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

[Lanefan]

There is then a sense in which this is, in microcosm, the potential issue with location based adventures. People who write modules can come up with all kinds of encounters and locations that will never see use in a particular game, because they will come up in someone's game (and they're being paid). But if you're prepping for a home game that's a lot of work that may not see use.

I just accept it as a fact of life that not everything I prep will be used (and that of course they'll beeline for the thing I didn't prep!). Hell, if they miss enough of it maybe I can reskin it and use it again later as something else (as in same map, different occupants, different backstory).

If they miss something irrelevant e.g. a side part of a dungeon, no worries. If they miss something important, they're either going to have to live without it or go back and look again.

It also depends how in-depth your prep is. Some people take it to far greater extremes than I do - for me, a map (which is the part that takes time) and some quick scratch notes are often enough.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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[Larnievc]

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!

Yeah, that's all good. I don't leave anything they need to know/find to chance. Stuff they COULD miss is never really important in my games.

And I do fudge (both for and against) to keep the drama going.

 

[Prakriti]

People were quoting the PHB/DMG earlier in the thread, so I thought I'd mention this relevant passage in the DMG that I just ran across (p. 108, Mapping a Wilderness):

"If the party veers off track, you might be able to relocate one or more of your planned encounters elsewhere on the map to ensure that the time spent preparing those encounters doesn't go to waste."​

Sounds like an official endorsement to me.

 

[Fenris-77]

People get uptight about 'playing the right way' the same way other people get upset about 'canon' and all sorts of other things. Personally, I try not to tell other people how to play, nor am I keen on having someone else tell me i'm 'doing it wrong'. Those people can get off my lawn.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think you want to avoid this.

We head West. You encounter a red dragon
We head east. You encounter a red dragon
We head south. You encounter a ....
We head north you enc.......

Probably want to be a bit more subtle.

 

[Fenris-77]

I think you want to avoid this.

We head West. You encounter a red dragon
We head east. You encounter a red dragon
We head south. You encounter a ....
We head north you enc.......

Probably want to be a bit more subtle.

I also try to avoid straw-manning perfectly legitimate points of view. How about you?

 

[NotAYakk]

I also try to avoid straw-manning perfectly legitimate points of view. How about you?

You reply west. You encounter a red strawman.
You reply south. You encounter a red strawman.
You reply no...

 

[Zardnaar]

You reply west. You encounter a red strawman.
You reply south. You encounter a red strawman.
You reply no...

How's it strawmanning? I do the unavoidable encounter thing but I try to hide it or make it organic.

If the PCs go out if their way to avoid it I won't do it with maybe the exception of they're being hunted and whatever is hunting them can counter their counter.

Note the encounter may be non hostile. If they meet an old man with canaries they met the old man man with canaries.

 

[Seramus]

If altering reality based on the actions of your players is "cheating" then all tabletop gaming is cheating. Every single arbitration is biased by knowledge of the players and their choices. The only way to avoid that would be... to play a video game? Where third party programming means the module is literally incapable of being influenced by your players?