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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 4061282" data-attributes="member: 32164">This is pretty cool.And as I said, after giving it some thought, if I were in the right mood, I might let there be a political reason rather than a metaphysical one. But there will be some reason. Because I think it's far more fun if there is a better one than just "the players caught the DM with his pants down."Perhaps there's a secret cabal of merchants that profits from the situation the way it is. So they "take care of" any competition. Maybe the church leaders believe the devastation is a punishment from the gods and that skirting it magically is blasphemy. Maybe they're right! Maybe it's some combination of the above.Maybe the merchants also provide some other valuable service to the church in exchange for the church paying them to deliver water. So inquisitive PCs might get the "blasphemy" or "punishment from the gods" answers only to find out later that the situation is far more complex.I guess I just don't hold with the theory that the PCs should be able to just make up whatever adventure they want to go on, and totally ignore the work their DM has done to prepare for the session.On the other hand, in my mind, a "good" adventure is more open-ended than "you must guard the water caravans." If the PCs have a choice, the adventure should never entirely hinge on the choice the PCs make. What happens might change, but there should always still be a way to involve the PCs in the adventure.</blockquote>

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