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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imaro" data-source="post: 5726930" data-attributes="member: 48965">But by that usage of arbitrary...you do this all the time as a DM when designing things... the dungeon has a double door instead of a single because you decided... the woods are inhabited by wolves because you decided... The ruffians are looking for a barfight...because you decided... The vilain will have planned out the most direct route...because you decided.  But you don't decide everything on the fly...otherwise until your PC's made a suggestion there would be nothing for them to interact ordeal with. I am asking what decides what is correct to define beforehand and what isn't. And again there is a big distinction between deciding one factor of a situation... and nullifying any and everything ion the session to not mattering. Please let's end the hyperbole about this, it's been brought up and debunked numerous times in this thread. On another note some part of the adventure is always "limited" by your own ideas.  Again your analogy seems representative of the hyperbole I spoke about earlier in this post... deciding on a complication beforehand is not deciding everything or even majority of things in the encounter... If anything my example is more akin to planning one meal on one day of the month (and yes I have done this)... not every meal of every day of the month.  Sure and I believe there is a time and place for that kind of playstyle... just as there is a time and place for a more structured playstyle. What I don't believe is that one is any more innately superior than the other in achieving fun, it's just to dependant upon other factors.  Yes because as I stated earlier you want the chance for their to be a complication... but me knowing my players and having DM'd for them, perhaps I reealize a situation is too easy/boring/whatever as it stands and decide that instead of there being the chance for a complication I will instead introduce one in the creation of the encounter. Do you see the difference? Maybe this will illustrate it better... Again, taking the pit trap in the room example... Now there are a ton of things that could be placed in this pit... do you roll to see if the pit has spikes vs. acid vs. water vs. hot coals vs. etc? Or do you decide there is a complication with the pit trap and add whichever on e you want? Now how is this any different than me having added a single complication to a chase encounter beforehand? Please answer this as I feel like this is the pont everyone discussing from your position keep avoiding and ignoring... how is this any different?   So since you see the difference do you see that in achieving what I want to (a complication in the encounter) my method is superior to yours as yours only gives the chance that there might be.  But you still haven't explained why this philosophy is better? Or defined what does and doesn't "need" fixing. On another note how is the route my NPC chose... beforehand, anything that could be influenced by the PC's? It's not in the situation as presented originally.  It's funny because even though it wasn't decided beforehand this sounds like more of a railroad than what I am describing since no actions to discover who the villains were on the part of the players really had any meaning... There was nothing to discover until you made it all up at the end... And you can't see how unsatisfying this might be to some players, playstyles and GM's...  "Hey guys you didn't actually solve the mystery because thre never was one it was always going to be whoever I decided it was when I decided it..."  You realize that in leaving it up to chance... it may very well not happen when it would have the best dramatic effect... so again I'm missing your point here.    I didn't claim "no route because the map doesn't show it"... I claimed that my NPC was using the most direct route...worlds of difference there.  Cool and my opinion is that I will use either approach depending on what I and my players are trying to achieve in the gtame. To each their own.</blockquote>

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