difference. At the very least the terrain of the encounters and therefore the difficulty should vary. There can be lots of other factors that can be brought to bear on this...travel time, treasure gained, information learned or known ahead of time....many others. These things can enhance or diminish player agency. But at it’s very core, it boils down to their decision mattering to the fiction and the game. Can things go differently if they take Option A instead of Option B?</blockquote>

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