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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wolf1066" data-source="post: 5181809" data-attributes="member: 88680">Quite correct.  It also has other factors I'll mention below.After something has been established as a part of the game world, it is there. It cannot be changed by a handwave. To contradict something that already entered the game, one needs a good reason, supported by the rules and group's play style. One needs consistency. For example, in D&D, if the PCs encountered a tavern but didn't enter it, it could later be stated as being an illusion (ok by the rules - no interaction, no roll for disbelief) - but then, a question would follow, who created it and why.</blockquote>And if the the tavern was not talked about or encountered as in the first instance and merely seen but not entered in the directly preceding, how is anyone to know that it's that tavern?Presuming of course, that "that" tavern is the one that the GM wants the players to enter so they will meet certain NPCs or have a particular adventure.Taverns are all over the place, people may or may not go into them.  Sooner or later, most people do.And as Steenan points out, unless it has previously been established that "that tavern" is the Duck and Drake, next to the haberdashers on the main street of Thryss in the Kingdom of Mungbean, who is going to know that the tavern (or at least the characters/events in side it) has "jumped" to wherever the PCs happen to be - except the GM, of course, as (s)he is the one who did it.And if the GM was just waiting for the players to wander into a tavern - any tavern - just so (s)he could spring the events/NPCs on them...Who cares?Honestly.  What?  The GM should throw away a perfectly good plot they've sweated blood over or paid money for just because the PCs didn't wander into the exact tavern the GM initially decided (or module said) the events should happen in?  It's better for the players to spend their entire game night acting out the parts of a bunch of travellers who turn up at a tavern where absolutely nothing is going on - so as not to take away their "choice" to be bored out of their cotton-picking minds?Frankly, if I want the players to meet a certain NPC or find themselves in the midst of a brawl or at the scene of an accident, then I'll happily move the NPC, brawlers or MVA to wherever the players decide to go - I'm not wedded to events having to happen in any particular place.  If my original imagining of the character is that he hangs out in the Bricklayer's Arms and the night I want to introduce him to the players they elect to visit the Elephant and Castle, then it's the Elephant and Castle where he appears.  In the unlikely event that it's vitally important to the plot that the pub is his usual watering hole, then that's what it'll suddenly become (players won't know I changed it and wouldn't care if they did) - and whenever they go back there, he's likely to be around.Note that above I said "meet", "find themselves in the midst of" and "at the scene of" - I've said nothing about them agreeing to anything the NPC has offered/said or becoming involved in either situation.  Just that the opportunity is there - whether the players choose to do something about it is up to them.My finding has generally been my players want me to come up with things for them to get involved in - and some have gotten rather disappointed in the past if it is obvious that I am using random variables to determine what happens/who they meet because I have skimped on prep work for the session and not put together a proper evening's gaming for them.  Frankly, they expect "a show" - and I'd better give them one, which entails dropping them into a situation.  They don't go to the pub/tavern for a quiet drink, they go there hoping something interesting is going to happen there or on the way there.My players have no desire to sit around my lounge doing nothing and no desire to just beat on random villains that pop out of the woodwork, they want an adventure that takes them places and stretches their boundaries.  So even if I candidly said "I've been waiting for you to go to a pub for ages so I could hit you with that scenario", my players wouldn't give a damn.And frankly, if someone did it to me, I wouldn't care, either - provided the evening's gaming was fun and I got to roleplay in an interesting situation.However, if I told them in repeatedly and well in advance that Mick the Fink always hangs out at the Lido surrounded by his cronies and then spring an encounter with him on them while they're at the Rose and Crown, they'd certainly have an issue with the lack of consistency - unless I could provide a plausible explanation for the change.[/QUOTE]

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