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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7166904" data-attributes="member: 6778044">No approach along the continuum of sandbox to linear requires creating content as you go. It might mean there are more points of not so much content. For example, if you play in the Forgotten Realms, you could choose to play with nothing but published sourcebooks. That's what's there. Nothing else. That's not the way it was intended, but it can be used that way.My personal campaign uses a lot of improvisation. In order for the players to have complete control over their characters and to write their own story, I have to be flexible and be able to improvise. That's not because it's a sandbox, nor does it preclude a linear approach either. It's because I don't want to break that immersion. The illusion that they are real characters in a real world, making real choices. That doesn't mean that there won't be any outside forces that work against that. Things like madness, charm, and similar effects can take away control of their characters, even temporarily. They may be the target of other people, for whatever reason.But if they don't go to the other village, and even if they do, how do they know if the DM had prepared it ahead of time or not? Why would that change the actual play experience. That's the point where I get totally lost. Unless you investigate option #2, you have no idea what option #2 is. Whether it exists actually only matters if you do. If you don't, it's just wasted time on the part of the DM or author.Your argument is that it's a break between cause and effect. What's really important in my mind is the game experience. If it's a tournament, where you're trying to see which group does it best, then everything must be the same, or it's not a fair test. But most games aren't tournaments. I can provide the small play experience if everything is prepped ahead of time, or using a number of other tools and techniques to fill in the gaps. You won't know the difference, and frankly, I can probably provide a better play experience if I can improvise simply because I can address the moment at that point in time better than I can guess what's going to happen.And that I don't really have a clue what you mean by taint <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Why are they arbitrary? If you have an outline of the castle, its occupants, and motivations, then none of their decisions should be arbitrary. Is that what taint is? Arbitrary?Just because you haven't outlined every activity, action, or possibility doesn't mean that the DM's decisions must be arbitrary. Sometimes they might be. But they don't have to be. When something happens in my campaign, And is that the goal of the game? To maintain integrity between cause and effect? I certainly don't think it is by default. There are much better options if that's the primary goal.Certainly not a defining part of the game. The only defining part of the game to me is that the DM provides the bulk of the setting and non-player character info and action, and the players provide that for their characters. Anything else is just different ways to do it. Even the amount of material under DM and player control has some flexibility, although there's a point (a gray fuzzy line) where you start morphing to shared story-telling, or a Story Now approach (and those aren't necessarily the same thing).Actually, here's what I think nails the difference between what you like, and what I like. I won't speak for others, and this has nothing to do with play style (tactical, escapist), design (sandbox, linear), and encompasses pretty much any DM techniques as well.To you, the integrity between cause and effect in the game is paramount (or at least very, very important).To me, the integrity between cause and effect in the game world is more important than that in the game. I call it consistency.If the game world is consistent, then the players can maintain the immersion in their characters and not be drawn out into the real world and the recognition that they are playing a game.</blockquote>

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