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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 5129334" data-attributes="member: 3400">I think you're running into the issue of missing the forest because you're focusing on the trees at the one extreme. Tracking every piece of diplomatic correspondence isn't a realistic way to tackle the possibility of PCs having a possible effect, nor is assuming that the everything the PCs do has this massive butterfly effect. A middle way truly is the best way to go. Encounter tables can help you with this. If the PCs are traveling in an area where diplomatic couriers also ply their trade, put couriers on the encounter table with a reasonably appropriate frequency. If they interfere with the courier, have some decision rule for how important his messages were (low, moderate, high, critical) and then only make the effort to make a serious determination of their long-term effects for exchanges of high or critical import. And then, of course, make further adjustments locally for higher security for couriers in response to PC banditry.And if they never encounter a courier, you never have to worry about tracking diplomatic correspondence.That's just one example of finding a way to determine just what PC events may actually be important or far-reaching enough to worry about.</blockquote>