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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8830599" data-attributes="member: 29398">This.&nbsp; Cover off some of the more obvious what-ifs.Don't write room or encounter descriptions from a specific point of view, as who's to say the PCs won't arrive at that encounter from a different direction.&nbsp; Use neutral descriptors such as compass directions or references &quot;in the center of the chamber&quot; or &quot;against the east wall&quot; rather than subjective descriptions such as &quot;in front of you&quot;, &quot;to your left&quot;, etc.&nbsp; That way, the GM isn't left having to amend encounter narrations on the fly.Also, account for likely PC abilities.&nbsp; For example, any D&amp;D or D&amp;D-adjacent module written for 5th+ level characters has to (but IME rarely if ever does!) account for the medium to high likelihood of at least some of the PCs being able to fly.Now on this I disagree.There's nothing wrong with including intentional red herrings; nor - at least in my opinion - is there anything wrong with the PCs being able to outright fail the mission.&nbsp; If it's relevant, in-story it's easy enough to somehow later let them know they must have missed something vital:&quot;You get back to town after a successful journey and the Mayor is waiting impatiently. 'You told us you'd cleaned out that old castle,' he says angrily while pointing up the hill, 'but there's still strange noises up there at night, and the farmers' livestock is still being ravaged!&nbsp; We paid you to clear it up, so get back up there and do it right this time!'&quot;Behind the scenes: on their first trip, while the PCs did a fine job of clearing out the castle's obvious occupants they completely missed the Werewolf's secret hideaway.Fine.&nbsp; Let it stop.&nbsp; The villain wins this time.The failure consequence is easy: the PCs fail on the mission.&nbsp; Clearly note this in the write-up, sure; but instead of building in a fudge &quot;They see the secret door anyway&quot; or giving the GM ideas for workarounds so the PCs succeed, note what comes next if they fail e.g. what the villain's next moves are or how far/fast the curse spreads or whatever.TL; DR assume the PCs are going to succeed but give them the opportunity to hard-fail, and advise the GM what happens if they do.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 8830599, member: 29398"] This. Cover off some of the more obvious what-ifs. Don't write room or encounter descriptions from a specific point of view, as who's to say the PCs won't arrive at that encounter from a different direction. Use neutral descriptors such as compass directions or references "in the center of the chamber" or "against the east wall" rather than subjective descriptions such as "in front of you", "to your left", etc. That way, the GM isn't left having to amend encounter narrations on the fly. Also, account for likely PC abilities. For example, any D&D or D&D-adjacent module written for 5th+ level characters has to (but IME rarely if ever does!) account for the medium to high likelihood of at least some of the PCs being able to fly. Now on this I disagree. There's nothing wrong with including intentional red herrings; nor - at least in my opinion - is there anything wrong with the PCs being able to outright fail the mission. If it's relevant, in-story it's easy enough to somehow later let them know they must have missed something vital: "You get back to town after a successful journey and the Mayor is waiting impatiently. 'You told us you'd cleaned out that old castle,' he says angrily while pointing up the hill, 'but there's still strange noises up there at night, and the farmers' livestock is still being ravaged! We paid you to clear it up, so get back up there and do it right this time!'" Behind the scenes: on their first trip, while the PCs did a fine job of clearing out the castle's obvious occupants they completely missed the Werewolf's secret hideaway. Fine. Let it stop. The villain wins this time. The failure consequence is easy: the PCs fail on the mission. Clearly note this in the write-up, sure; but instead of building in a fudge "They see the secret door anyway" or giving the GM ideas for workarounds so the PCs succeed, [I]note what comes next if they fail[/I] e.g. what the villain's next moves are or how far/fast the curse spreads or whatever. TL; DR assume the PCs are going to succeed but give them the opportunity to hard-fail, and advise the GM what happens if they do. [/QUOTE]

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