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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9601426" data-attributes="member: 42582">In the context of classic D&amp;D play - and some other prep-heavy beat the module play, like say some approaches to CoC - I think that sticking to your prep is probably a necessary condition of being fair, within the parameters of that sort of RPGing. Sometimes glosses on, or elaborations of and from, prep will be necessary (&quot;What colour is the ceiling?&quot; is a time-worn example), but departing from the prep is tantamount to breaking the game.Whether what has been prepped is, itself, fair, depends so heavily on context I think it's hard to generalise. Is a mystery that can only be solved by understanding post-Newtonian physics fair? That would depend on your players. Are rot grubs fair? That would depend on how the play of that game, up to that point, has approached the looting of dead bodies.In a Torchbearer 2e session last year, the players - in order to minimise the turning of the &quot;grind&quot; - declared that they were moving past a pond in the cavern they were exploring, to investigat another aspect of it. So I didn't mention to them the gold that was - as per my notes - in the pond, which they would have seen had they looked. (Of course I taunted them about it afterwards - and there is even a logic to how that out-of-character knowledge might be laundered into in-character knowledge, as they left the cavern by levitating up above the pond.) I think that was fair within the parameters of Torchbearer. But were they first-time RPGers, or even first-time Torchbearer players, I might have adjudicated differently, and had they not been old friends I probably wouldn't have taunted them about their misplay.I'm not really setting out to contradict anyone here, but just to elaborate a bit on how I see prep and fairness as being connected, in a certain sort of RPGing. Move to a different RPG - eg in my case Prince Valiant, or Burning Wheel, or even Classic Traveller - and my approach to prep, framing, consequences etc will of course change appropriately.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9601426, member: 42582"] In the context of classic D&D play - and some other prep-heavy [I]beat the module[/I] play, like say some approaches to CoC - I think that sticking to your prep is probably a necessary condition of being fair, within the parameters of that sort of RPGing. Sometimes glosses on, or elaborations of and from, prep will be necessary ("What colour is the ceiling?" is a time-worn example), but departing from the prep is tantamount to breaking the game. Whether what has been prepped is, itself, fair, depends so heavily on context I think it's hard to generalise. Is a mystery that can only be solved by understanding post-Newtonian physics fair? That would depend on your players. Are rot grubs fair? That would depend on how the play of that game, up to that point, has approached the looting of dead bodies. In a Torchbearer 2e session last year, the players - in order to minimise the turning of the "grind" - declared that they were moving past a pond in the cavern they were exploring, to investigat another aspect of it. So I didn't mention to them the gold that was - as per my notes - in the pond, which they would have seen had they looked. (Of course I taunted them about it afterwards - and there is even a logic to how that out-of-character knowledge might be laundered into in-character knowledge, as they left the cavern by levitating up above the pond.) I think that was fair within the parameters of Torchbearer. But were they first-time RPGers, or even first-time Torchbearer players, I might have adjudicated differently, and had they not been old friends I probably wouldn't have taunted them about their misplay. I'm not really setting out to contradict anyone here, but just to elaborate a bit on how I see prep and fairness as being connected, in a certain sort of RPGing. Move to a different RPG - eg in my case Prince Valiant, or Burning Wheel, or even Classic Traveller - and my approach to prep, framing, consequences etc will of course change appropriately. [/QUOTE]

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