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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7088425" data-attributes="member: 6778044">I disagree in the bolded text. In order to go where the action is, you need to know what the PC's action is. Not the PCs motivation.If the PC attempts to haggle for some Calishite silks, I (the DM) don't need to know that he wants to purchase them for his mother. To play the NPC haggling, I need to know what the NPC's motivation is. That gives me some ideas as to how likely they are to haggle, and by how much. Of course, I can get by without the NPC's motivation as well, by just using skill checks and rules to do so. But I'd rather know more, in case things go in a different direction. The NPC could go from being an incidental player to a more important part of the campaign. Regardless, the player can take care of their own motivation.Motivation is the why. Why is the character doing this? In order for me to react to the player, though, all they need to tell me is what they are doing, and possibly how. I don't need to know the why. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying the DM shouldn't know the PC's motivation. Just that they don't have to. As we've already discussed, through a combination of a shared backstory and the actions and statements throughout the game, the DM will learn quite a bit about the character. And both the player's and character's motivations and such are something the DM can leverage to great effect, and I recommend it highly. But it's not a requirement to run a game. Even a good game. [MENTION=16814]Ovinomancer[/MENTION] was giving an example of secret world backstory: that the problems in Calimshan are affecting the prices of silk. Until the DM divulges this information, it is a secret. In his example, the PCs overhear merchants talking. But it's just as possible that they try to purchase silk, and can't. Whether the merchant tells them why they can't purchase silk or not doesn't matter. Sure, the PCs might be curious, and continue to investigate. Or they might not care at all. Whether the DM knows that silk is in short supply and why before the session or not doesn't really matter either.A much larger example is my use of the published APs in my campaign. Three of them are currently in progress in the campaign. Even though it's published material, being that they are active adventures that they could potentially intersect with the PCs, and they might opt to involve themselves in those APs to one degree or another, I'd prefer that they don't read the adventures. There is other material, such as the Savage Frontier guide in SKT that I have no problem with them reading at this time. After the events pass, I don't care if they read them either. There are all sorts of secrets in those three adventures.Those secrets might have a material impact on the campaign. Obvious the BW/DW group might feel differently, but D&D players would probably universally agree that it's bad form for a player to read an adventure that they will, or might, play in as a character. I'm not sure there is such a thing as a published BW/DW adventure.</blockquote>

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