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Miniatures and Madness - Legends and Lore by Mike Mearls
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<blockquote data-quote="Beginning of the End" data-source="post: 5479977" data-attributes="member: 55271"><p>99 times out of 100 this is a <a href="http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/2434/roleplaying-games/on-the-importance-of-spherical-cows" target="_blank">spherical cow</a>. Such is the case with B2. If we assume that:</p><p></p><p>(1) Additional information has not been sought out by the PCs.</p><p></p><p>and </p><p></p><p>(2) The PCs don't adopt some strategy for seeking out additional information on site (checking the valley for tracks, setting up an ambush to capture an inhabitant to interrogate, placing themselves in hiding and spying upon the valley, or any number of other possibilities).</p><p></p><p>Then one can notice that most of the entrances can actually be penetrated to a depth of one or two rooms without risking combat, which means that scouting of the various choices is trivially possible.</p><p></p><p>In a similar vein, the presence of alternative choices doesn't vanish once the PCs engage with one of the caverns. Many of the caverns contain clues to what the other caverns include, and the evolving dynamics of a scenario will continue to inform future choices (even if they are as simple as "let's go some place else, it can't possibly be as bad as this" or "that was easy! let's tackle another cave right away!").</p><p></p><p>But if we lay all such considerations aside and hypothesize a beginning group that simply chooses at random and bulls their way through each complex room-by-room without much thought or interaction, the interconnected layout of the caves and the fact that they <em>could</em> have chosen a different path (even if they would have done so at random) may still teach them an important lesson. (Which will take either the form of, "Holy <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />, we died. Let's do better scouting next time." or "We sure got lucky that we came up on that ogre from behind instead of via the pit trap. I wonder if we could make our own luck next time?")</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Beginning of the End, post: 5479977, member: 55271"] 99 times out of 100 this is a [url=http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/2434/roleplaying-games/on-the-importance-of-spherical-cows]spherical cow[/url]. Such is the case with B2. If we assume that: (1) Additional information has not been sought out by the PCs. and (2) The PCs don't adopt some strategy for seeking out additional information on site (checking the valley for tracks, setting up an ambush to capture an inhabitant to interrogate, placing themselves in hiding and spying upon the valley, or any number of other possibilities). Then one can notice that most of the entrances can actually be penetrated to a depth of one or two rooms without risking combat, which means that scouting of the various choices is trivially possible. In a similar vein, the presence of alternative choices doesn't vanish once the PCs engage with one of the caverns. Many of the caverns contain clues to what the other caverns include, and the evolving dynamics of a scenario will continue to inform future choices (even if they are as simple as "let's go some place else, it can't possibly be as bad as this" or "that was easy! let's tackle another cave right away!"). But if we lay all such considerations aside and hypothesize a beginning group that simply chooses at random and bulls their way through each complex room-by-room without much thought or interaction, the interconnected layout of the caves and the fact that they [i]could[/i] have chosen a different path (even if they would have done so at random) may still teach them an important lesson. (Which will take either the form of, "Holy :):):):), we died. Let's do better scouting next time." or "We sure got lucky that we came up on that ogre from behind instead of via the pit trap. I wonder if we could make our own luck next time?") [/QUOTE]
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