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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 6800735" data-attributes="member: 6778044">You've already stipulated that to get to the pudding they need the rod and the mace. Whether you place them in a specific place or randomly is irrelevant, you've already pre-written the story, just with fewer details. They are still going to visit locations in turn, and, based on the concept that the mace may or may not be where they think it is, they may have to go to another location. The only thing you have accomplished is that the DM didn't know where they were going to find them either. Is that a benefit? I like the idea of something related to the skill or activity being tied to the check. I'm even OK with the rod falling out on a particularly poor check. You drop the rod instead of fall and die, for example. It could even be, 'you slip and slide down the cliff, with the strap of your pack catching on a protruding rock, suddenly halting your fall. You take 2d6 damage, and the sudden jolt dislodged the rod which bounces off the cliff with a loud clang before disappearing into the dark chasm.'But whether the mace is there or not is not related to the skill in play at all. It might seem like it's related, but it's not. Either the mace is there, in which case the party finds it or not, or the mace is not there, in which case they don't find it.Agreed. In a good scenario I think there is a mix of both. In a completely random design, it would be extremely difficult to have a consistent believable world. The framework needs to be there to some degree or another. Of course there are side plots. Or at least there should be. Unless you are implying that the result of every check always moves them on a shorter or longer path towards their goal. In which case it's a railroad.Although this is a potential pitfall of this technique as it's being described as a tool to help write the plot. They should run across things that have nothing to do with the current goal. And if they choose to follow that path for a short period of time and come back, it's a side-plot. If they choose to follow that path and not come back, it's the new plot. Ilbranteloth</blockquote>

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