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<blockquote data-quote="Zhure" data-source="post: 961485" data-attributes="member: 308">The key phrase is &quot;if the party has the time.&quot; The problem then is time. As the GM you control the flow of time and events and in a lot of cases, presenting scenarios with implied event-driven constraints will discourage the use of brute force. If knocking the wall down will take a day, and they PCs have to get through the wall in six hours to save the blahblah from the blah, then they have to find a faster method.I tend to run time-intensive segments or story arcs, followed by extended downtime. And I do without announcing ahead of time which is which, thus putting pressure on the preparation-casters to withhold some spells in reserve for later combats and encounters, yet still allowing them to get long term goals accomplished, like making magic items, using craft and professional skills, or socially interacting with NPCs.I also use a partial time-intensive plots. Using tonight's game as an example, the PCs had some choices to make about how to deal with a besieged city. Going one way, or partaking in one adventure would have precipitated other events, changing the flow of the story. They chose to sneak out via the catacombs (which I hadn't really expected) even though it'd been presented as an option. Because of leaving the city and avoiding my planned encounters, it changed the flow of events and isolated them outside the city (the sally port hidden in the catacombs was compromised by them leaving and the priests who controlled the burial chambers sealed off the secret exit from the city.) Now they're outside the city, low on spells and could take the time to crack through via the way they came out, but it would attract the besieging army's full attention.Greg</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Zhure, post: 961485, member: 308"] The key phrase is "if the party has the time." The problem then is time. As the GM you control the flow of time and events and in a lot of cases, presenting scenarios with implied event-driven constraints will discourage the use of brute force. If knocking the wall down will take a day, and they PCs have to get through the wall in six hours to save the blahblah from the blah, then they have to find a faster method. I tend to run time-intensive segments or story arcs, followed by extended downtime. And I do without announcing ahead of time which is which, thus putting pressure on the preparation-casters to withhold some spells in reserve for later combats and encounters, yet still allowing them to get long term goals accomplished, like making magic items, using craft and professional skills, or socially interacting with NPCs. I also use a partial time-intensive plots. Using tonight's game as an example, the PCs had some choices to make about how to deal with a besieged city. Going one way, or partaking in one adventure would have precipitated other events, changing the flow of the story. They chose to sneak out via the catacombs (which I hadn't really expected) even though it'd been presented as an option. Because of leaving the city and avoiding my planned encounters, it changed the flow of events and isolated them outside the city (the sally port hidden in the catacombs was compromised by them leaving and the priests who controlled the burial chambers sealed off the secret exit from the city.) Now they're outside the city, low on spells and could take the time to crack through via the way they came out, but it would attract the besieging army's full attention. Greg [/QUOTE]

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