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<blockquote data-quote="Nareau" data-source="post: 2177359" data-attributes="member: 969">In a larger picture, I do this all the time.&nbsp; Someone on these very boards coined my favorite term for it--You're schroedingering the results.See, Schroedinger postulated the whole &quot;cat in the box is neither dead nor alive until we observe it&quot; thing.&nbsp; In your case, what's hidden in the ashes isn't determined until it's observed (ie, the character searches).I'd never do this for a search roll, as you propose.&nbsp; But I LOVE doing this with magic items.&nbsp; Find a sweet magic sword at 1st level?&nbsp; Sure, ok, it's magic.&nbsp; Swing a couple of times, it seems to be a +1 longsword.&nbsp; Go get it identified at 5th level?&nbsp; Guess what--it's actually a +1 flaming sword!&nbsp; Show it to an ancient dragon at 12th level?&nbsp; Well, he remembers the time a great hero used it to slay 1000 demons; if you partner it with its original scabbard, it becomes a +3 Holy flaming sword!&nbsp; And by the time you find that scabbard at 15th level, you discover that the spirit of the great hero has awakened in the blade, making it a +3 Holy Flaming Intelligent sword!The reason I like doing that is it helps me a) control the magic items coming into the campaign, b) not feel like I have to &quot;pass out&quot; new treasure each session, c) allow a character to develop a real attachment to their cool items, instead of the standard, &quot;Oh, you found a very slightly better sword?&nbsp; OK.&nbsp; Guess I'll sell this crappy +1 at the next town...&quot;But it's more or less the same technique.&nbsp; I also like doing it with NPC's.&nbsp; &quot;Remember the crippled blacksmith from the first adventure?&nbsp; Well, it turns out he's the son of the BBEG!&quot;&nbsp; Of course, he wasn't at the time...but now that you &quot;observe&quot; him, the reality in the game changes to accomodate it.&nbsp; When you do it right, it makes you look like a really smart DM who's had the whole campaign planned out from day 1.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Spider</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Nareau, post: 2177359, member: 969"] In a larger picture, I do this all the time. Someone on these very boards coined my favorite term for it--You're [I]schroedingering[/I] the results. See, Schroedinger postulated the whole "cat in the box is neither dead nor alive until we observe it" thing. In your case, what's hidden in the ashes isn't determined until it's observed (ie, the character searches). I'd never do this for a search roll, as you propose. But I LOVE doing this with magic items. Find a sweet magic sword at 1st level? Sure, ok, it's magic. Swing a couple of times, it seems to be a +1 longsword. Go get it identified at 5th level? Guess what--it's actually a +1 flaming sword! Show it to an ancient dragon at 12th level? Well, he remembers the time a great hero used it to slay 1000 demons; if you partner it with its original scabbard, it becomes a +3 Holy flaming sword! And by the time you find that scabbard at 15th level, you discover that the spirit of the great hero has awakened in the blade, making it a +3 Holy Flaming Intelligent sword! The reason I like doing that is it helps me a) control the magic items coming into the campaign, b) not feel like I have to "pass out" new treasure each session, c) allow a character to develop a real attachment to their cool items, instead of the standard, "Oh, you found a [i]very slightly better[/i] sword? OK. Guess I'll sell this crappy +1 at the next town..." But it's more or less the same technique. I also like doing it with NPC's. "Remember the crippled blacksmith from the first adventure? Well, it turns out he's the son of the BBEG!" Of course, he wasn't at the time...but now that you "observe" him, the reality in the game changes to accomodate it. When you do it right, it makes you look like a really smart DM who's had the whole campaign planned out from day 1. ;) Spider [/QUOTE]

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