D&D General No Fixed Location -- dynamically rearranging items, monsters, and other game elements in the interests of storytelling

[Prakriti]

Let me start by saying that fudging numbers is against my DM code. I would never do it. However, I find myself engaging in a different kind of fudging more and more: changing item locations (and other elements) mid-adventure.

Maybe it's not fudging. Maybe it has a better name that I'm not aware of. All I know is that it's a great and dynamic way to handle pacing and storytelling within a game. It can be used to reward exploration, advance the plot, or impart information. Let me give a few examples:

Rewarding Exploration
The party is investigating an old house with a lot of fireplaces in it. Only one fireplace has any treasure inside (behind a loose brick). It would suck if the players investigated one fireplace, found nothing, and were discouraged from investigating any others. So instead of putting treasure inside only one of the fireplaces, the treasure now has no fixed location. It's inside whichever fireplace the party happens to investigate first.

Advancing the Plot
The party doesn't know it, but there's an important document inside the dungeon that will turn their world upside down and send them on their next adventure. Since finding the document is imperative to the plot, giving it a fixed location wouldn't necessarily be the best idea -- the party might never find it. So instead, the document is wherever the players happen to look. Do they search an old desk? Papers. Do they find a treasure chest? Papers. Do they search someone's body? Papers. It might seem ham-fisted, but it's better than having to nudge the party in the right direction later.

Imparting Information
The party is struggling through a dungeon that ends with a fireball-casting wizard. You want the players to know what they're up against so they can prepare accordingly (by preparing absorb elements, boosting their Dex saves, acquiring fire resistance, etc.). There's a clue in part of the dungeon -- maybe a large scorch mark that any Arcana-proficient character can recognize as the aftermath of a fireball spell. But if you want the party to have this information, then why leave it up to chance? Drop it into any room that the party happens to visit.

So, what would you call this sort of thing? Is it fudging? And what do you think of it as a DMing tool? Is it wrong? Is it good? Do you ever do it yourself, or is it against your DMing code? Let me know!

 

[Zaukrie]

This is exactly what sly flourish would tell you to do.....reward the players for doing what they are doing, don't punish them by having gotchas......

 

[Umbran]

Let me start by saying that fudging numbers is against my DM code. I would never do it. However, I find myself engaging in a different kind of fudging more and more: changing item locations (and other elements) mid-adventure.

Maybe it's not fudging. Maybe it has a better name that I'm not aware of.

Try, "Editing".

Like, in the sense of editing a film. Cutting out junk you realize isn't going to be an addition to the flow, rearranging things when you recognize that the backstory for the whole thing has a plot hole in it the players discovered that you didn't, and now you have to patch that mid-session, realizing that the thing is running slow now, or the climax moment is happening over there instead of where you expected, and so on.

 

[Fenris-77]

I do this all the time, and actually design a lot of my adventure elements with this idea specifically in mind.

 

[TwoSix]

I can't imagine not doing it. The only time I don't is if I put in optional rewards designed to specifically reward exploration, and that isn't very often.

 

[iserith]

Rewarding Exploration
The party is investigating an old house with a lot of fireplaces in it. Only one fireplace has any treasure inside (behind a loose brick). It would suck if the players investigated one fireplace, found nothing, and were discouraged from investigating any others. So instead of putting treasure inside only one of the fireplaces, the treasure now has no fixed location. It's inside whichever fireplace the party happens to investigate first.

Generally in my games the only way you're finding treasure is by being reasonably thorough in your exploration. (You get XP for combat and social interaction challenges, but usually no treasure.) In a case like the above, something's going to be described differently about that fireplace to provide a clue that it's worth searching further. The players may pick up on the clue or they may miss it, but the clue will be embedded in the description of the environment. If they miss it, oh well.

Advancing the Plot
The party doesn't know it, but there's an important document inside the dungeon that will turn their world upside down and send them on their next adventure. Since finding the document is imperative to the plot, giving it a fixed location wouldn't necessarily be the best idea -- the party might never find it. So instead, the document is wherever the players happen to look. Do they search an old desk? Papers. Do they find a treasure chest? Papers. Do they search someone's body? Papers. It might seem ham-fisted, but it's better than having to nudge the party in the right direction later.

I try to avoid plot-based adventures or "storylines" altogether. There's a lot of problems with them that make DMing it harder and less satisfying in my view. That said, I have run them and am running one now. It's just not my preference.

Imparting Information
The party is struggling through a dungeon that ends with a fireball-casting wizard. You want the players to know what they're up against so they can prepare accordingly (by preparing absorb elements, boosting their Dex saves, acquiring fire resistance, etc.). There's a clue in part of the dungeon -- maybe a large scorch mark that any Arcana-proficient character can recognize as the aftermath of a fireball spell. But if you want the party to have this information, then why leave it up to chance? Drop it into any room that the party happens to visit.

I'll probably just find another way to telegraph the wizard's presence that is assured - a rumor back in town, a clue in an antechamber that you can't avoid to get to the wizard, a monster in the dungeon that spills the beans. That sort of thing.

So, what would you call this sort of thing? Is it fudging? And what do you think of it as a DMing tool? Is it wrong? Is it good? Do you ever do it yourself, or is it against your DMing code? Let me know!

I don't really think anything matters until it is introduced in play. So changing things up before that happens is just fine in my view. I just tend not to do that for the reasons you state above.

 

[NotAYakk]

Part of the above can be solved with the three clue rule.

There are 3 clues that the BBEG will use fire magic. There are 3 clues that will turn their world upside down and lead to the next adventure.

Not 1 you move to where they are looking.

And you can recurse; you can have 3 clues pointing at one (or each) of those important clues.

If there is a treasure you want to reward exploration (and not 3 treasures) offer 3 clues to that treasure. One fireplace has a brick with letters describing the secret room. At the room itself, there is a bookcase where one book is inappropriate (pushing it opens the door). There is an air vent with a foul smell coming from it that leads to that secret room.

The brick? There are 3 clues to it; a bundle of papers mentions it obliquely, it is the biggest and fanciest fireplace and has a elemental memphit guarding it, and there are blueprints of the house with notes working out how safe fireproof bricks are for storage of paper behind them.

The effect of this 3 fold thing is that it populates more of the situation. A whole pile of content was added as a side effect to adding clues. And recursing adds even more.

You can also use the rule that everything serves two purposes. One of them can be verimissitude (that the world feels real), but that can be a cop out. Each of those clues we can connect to something else plot wise.

The stinking air vent can have a fungus encounter in it. The architectual papers can.have notes about the ritual circle in the basement, or on magic-resistant construction techniques and how to bypass them. The papers that mention the letters in the fireplace can also provide the information that upends the PCs world view (or clues about it). The treasure room itself can have a clue about something different.

This can help avoid railroading tendencies we all have. The world becomes full of connections, and not just the path we preplanned. Players could end up approaching our next plot arc along a 3 different directions!


And as a bonus, players sometimes see confirmation of their exploration information. Which can add to enjoyment and encourage exploration.

 

[Fenris-77]

I do both! I like multiple clues and I usually have at least one that I can float around should the players go significantly off piste. I'm not going to railroad player action, players gonna play, but I certainly can drop the information they need in front of them no matter where they end up, or at least some of the information. Good thread.

 

[Charlaquin]

Haha when 4e recommended your did this with magic items, everyone lost their minds.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I prefer to think of it as rearranging, like moving furniture around. I do a bit of this, especially when I'm improvising (I try to mix set and improvised occurrences when I DM).

If something has to happen to move the adventure forward, sometimes I won't have a specific solution or event, but will rely on the players to fill those parts in with what they do. If they need to discover what the secret of the wizard Blort is, I might just leave that section blank (or put notes on the DC, if appropriate) and let the players figure out how they find out Blort's secret (as opposed to saying that his unhappy apprentice Schloppie IV is the key).

But I also don't like just re-using the same content regardless of what the PCs do - if left and right don't matter, then that damages their agency. I'm more likely to adapt and take bits and pieces than just move the whole thing over.