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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quasqueton" data-source="post: 2508206" data-attributes="member: 3854">DM's: Have you ever sacrificed cause and effect to prevent the derailment of a game?Say the PCs seem skittish about going on an adventure for some imaginary reason that they came up with by seeing a connection between actually unrelated events. Then they do something foolish that will cause trouble for them. Would/have you ignore the trouble so the PCs won't be distracted or scared completely off the adventure, even though the trouble would be an honest reaction to their foolish act?Say the PCs have are preparing to leave town for a dungeon adventure that you've been trying to get them into for a while. Then the night before they leave, the dwarf fighter gets into a barroom brawl and ends up killing someone. The "true" cause-and-effect should have the town guard looking for the dwarf to arrest and try. But that would of course put off the adventure even more, or perhaps would completely kill the adventure as the PCs get wrapped up in the town incident and possibly flee in another direction. Would/have you let the town guard be slow to respond, or maybe the dead man was a troublemaker -- someone the town is happy to be rid of. And let the PCs go on with the planned adventure with repercussions from the barroom killing?How about the PCs are on the trail of the BBEG they've been after for months (building to a climax for the campaign), then they make a strange leap of logic that ties a completely unrelated NPC with the BBEG. They stop pursuing the BBEG to look into the unrelated NPC. Would/have you have the BBEG "wait around" for some reason while the PCs investigate the unrelated NPC and get their sites back on the real target?Are you absolutely willing to sacrifice the planned adventure to follow through on cause and effect or verisimilitude? Or have you ever sacrificed cause and effect/verisimilitude to keep the PCs on track for the planned adventure? If you've sacrificed either, did you regret the choice?Quasqueton</blockquote>

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