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<blockquote data-quote="NaturalZero" data-source="post: 7871402" data-attributes="member: 55705"><p>When I first started to DM, I wanted to build everything possible. Every major NPC in the big city, every possible business, etc. Along with this, i felt that i should include random encounters since they were presented in the rules.</p><p></p><p>As I became more experienced, i realized that a lot of this old school stuff was more work than it had to be and didn't really add to the experience of the players or the story. I found that over time I evolved into a DM style I call the "moving railroad." Essentially, there are a number scenes, encounters, combats, etc, that I plan and would like to include, but I don't necessarily have a set time or place in the world for them to occur and they might never be used at all. This effectively replaces the role of random encounters as I plop in the goblin raid, or the thieves guild committing a burglary, or the royal guard beating up villagers, wherever and whenever it's useful to the plot or makes the session more engaging.</p><p></p><p>All of this was the result of both running and playing in countless encounters that felt pointless; random things that ended up killing hours of time that could have been spent advancing the plot. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>4e has skill challenges that did exactly that. I specifically recall the rules for overland travel in Dark Sun that would play out like a series of obstacles and challenges that the party could contend with using skill checks. If they failed the checks, their progress wasn't necessarily stopped but they lost healing surges, which were the direct ancestor of 5e's take on hit dice.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="NaturalZero, post: 7871402, member: 55705"] When I first started to DM, I wanted to build everything possible. Every major NPC in the big city, every possible business, etc. Along with this, i felt that i should include random encounters since they were presented in the rules. As I became more experienced, i realized that a lot of this old school stuff was more work than it had to be and didn't really add to the experience of the players or the story. I found that over time I evolved into a DM style I call the "moving railroad." Essentially, there are a number scenes, encounters, combats, etc, that I plan and would like to include, but I don't necessarily have a set time or place in the world for them to occur and they might never be used at all. This effectively replaces the role of random encounters as I plop in the goblin raid, or the thieves guild committing a burglary, or the royal guard beating up villagers, wherever and whenever it's useful to the plot or makes the session more engaging. All of this was the result of both running and playing in countless encounters that felt pointless; random things that ended up killing hours of time that could have been spent advancing the plot. 4e has skill challenges that did exactly that. I specifically recall the rules for overland travel in Dark Sun that would play out like a series of obstacles and challenges that the party could contend with using skill checks. If they failed the checks, their progress wasn't necessarily stopped but they lost healing surges, which were the direct ancestor of 5e's take on hit dice. [/QUOTE]
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