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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wolf1066" data-source="post: 5182770" data-attributes="member: 88680">I thought I was... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />And in what way is the springing of a particular tavern with particular NPCs and an interesting situation (as I was referring to in my post) "stringing those together into a complete ballgame"?When you create those interesting people, situations and curveballs - prior to game time, going by the next quote, in what way are you disagreeing with my practice of creating interesting people, situations and curveballs?I'm not saying that the characters have to respond to them in a certain way - my notes are full of "contingencies" as it were: all the information I think I might need no matter which way they decide to play it.  If they plan to fight, fine, I've got the stats for that, if they want to get information, I have that, too - and so on.And a "random" encounter worked out prior to the game differs from what I was discussing in what respect?  You seem to be assuming that because I said I have no problem with a situation or an NPC being sprung on the PCs, that they are expected to respond to it in a set way.That is not the case at all - I provide the "stories" that are running in the place they are in - "stories" (lives of NPCs who have goals within the game world) that the players can interact with as they like - or not if they so desire, they can wander off elsewhere. But I see nothing wrong with springing one of those stories - in the form of those NPCs or their actions - on the PCs, wherever and whenever might reasonably fit in with the game world.And the same happens in the adventures I run.  A case in point:  I decided to see how the players would react to being not merely mugged, but mugged by an armed 11-year-old.  Legally, they could shoot him as a clear and present danger, realistically, however, they'd cop all kinds of flak for that and probably wouldn't feel too great.So the next time the players were just wandering about on foot, I had this character accost them at gunpoint.  I had no idea how they would react - kill him, disarm him somehow, no idea.One of the players gave him the money from his wallet and said "I like your style, if you want to earn more, I've got work for you."The player then worked the kid into a plot he came up with to mess with the heads of the other player characters.  He told me in secret what he was doing or planning so I could convey to the PCs what they saw going on around them.  They had utterly no idea that a lot of what was happening was being done by this kid at a fellow player's behest.The kid was a character I created and sprung on them - they "had no choice" about that.  And that sounds remarkably similar to:And likewise, creating a world with a large number of "known quantities" in it, ready made NPCs with their own agendas and goals bustling around in that world and striving to get what they want is "setting-building" as well.There's a world of difference, as previously noted, between a "false choice" of whether or not they encounter a situation or character (which, going by your post you seem to have no problem with) and a false choice of whether or not they succeed (all doors lead to the magic sword or whatever).</blockquote>

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