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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shoak1" data-source="post: 7166772" data-attributes="member: 54380">Very thorough post - lets see if we can come to some greater understanding of each other:Doesn't your approach necessitate creating content as they go, if they have freedom of movement?  Or is your sandbox tightly bounded and everything therein detailed?  If your style does necessitate creation of content, random generated content, or plug-and-play content, then it is in the "other" category from mine.I was not referring to that type of false choice actually.  I mean this:  The PCs have two villages to go to, and neither is predetermined by the DM.  They choose village A.  The DM decides there is a thieving juggler there.  Who would have been in Village B if they had gone there?  Maybe the thieving juggler, maybe someone else - who knows?  Many players feel like their choice of village therefore had little meaning. as opposed to choosing between two villages that already exist when they get there.Very well articulated again - now here is where we can really make some headway in understanding.  Your school of thought is very compelling but it is predicated on the idea that there is no degree of taint, only taint or no taint.  In other words, lets say the players decide to smoke out the occupants of a castle, literally.  Now I have to figure out what bad guys do what, and its a contingency not directly addressed in my write-up.  So I have to make some arbitrary decisions on the spot.  But because I have thoroughly detailed the castle, its occupants, their motivations, etc, I can do this with a minimum of taint.  It's definitely not "clean,"  but its a far cry from not having the castle detailed in the first place.Again, I can see how many people could view that as a fine way to play.  But to me and those of my school of thought, inserting plug and play and/or random content between a cause (a player decision) and an effect serves as a fundamental break between that cause and effect.Here lies the fundamental difference - your players seem OK with options 1 or 2, but mine don't.  Those options involve an event between cause and effect, and that inevitably alters the effect.  To my school of thought, that's a mathematical actuality.  Your school of thought sees it (correct me if i am wrong) as a defining part of the game.</blockquote>

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