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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheSword" data-source="post: 7895932" data-attributes="member: 6879661">I like to have things planned out in advance. I do a lot of conversion from other systems and like to have stat blocks prep-printed. Treasure/rewards already worked out and skill DCs set etc.However I make mistakes, because I’m human. So instead of punishing players for getting something wrong, I correct as I go, where I can. I heartily agree that the whole campaign exist in a state of flux, until it hits the table - and even until the last damage dice is rolled.The problem with expecting things to be pre-arranged is that it relies on two things: exhaustive preparation and an infallible DM. They first is onerous and the second is imaginary!Sure I’m not a fan of games where DMs make the whole session up on the fly but we have to acknowledge that as long as the Players are all having fun it’s groovy.In my campaign the rogue of the party had to deliver some potions of mind reading to an unknown person. Along the way they were stolen and the party recovered them but not before finding out that they were actually deadly poison. The rogue made the delivery to a person who turned out to be someone they already met and quite liked. She needed the potions of mind reading for a party she was intending where she intended to rob the host. The rogue wanted to follow orders though and didn’t mention the poison to her. The adventure had ‘written’ that if this happens the thief gets poisoned and maybe survives to take revenge.After speaking to his contact and the rest of the party he changed his mind and wanted to prevent the poisoning. He worked out the location of the party, they laced the servants breakfast with emetics so they couldn’t work, one of them posed as a noble who volunteered to help his ‘neighbour’ by loaning his own servants for the soirée. The pcs then acted as servants, badly serving dinner until able to slip the unaware thief a note saying the potions were poisoned... just in time.The whole second paragraph was made up on the fly, the noble, the dinner party, whether emetics that could incapacitate servants existed and were available... everything short of the thief NPC. Now would it be better to say the thief was dead or an enemyand not give them the chance to correct the earlier decision?Making things up, and changing things is a DM’s responsibility where it makes the game more fun.</blockquote>

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