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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8989325" data-attributes="member: 82106">OK, but are you really trying to tell me that the material in the WoG Gazetteer, even slightly enhanced by some prior prep, is going to meaningfully inform a decision like &quot;is this a patrol of 10 warriors, a warband of 150 raiders, or a trade caravan of 25 normal humans and a few guards?&quot; I doubt it. I mean, a random encounter table, or a preexisting encounter description would, of course, but if you are positing none of those is in play, then IMHO settings are simply too granular in their level of detail to help (beyond the expectation that its Paynims you will mostly encounter, for example).I think its more a question of whether or not the situation had any inherent drama. [USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER] says &quot;But resolving by way of GM decision-making is almost the opposite of dramatic!&quot; I think we can both understand what he means. In classic D&amp;D if the GM simply resolves something and says &quot;well, you try that and it fails&quot; it isn't all that dramatic. Its just one guy at the table telling another what he thinks the story is, cops and robbers style. Adding some dice will create some tension, but dredging up what I think may be a point from another thread, that's not the most satisfying from a gamist perspective, certainly. It probably isn't that great narratively either, though its hard to say for sure. In the end, it seems like it would be good if the game could tell us &quot;you all need to play this mini-game here and see if the players can get what they want, and put some stakes on the table.&quot; In the basic scenario, we don't even really know what those stakes ARE.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8989325, member: 82106"] OK, but are you really trying to tell me that the material in the WoG Gazetteer, even slightly enhanced by some prior prep, is going to meaningfully inform a decision like "is this a patrol of 10 warriors, a warband of 150 raiders, or a trade caravan of 25 normal humans and a few guards?" I doubt it. I mean, a random encounter table, or a preexisting encounter description would, of course, but if you are positing none of those is in play, then IMHO settings are simply too granular in their level of detail to help (beyond the expectation that its Paynims you will mostly encounter, for example). I think its more a question of whether or not the situation had any inherent drama. [USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER] says "But resolving by way of GM decision-making is almost the opposite of dramatic!" I think we can both understand what he means. In classic D&D if the GM simply resolves something and says "well, you try that and it fails" it isn't all that dramatic. Its just one guy at the table telling another what he thinks the story is, cops and robbers style. Adding some dice will create some tension, but dredging up what I think may be a point from another thread, that's not the most satisfying from a gamist perspective, certainly. It probably isn't that great narratively either, though its hard to say for sure. In the end, it seems like it would be good if the game could tell us "you all need to play this mini-game here and see if the players can get what they want, and put some stakes on the table." In the basic scenario, we don't even really know what those stakes ARE. [/QUOTE]

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