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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9533595" data-attributes="member: 42582">The examples that have been given in this thread are not of the GM reminding players of their fictional position. They have been of GM's stipulating fictional position - eg because the PC is on another plane, or in another part of the world, they lose their ability to &quot;<a href="https://www.dndbeyond.com/backgrounds/8-criminal-spy?srsltid=AfmBOoqREdImTN1tSDXx-MJ34fgHE1F6RZXrqvC53kazXi9s2i6upoXi" target="_blank">know the local messengers, corrupt caravan masters, and seedy sailors who can deliver messages for you.</a>&quot;For reasons that I hope are obvious, I describe this sort of GM stipulation of fictional positioning, so as to defeat player action declarations, railroading.This seems to be an example of pointless exaggeration.Here is my post:So, to reiterate, it seems to me that part of the point of the Criminal background is that the player is relieved of any obligation to actually play through all the minutiae of making contacts, etc. That is all subsumed within their use of their background ability.Why do you think this is comparable to a diplomatic audience with the king? Do you think that meeting up with the shady caravan master, so as to get them to take the first step of sending a message to your contact, is as exciting as the audience with the king? Do you also require the players of spellcasters to actually speak the words of their spells? Or the player of the scroll-scriber to actually write out the sigils using a goose-quill pen?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9533595, member: 42582"] The examples that have been given in this thread are not of the GM [I]reminding[/I] players of their fictional position. They have been of GM's [I]stipulating[/I] fictional position - eg because the PC is on another plane, or in another part of the world, they lose their ability to "[url=https://www.dndbeyond.com/backgrounds/8-criminal-spy?srsltid=AfmBOoqREdImTN1tSDXx-MJ34fgHE1F6RZXrqvC53kazXi9s2i6upoXi]know the local messengers, corrupt caravan masters, and seedy sailors who can deliver messages for you.[/url]" For reasons that I hope are obvious, I describe this sort of GM stipulation of fictional positioning, so as to defeat player action declarations, [I]railroading[/I]. This seems to be an example of pointless exaggeration. Here is my post: So, to reiterate, it seems to me that part of the point of the Criminal background is that the player is relieved of any obligation to actually play through all the minutiae of making contacts, etc. That is all subsumed within their use of their background ability. Why do you think this is comparable to a diplomatic audience with the king? Do [I]you[/I] think that meeting up with the shady caravan master, so as to get them to take the first step of sending a message to your contact, is as exciting as the audience with the king? Do you also require the players of spellcasters to actually speak the words of their spells? Or the player of the scroll-scriber to actually write out the sigils using a goose-quill pen? [/QUOTE]

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