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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 5719590" data-attributes="member: 53980">In the initial example it isn't the best route, only the most direct route shown on the map.  Unless it's a more detailed map than any I've ever seen in an rpg, it will fail to account for any number of very realistic factors.  Most maps only show major thoroughfares and landmarks.  Things like back alley routes, as well as rooftops, sewers, and back yards are all neglected.If versimilitude is important to you, then it stands to reason that allowing the players to take realistic actions (even those you didn't account for originally) should be important as well.Saying that something doesn't exist in the campaign until the DM makes it explicitly so seems silly to me.  If you forget to mention your Rome-like city's sewer system in you notes, does offal accumulate in the streets until you finally think to map it out?  Of course not.  Just because your map isn't detailed enough to show every back alley in the city, doesn't that mean no such alleyways exist.  Think of the poor ruffians!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />If back alleys exist, and the players are clever enough to think to use them, they should be allowed a chance to use them.  It doesn't have to (and generally shouldn't) assure success.  The back alley route might even have additional complications to deal with, such a band of surly street thugs.  However, if it's logically possible, then the players should be allowed to try.Play styles vary, and I agree that people should play the way they want.  I just find it hard to imagine how you play without doing this or completely railroading your players.  If you'd described the area in the initial example as a residential district, and the players wanted to cut through the back yards but you hadn't made the map that detailed, what would you do?  Tell them that they can't because you don't know whether the layout of that district permits it?  Ad lib it?  Or are your maps simply detailed down to every last rooftop, tree, park bench, and rock, such that this has never been an issue?  Have you really never had to ever improvise anything, because I can't even begin to imagine a game like that.</blockquote>

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