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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8141119" data-attributes="member: 29398">Fair enough...these do get rather unwieldy. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Thing is, as the PCs have no way of knowing whether what they're deciding on is major or trivial it's only fair the players don't either.Depends on the specific players too.  If you get two or three over-planners in the same game be prepared to spend a lot of time waiting for stuff to happen - or be willing to bring the heat: wandering monsters can be your friend. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />To some extent, I agree.  But when half a session or more goes into one PC's family drama it gets a bit much. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  (example: as a player right now one of my PCs is just coming in from the field and has some family stuff to see to before he heads out again - my hope is to resolve it with a few die rolls and the DM telling me how much I have to spend; so as not to bore everyone else with it).Perhaps - but about their characters as a party or their characters as individuals, is the question.I just as easily could have dropped hints trying to steer you away from it - but when do players listen to DM hints anyway? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />It's to also set up the idea that history is happening around the PCs above and beyond their own purviews.The agency this player has right now is immense, though she might not realize it: her PC has what everyone wants, and no matter what she does with it that action is going to change the fiction's course, probably in a big way.It's kind of a game-world response.  I didn't pre-plan the idea of this Necromancer war in the slightest, but when the party ended up taking over half a year on what I-as-DM initially thought would be maybe a 2-month venture I started thinking about what the ramifications of that delay might be, then rolled some dice and came up with this.Can't speak for anyone else, but for me if something's not described by the DM then my own imagination's probably going to fill it in.  Thus if all the DM tells me is that we're in a swamp I'm going to start thinking in my own mind about what's around that swamp.  As we haven't been told we can see any hills in the distance I have to assume there aren't any; so it's forest in one direction, open water in another, and more swamp in a third; and if I-as-player am asked what's out there that's what I'll say.But when a player drops in that there's hills to the north (that we-as-PCs in theory can bloody well see!) a) my imagined scenario gets upended and b) the GM's powers of scene description get called into serious question.Not sure if you're understanding what I'm not-very-clearly getting at, so let me try again. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />If one person designs the setting ahead of time there's way more opportunity to find and iron out any inconsistencies.  But if the setting's designed piecemeal at different times by committee as play goes along those inconsistencies could become a big headache.  Example:During some run of play in a city the flow-direction of the big river running through it becomes important - maybe someone wants to float down the river to escape something and someone needs to author what pre-established parts of town they'll pass through or end up in - and it's determined the river flows south-to-north.During a different and unrelated run of play (maybe something to do with a swamp!) it's for some reason determined that there's hills to the north and mountains beyond that.During a third unrelated run of play it's determined there's open ocean not far to the south - maybe someone was looking for a particular herb that only grows along the seashore.Taken independently there's nothing wrong with any of these.  But put 'em together and now you've got a river trying to flow uphill.  And while you could easily say "Oh, just turn it around and make it flow north-to-south", that would retroactively invalidate the run of play that took place in the city which for me would be a game-wrecker.Having just one hand on the helm doesn't eliminate the chance of this happening but does greatly reduce it.</blockquote>

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