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Illusionism or no?
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<blockquote data-quote="BookTenTiger" data-source="post: 8449711" data-attributes="member: 6685541"><p>Here's my purpose. I'm not saying this works for everyone, but it works for me:</p><p></p><p>By using "illusionism," as you've coined it, I believe I allow my players to have more agency in what they encounter and how they solve their conflicts, while also maintaining a well-paced, varied session.</p><p></p><p>Let's say I've planned out a dungeon, and there are five upcoming encounters. In my notes, I've planned it like this:</p><p></p><p>Encounter A: Combat (easy)</p><p>Encounter B: Exploration</p><p>Encounter C: Social</p><p>Encounter D: Combat (hard)</p><p>Encounter E: Combat (medium)</p><p></p><p>The adventurers wind up turning Encounter A into a Social Encounter, charming and talking to the enemies instead of killing them.</p><p></p><p>They then decide to avoid Encounter B, and go straight to Encounter C.</p><p></p><p>If I'm feeling like the players are really enjoying social encounters, I'll keep it a social encounter. If the players are getting a little restless and need some action, I might change it to a Combat Encounter, adding more enemies or buffing up the NPC.</p><p></p><p>Let's say it turns into a Combat Encounter. We are thirty minutes from the end of the session, and the characters run into Encounter D. This is supposed to be a Hard Combat, but we just did a combat and we are running out of time! Maybe I'll keep it a combat and just do one round. Or maybe I'll turn it into an Exploration Encounter, and have the enemies be a patrol, or asleep, or something like that.</p><p></p><p>The players have gotten to make all the choices here. I am responding to their needs and actions, and adjusting future encounters to keep the play varied and interesting.</p><p></p><p>I don't think there's anything wrong with having static encounters I'm beholden to, but I've found my own game goes better this way. AND it's fun for me, because I get to adjust and improvise!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BookTenTiger, post: 8449711, member: 6685541"] Here's my purpose. I'm not saying this works for everyone, but it works for me: By using "illusionism," as you've coined it, I believe I allow my players to have more agency in what they encounter and how they solve their conflicts, while also maintaining a well-paced, varied session. Let's say I've planned out a dungeon, and there are five upcoming encounters. In my notes, I've planned it like this: Encounter A: Combat (easy) Encounter B: Exploration Encounter C: Social Encounter D: Combat (hard) Encounter E: Combat (medium) The adventurers wind up turning Encounter A into a Social Encounter, charming and talking to the enemies instead of killing them. They then decide to avoid Encounter B, and go straight to Encounter C. If I'm feeling like the players are really enjoying social encounters, I'll keep it a social encounter. If the players are getting a little restless and need some action, I might change it to a Combat Encounter, adding more enemies or buffing up the NPC. Let's say it turns into a Combat Encounter. We are thirty minutes from the end of the session, and the characters run into Encounter D. This is supposed to be a Hard Combat, but we just did a combat and we are running out of time! Maybe I'll keep it a combat and just do one round. Or maybe I'll turn it into an Exploration Encounter, and have the enemies be a patrol, or asleep, or something like that. The players have gotten to make all the choices here. I am responding to their needs and actions, and adjusting future encounters to keep the play varied and interesting. I don't think there's anything wrong with having static encounters I'm beholden to, but I've found my own game goes better this way. AND it's fun for me, because I get to adjust and improvise! [/QUOTE]
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