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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bawylie" data-source="post: 8282401" data-attributes="member: 6776133">IDK how to multi-quote so bear with me.It is definitely possible to want more than one thing at the same time. We do that every day. Sometimes, we can’t have more than one thing at a time - when those things draw from the same resource pool (considering costs and opportunity costs).If I have $4000 and it costs $3000 to fix my car and $2500 to buy a new refrigerator, I can’t have both a fixed car and a new refrigerator because my resources are finite and these costs draw from the same resource pool (my $4000).In the case of RPGs, we have two resource pools only - time and imagination. Our only limits on content are what we can imagine and what we can fit into a session. We can have anything we want, time permitting. Effective time management can provide the lion’s share of curated story concerns (particularly tension, rising action, climax, overall pacing, etc). Imagination largely handles the relative difficulty and content of the “story.”You want skilled play to determine how a scenario plays out. Are you saying that it must be the SOLE determiner of what plays out? Because it isn’t and can’t be - because skilled play doesn’t happen in a vacuum. After every player action, declaration, or move, the GM narrates how the world changes in response to that action and what reactions happen. Everything from damage taken to reputations shifting to cosmological realignment. And within that GM realm of every possible imaginable realignment, there can be at least ONE such idea that accounts both for skilled play and good story simultaneously.They’re already often thinking “how much time left before we call it a night? When was the last time Alice had the spotlight? Can I have another beer before I have to drive or should I switch to a coffee now?” They can think of an idea that fully accounts for skilled play and satisfactory drama.You want the GM to manage the scenario so that they manage the proper pacing and challenge. Are you saying the GM must be the SOLE manager of those concerns? Because they’re not and they can’t be. Pacing and challenge don’t happen in a vacuum. The players get turns. They come up with an idea each compared to the DM’s one. 3 to 5 ideas for each of the GM’s. And they often have ideas or notions that take them far afield of where a strictly managed story would have lead. And within the realm of players’ ideas, wild spells, and so-crazy-it-just-might-work gambles, there might be at least ONE that makes its own wild story resulting in compelling pacing and challenge.And the fact is, we do this routine every game session. Sometimes every minute. The only way these things can be inherently mutually exclusive is within the theoretical vacuum game where they are the sole concern. So yeah, sure, maybe Curse of Strahd didn’t do it well and maybe you haven’t seen it done well, or can’t imagine it done well. But that doesn’t make it inherently impossible to account for two priorities- especially considering we’re usually accounting for far more than 2 anyway.—-editWhile I’m on imagination solving “inherently contradictory” desires:I want cake and I want ice cream - impossible! Until…ice cream cake.I want to talk to someone over there without actually being over there - impossible! Until… telephone. I want to surf but I don’t want to go in the water - impossible! Until… skateboard. I want to cross this body of water but no way am I going to row - Impossible! Until… sailboat. I want a jacket but I want it made of blanket - Impossible! until… snuggies. I want to memorialize this moment forever without painting it - Impossible! Until… camera. I want bread but made out of fruit- impossible! Until… banana bread. (Actually this is only here because I’m eating it now). I want to have fun watching a game of cricket - Impossible! Until… baseball.</blockquote>

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