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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5973106" data-attributes="member: 54877">I agree with the general thrust of your whole post, but think there parts of the above that go too far in the other direction. Namely, the key means of creating an illusion of a "living world" and thus reducing 15 MAD is not to always have 4 encounters (or any number) but to vary them. Specifically in a living world, vary them by the opponents acting as the opponents might, but making sure that the opponents have goals, motivations, means, etc. such that they will vary their actions. Uncertainty in the players is what gives them pause with the nova and rest. If you always have 1 major encounter, they will nova and let the rest happen when they can. If you always have 2 major encounters, they will nova and rest if they think they need it, or it is easy. But if you always have 4 or 6 or whtaever encounters, they will pace themselves--still doing whatever little "mini-nova" they can in each fight. A certain amount of this is even ok in a lot of games. If the players really don't know, for sure, how many encounters they will have, at least some of them will tend to hold some resources in reserve.  Now, what will happen in that situation, if the players are inclined that way, is that they will try to predict whether they will get jumped again or not. If they DM start putting in things that are more external to the game than in it, the players will likely react to that. (For example, no encounters in the last 30 minutes of play so that the session can be wrapped up cleanly.) OTOH, if the players determine that their main opponent has retreated with all of his forces to some isolated location in a wasteland that supports very few other creatures, then maybe a drop in nova is called for! (If it turns out that the wasteland supports very few creatures because the horde of silent ghouls eats them and their prey, well--that's what happens when you work on incomplete information. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil    :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" />) Putting in a wandering monster because the players decided that their characters should rest is merely dicking around with the players. Leaving one out when they are mangled, because they are mangled, is defeating the purpose--such that you might as well take wandering monsters off your list of tools. Putting in some chance of wandering monsters in a given area because that fits what the monsters are doing, then letting the players deal with this however they choose, is likely to discourage 15 MAD. Especially if the players bother to scout a bit and discover that the area is not quiet.</blockquote>

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