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Message: <blockquote data-quote="merwins" data-source="post: 7883262" data-attributes="member: 6829883">There is only a fine line if you have A plan for the players. There is no line at all if you have a vibrant world, with a story independent of the PCs.IOW, if you want the PCs to do something, you're going to have to do a bit of railroading. But if you only care about the consequences of their actions, then you only need to extend the impact of their actions to a reasoned conclusion. The world does the rest.This is especially useful when you put the work into designing a scenario (single focused event) or adventure (a coherently connected set of scenarios). When I was younger, I'd consider all that work wasted if the players ignored or subverted it. Now, I just play it out myself... Example: PCs find a powerful magic item while undertaking another task. It has strong... deterrents to being wielded casually. Rather than pay the price to wield it, they abandon trying to acquire it, intending to return when they have better protection against its defenses. On their return to civilization, they're cagey about what they've found, but an NPC figures out they left something behind, and searches it out, and recovers the item for themself.Same thing happens if PCs explore half a dungeon and then leave. Who's moving in?Or if they kill roving bandits on the road. Who where the bandits related to? Were they passing through, or regulars? Was there a planned hit that was disrupted (unknowingly) by the PCs? What's the consequence of that target surviving their ambush? Or if they're in a situation where they can watch a fight or be part of it. Both are viable choices, with very different consequences.None of this has to be planned BEFORE the fact. You can backfill stories pretty smoothly.I'm very much in the same camp as [USER=6801845]@Oofta[/USER] when it comes to metaplot/campaign planning. There's a solid skeleton of a plan, but you don't put meat on the bones unless your effort is going to pay off--that the players are actually going to use that content.</blockquote>

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