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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6575483" data-attributes="member: 42582">Examples of illusionism which I think are pretty common in quite a bit of D&D play:Pretending to roll secret door dice, but telling the players about the secret door whatever the roll; Pretending to roll reaction dice, but having the NPCs respond the same way whatever the outcome; Rolling morale, but having the monster retreat (or fight one) whatever the outcome; In general, any pretence that an outcome is being determined via action resolution mechanics when in fact it has been pre-planned.This is the sort of approach to play that "say yes or roll the dice" is meant to avoid.There are plenty of other illusionist techniques to, not directly related to dice rolls, and mostly involving changing the fiction (often via manipulation of secret backstory) to undo the consequences of players' action resolution. This seems to be fairly popular in scenarios associated with published campaign settings, in order to stop the home game departing from the metaplot.One sign that 4e eschewed this particular brand of illusionism was the comment, in The Plane Above (p 97) that the Scales of War adventure path was not canonical: "If you design a campaign of your own featuring the githyanki, remember that the Scales of War path presents just one interpretation of the future of the githyanki. You are free to use or discard that version as you see fit."Points of Light has a backstory, and a trajectory - everyone at the table knows that the Dusk War might be coming just around the corner - but no metaplot.</blockquote>

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