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<blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 5408352" data-attributes="member: 26473">They're not completely separate - the first applies to most cases of the second, but the first also applies to cases which are not the second as well.For example, the adventurers decide to seek out information on a mysterious man in black from a random encounter. They decide to check out a tavern near where they encountered the mystery man; my prep assists me in improvising the encounter so that it's consistent with genre-emulation and the setting.The difference is what I think of as having a 'light touch on the controls.' Am I directing an encounter at the adventurers, or am I creating an environment in which such an encounter may take place?I only direct encounters at the adventurers in response to specific actions they take which are likely to provoke a response - frex, I'll assign a probability that the man-in-black hears word of the adventurers looking for him, and he'll react as appropriate to his nature and circumstances. The players act, through their characters, and I react, through the setting.By randomizing those slice-of-life encounters, and including the possibility for coincidences, I'm setting the world in motion and to the extent practicable letting it play out on its own, subject to the actions of the adventurers. There are obviously boundaries and limitations to this approach, but it's as close as I can get to an autonomous simulation of the game-world.It heightens an element of surprise on both sides of the screen, it makes the role of the referee more reactive than proactive, and it preserves the feel of the game as a game, all in my experience, of course.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Shaman, post: 5408352, member: 26473"] They're not completely separate - the first applies to most cases of the second, but the first also applies to cases which are not the second as well. For example, the adventurers decide to seek out information on a mysterious man in black from a random encounter. They decide to check out a tavern near where they encountered the mystery man; my prep assists me in improvising the encounter so that it's consistent with genre-emulation and the setting.The difference is what I think of as having a 'light touch on the controls.' Am I directing an encounter at the adventurers, or am I creating an environment in which such an encounter may take place? I only direct encounters at the adventurers in response to specific actions they take which are likely to provoke a response - frex, I'll assign a probability that the man-in-black hears word of the adventurers looking for him, and he'll react as appropriate to his nature and circumstances. The players act, through their characters, and I react, through the setting. By randomizing those slice-of-life encounters, and including the possibility for coincidences, I'm setting the world in motion and to the extent practicable letting it play out on its own, subject to the actions of the adventurers. There are obviously boundaries and limitations to this approach, but it's as close as I can get to an autonomous simulation of the game-world.It heightens an element of surprise on both sides of the screen, it makes the role of the referee more reactive than proactive, and it preserves the feel of the game as a game, all in my experience, of course. [/QUOTE]

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