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Message: <blockquote data-quote="steenan" data-source="post: 6234991" data-attributes="member: 23240">What do we mean by "arbitrarily"?The GM makes a lot of things up. If it wasn't the case, everything would have to be pre-planned, and that is just impossible to do. So the question is what guides the ideas the GM introduces.The GM may make up something that follows from fiction (whatever happened during the game up to this point). It's not fully arbitrary, but still leaves a lot of space to decide.The GM may be asked by the rules to make up something, with general direction but no specifics. "This result means that the PC succeeds in what they attempted, but a complication is introduced".The GM may guide what happens in game, in reaction to out-of-game events (like trying to engage a bored player, or having a PC kidnapped/knocked out, because the player just got an urgent call and must leave early).The GM may introduce new situations, places and characters just because they got a fun idea, as long as they don't contradict what has already been established in game.Each of the above is fine. That's the GM job, in my eyes. What shouldn't be done is making players' actions meaningless, removing their agency.In other words, free to make things up, but not completely arbitrarily.</blockquote>