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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JamesonCourage" data-source="post: 6592657" data-attributes="member: 6668292">Because, just like real life, most decisions are formed based on context. So, the players make choices based on information they possess or make up about their characters (my character dislikes the taste of alcohol, for example).So, for example, a large portion of my last session:[sblock]The PCs started in the largest city in a particular nation under the watch of the noble house that one of the PC's belonged to. He had traveled here because of word that his mother was gravely ill, and had arrived a week too late. She had left him a letter telling him how she felt about him and asking him to perform a couple specific tasks (including finding a good woman), but the PC was more interested in her cause of death.This PC (R) had two older brothers who had been with their mother before she passed on. They were both magicians, and had detected that the illness had been initially brought about by magic. Since R had received information that his birth mother (not his adopted mother, who had just passed) had also died to a magically inflicted illness by one of his enemies, he suspected that the same thing had happened.Based on this assumption, he convinced the other two PCs (one of which is secretly his father) and his two brothers to accompany him to investigate. He also asked for the blessing from the duchess of his house, and she went beyond that and gave him a letter saying he could acquire up to 225 soldiers to look into this (since R suspected it was a powerful necromancer who had cursed his mother, and she might have between 75 and 200 subjects of her own).With that, they left south, and arrived at a city where they could acquire said troops. On arrival, beggars approached, but one adolescent girl was more persistent than the others. She begged and begged for the arriving lords (R and his two brothers) to save her, and promised that she was willing to work. When she reached for R, he pulled back, as a thought struck him: his noble house was particularly known for being close to the common folk, and he knew that his mother had visited family in this city just before coming home and becoming ill. He asked the gate guards about it, and they remembered (with a check; but many of these things had checks involved) this woman and four others arriving to give a care package (some bread and other cheap food) to R's mother before she left in return for the kindness she had shown them in-town.The players hypothesized that the care package may have been the carrier of the curse, either diseased itself or cursed to disease her at a certain point. R and his brothers asked the guards to round up the five beggars, and then R went to the local baroness to ask for her help (who promised R the troops as soon as a patrol arrived two days from now). R went to go see the captain of the city watch, but had to wait (again, checks for this, etc.).When the captain was available, he revealed that he had been busy rounding up the suspects and questioning them. Of the five beggars, four were alive and detained, but the fifth had died to exposure on the streets a few weeks ago. This was odd, because the noble house that ruled the city gave shelter to the homeless when the temperature demanded it. So, the captain wanted to look into that. Also, all four beggars said that they got the care package from a local baker, who wanted to give something back to the noble house anonymously, since they had recently helped her out. This pointed to the baker being involved. Investigation revealed that her name matched a nearby serf from the farmland around the city, which seemed legal, but it was unclear how she got the silver required to open a shop in the large city.A day of investigation by the players and the guards took place. The baker seemed legitimate, but it was still unclear how she got her silver. Also, the adolescent girl was apparently newly homeless, after the fifth beggar (the one dead from exposure) had bribed her struggling family (he gave them 100 silver to feed their five other children if they promised to kick out the 13-year-old girl). His motives were unclear, and nobody knew how the beggar got his hands on the 100 silver necessary to bribe the family.With a lot of mysterious money appearing but no names, the only link left was the baker. They approached her and brought her back to the garrison for questioning, sending guards back to tend to her oven. While questioning her (and finding out that she was hiding something), a guard burst in, yelling that there was a magic user at the bakery attacking guards. All the PCs were alerted, and ran to the bakery (leaving one of the brothers and the guard captain to continue questioning the baker in a more hurried manner).On arrival, the fight was over. The woman had tried attacking the guards that had come into the bakery, but they had apparently killed her. The bakery was searched, and a secret cache was found with about 100 silver, a magic starmetal sword (both very rare in the setting), and a pocket of gems used purely for necromantic purposes. These were all gathered and brought back to the garrison.On arrival, the captain had found out some information from the baker. She had apparently been blackmailed and threatened by the necromancer, who had paid for her shop and was using her as a front of sorts. She had been living and hiding in the shop, and it was her who had provided the care package to the baker, who had then passed it on to the beggars. The PCs assumed that it was the necromancer who had provided the 100 silver to the beggar for him to bribe the family (and later killed him for some reason), but had no proof.Afterwards, they dealt with the body (and after finding out she was still alive, struck a secret deal with the baroness and smuggled her out of the city). They then made their way back to the city where they had started the session.[/sblock]Now, at every decision point, the players have context in what they're basing their decisions on. Information revealed (from investigation or from NPC tips [which may or may not be true]), knowledge of the setting (how this noble house generally treats the common people, how certain NPCs might act), facts about PCs (R values honor and justice, which is why he argued with his sister that he must personally see to this task, instead of entrusting it to the military; also, he said that if he wasn't willing to risk his own life, how could he ask other soldiers to?).All of these decisions are made with the context of what's led them up to this point. That's why PC histories are required (and why I have two different mechanics to help flesh those out), so that even at the beginning of a campaign, you know where you're coming from, you have personality traits picked out (mechanically, even), and so on.The scenario we've been talking about (the fork) could hypothetically happen, sure. But the overwhelming majority of the time, who have this naturalistic world (how NPCs act and react to events, random events, etc.) where the players retain great player agency ("making informed decisions that affect the outcome of the game"). That was basically my entire last session (and the session before it, and before it, etc...).Does that make sense?</blockquote>

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