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<blockquote data-quote="RobJN" data-source="post: 1764979" data-attributes="member: 21534">Its not necessarily a matter of knowing your players, but rather, knowing their characters -- know what they're capable of, what spells, feats, skills they have on hand, and tailor encounters towards those ends. If the mage can cast fireball (the &quot;Lina Inverse solution&quot;) or burning hands, or if the PCs carry flint and steel, expect them to try to set things on fire. Surely, you've heard the old adage that when you give someone a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Plot, however, is completely separate from the &quot;mechanical&quot; end of the game. Again, know the characters, know why they are out there in the wide world, adventuring, and either work your plots towards those ends, or have the PCs be swept up in a metaplot that dovetails nicely into their personal character goals.In my early days DMing, I was a big railroader, shoveling the adventure onto the players. Nowadays, having learned from my mistakes, I have the adventure find the heroes (or at least make it seem that way.)If your plot point is down the road to the south, and the PCs head north, then move the plot point to the north. Keeping with that river analogy, let the plot flow around the characters, rather than forcing them down a road in a certain direction.Sometimes, the players' speculation about where things are going in the game are a lot better ideas than what I'd originally planned... so I &quot;borrow&quot; those expectations and run with 'em.. and they never know the difference.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="RobJN, post: 1764979, member: 21534"] Its not necessarily a matter of knowing your players, but rather, knowing their characters -- know what they're capable of, what spells, feats, skills they have on hand, and tailor encounters towards those ends. If the mage can cast [I]fireball[/I] (the "Lina Inverse solution") or [I]burning hands[/I], or if the PCs carry flint and steel, expect them to try to set things on fire. Surely, you've heard the old adage that when you give someone a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail. ;) Plot, however, is completely separate from the "mechanical" end of the game. Again, know the characters, know [I]why[/I] they are out there in the wide world, adventuring, and either work your plots towards those ends, or have the PCs be swept up in a metaplot that dovetails nicely into their personal character goals. In my early days DMing, I was a big railroader, shoveling the adventure onto the players. Nowadays, having learned from my mistakes, I have the adventure find the heroes (or at least make it seem that way.) If your plot point is down the road to the south, and the PCs head north, then move the plot point to the north. Keeping with that river analogy, let the plot flow around the characters, rather than forcing them down a road in a certain direction. Sometimes, the players' speculation about where things are going in the game are a lot better ideas than what I'd originally planned... so I "borrow" those expectations and run with 'em.. and they never know the difference. ;) [/QUOTE]

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