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<blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 5039940" data-attributes="member: 8835">It you try to keep too many balls juggling, you will likely start dropping some.&nbsp; Therefore, there's diminishing value in trying to run too many plots.Furthermore, anything the PCs don't know, doesn't effectively exist.&nbsp; The proof of this is that if you stop running it, the PCs don't notice anything.&nbsp; Thus, running plots the PCs don't know about is pointless.&nbsp; You can instead, invent a plot when the PCs are ready and act as if it existed all along and they've only uncovered it.If you have too many &quot;bad guy&quot; plots running that the PCs know about, but can only resolve one or two at a time, then the others will be ignored.&nbsp; That in turn means the bad guy will win, or you will have to invent a reason as to why it failed (heroic NPC party).&nbsp; That in turn undermines the PCs doing anything, since they could always just let the NPCs' deal with it.&nbsp; If the Bad guys win, odds are good it will change the game universe dramatically, possibly more than you initially intended. Basically, if you have more bad guys than good guys, the bad guys will ultimately win.&nbsp; Thus if you want to generally maintain the status quo, you need to limit yourself to a small number of concurrent bad guy plots.There's a temptation to make the sandbox a giant living breathing simulation.&nbsp; The problem is, you are a human, not a computer.&nbsp; The computer has no problem processing the goals and actions of every NPC in the campaign world.&nbsp; A human isn't so good at doing that.&nbsp; Furthermore, we humans tend to be myopic, focussed only on ourselves and our interests (friends, business, enemies, goals).&nbsp; The result is, as players in the game of life, we don't notice all the concurrent sub-plots every NPC is running anyway.So as a DM, take some short cuts.&nbsp; Only run what you need to keep the PCs interested and busy.&nbsp; The rest doesn't exist until a PC looks at it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Janx, post: 5039940, member: 8835"] It you try to keep too many balls juggling, you will likely start dropping some. Therefore, there's diminishing value in trying to run too many plots. Furthermore, anything the PCs don't know, doesn't effectively exist. The proof of this is that if you stop running it, the PCs don't notice anything. Thus, running plots the PCs don't know about is pointless. You can instead, invent a plot when the PCs are ready and act as if it existed all along and they've only uncovered it. If you have too many "bad guy" plots running that the PCs know about, but can only resolve one or two at a time, then the others will be ignored. That in turn means the bad guy will win, or you will have to invent a reason as to why it failed (heroic NPC party). That in turn undermines the PCs doing anything, since they could always just let the NPCs' deal with it. If the Bad guys win, odds are good it will change the game universe dramatically, possibly more than you initially intended. Basically, if you have more bad guys than good guys, the bad guys will ultimately win. Thus if you want to generally maintain the status quo, you need to limit yourself to a small number of concurrent bad guy plots. There's a temptation to make the sandbox a giant living breathing simulation. The problem is, you are a human, not a computer. The computer has no problem processing the goals and actions of every NPC in the campaign world. A human isn't so good at doing that. Furthermore, we humans tend to be myopic, focussed only on ourselves and our interests (friends, business, enemies, goals). The result is, as players in the game of life, we don't notice all the concurrent sub-plots every NPC is running anyway. So as a DM, take some short cuts. Only run what you need to keep the PCs interested and busy. The rest doesn't exist until a PC looks at it. [/QUOTE]

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