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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KesselZero" data-source="post: 5840090" data-attributes="member: 6689976">I think this is really the heart of the old-school/new-school divide, at least as I see it. Around the time of 2e the focus of D&D shifted from dungeon/hexcrawling to telling a coherent, epic story starring the characters. I read a good essay somewhere about how this started with the Dragonlance campaign, which let the players play the characters from the novels-- including, for the characters who get killed off in the novels, knowing exactly when, where, and how your PC will die.So if your focus is on telling coherent stories and making the mechanics of the game fit them, then yes, nicely balanced encounters and no random monsters make sense. But if your focus is on letting the dice fall how they may and having stories arise from the game, then that element of randomness, balanced by player skill, makes more sense.In both cases, the game tells a story. In old-school gaming, the story arises from the situations the game creates. In new-school gaming, the situations of the game are created to fit a pre-existing story. I personally love both styles of play, and think both can be taken to dangerous extremes.</blockquote>