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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 5278215" data-attributes="member: 18280">Once again, I am forced to bow to your succinct wording.Ask yourself:  Can I deal with a basilisk?  Am I prepared to accept the consequences if I cannot?If the answer to either of these questions is "No", go somewhere else.(EDIT:  Not surprisingly, if you replace "basilisk" with "orc" or "owlbear", the answer is the same!)Hussar, where do you live?  What dangerous creatures are you likely to encounter there?  What other dangers do you think likely (ex., drunk drivers, drug dealers, etc.)?IMHO, and IME, most people know the answers to these questions.  For example, throughout most of Southern Ontario, I might encounter black bears or coyotes.  As I move north, I might encounter wolves and (eventually) polar bears.  In some areas, there are Massauga rattlers.  Brown recluse spiders and black widows are the only strongly poisonous spiders.  I don't know every poisonous plant, but I don't eat wild plants that I cannot positively identify because I am aware of the potential risks.  I look both ways before crossing the road.  On my one-way street, I know that cars sometimes go the wrong way.  I know to check for bicycles before pulling into traffic (as well as cars and pedestrians).  I'm smart enough to avoid skunks, and know to avoid raccoons or foxes that aren't avoiding me.That's off the top of my head, stuff you can learn just by asking any old Yahoo.I also know that there was a confirmed mountain lion sighting in the Rogue Valley ravine, and that it was not one of the Toronto Zoo's cats.  I know not to hop random fences around the zoo area, because some of them might lead me to places I'd rather not be.  I know that ticks and mosquitoes can carry disease.When I was stationed in Louisiana, I knew that there were more venomous reptiles than I could recognize, so I simply avoided all snakes.  I didn't somehow fail to learn that alligators might be found in swamps.  I added brown spiders to my list of creepy-crawlies to be concerned about.I imagine that adventurers could easily ask the locals what the local hazards are, and hire local guides.  After all, that is how explorers have dealt with this problem for centuries.  Sometimes it is better to question a goblin than to kill him, for he surely has some idea what lurks nearby, fearful to him.  He might not know that "gollum" lurks down by the underground lake, but he knows that something unpleasant lurks down there.  Sometimes, when the Great Goblin sends goblins down for fish, neither goblin nor fish comes back.What do you think makes a better game:1.  You encounter Some Awful Creature.2.  You hear about Some Awful Creature, come across a carcass of its kill (which demonstrates that it could take down a manticore in flight, and seems to have some sort of acid attack), then spy the creature on the wing, and only then have to deal with it to meet some goal.I am firmly on the side of (2).  You may call it "bubble wrapping every encounter"; I call it "creating anticipation, fear, and dread".IOW, in WLD, you can have the PCs simply encounter Madness.  Or you can have the PCs encounter Madness after hearing about it in hushed & fearful whispers.  I am pretty sure that, for most of us, the second is more effective.Maybe I do run a very strange game.....But if I decided to run an unscheduled game tonight, I could have eight people at the table, eager to play, with ease.  That's good enough for me.RC</blockquote>

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