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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imaro" data-source="post: 8936398" data-attributes="member: 48965">I guess my only contention with what you are asserting is, at what point have the PC's gathered enough information where they are no longer considered choosing blindly?So for example I think at least a big portion of what is being characterized as map and key play has certain procedures that have grown around it that actually move it from pure random chance into the realm of what I would consider the partially unknown. I also think this not really being acknowledged or discussed as part of the process is where some of the tension around the guesswork characterization may come from. As an example, when creating something like a West Marches game, one of the assumptions is that the player's characters will be provided with rumors and job offers which in and of themselves hint at certain truths of the game world.  So a rumor might be something like... attacks by warbands of goblins on 3 caravans to the north have been reported by surviving members of the merchant houses... While there may also be a job offering available something like... 100gp offered for the return, dead or alive of the renegade necromance Khazn-Dune, last seen fleeing to the north towards the abandoned watchtowwer...So before play even starts the PC's have some information on which to make their choices on.  They are aware that goblin tribes lie to the north, and that an old watchtower, possibly inhabited by a necromancer also lies to the north. And the assumption is that amongst a full party with 4-6 characters each with 3 or 4 rumors and access to the job board they have similar information about other areas as well.  Secondly these rumors and job offerings in and of themselves offer chances (before the start of play proper) to gather more information.  You want to know more about the goblin tribe attacks... go speak with the survivors... you want to know about the Watchtower speak with the town militia or a sage knowledgeable in history.  You want to find out about the necromancer go speak to the patron offering the bounty and so on.  I actually feel that for many this loop of kind of peeling back the onion of information layers until it's at a point where your party feels they are informed enough to tackle something is a key aspect of this type of play... though I readily admit one can end up going into a situation totally blind and/or mis-informed, but I feel that's only one of various states that players of the game can find themselves in and honestly I'm not sure in those who partake in this style of play it's necessarily considered a "failure" state..</blockquote>

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