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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JamesonCourage" data-source="post: 5766860" data-attributes="member: 6668292">I don't personally think it has to do with pre-planned or spontaneous encounters.I think he means skip over the unfun parts, to get to the fun. I think he is saying that guard encounters are unfun. Period; objectively. And that's simply incorrect.He did say this in the context of "skip what isn't fun." That much is true, and that context is true. Then, in an attempt to communicate to newer players what is and isn't fun in a gaming session, he told them to skip to encounters ("Move the PCs quickly from encounter to encounter, and on to the fun!").He is, as you say, telling people to skip the unfun parts. That's his real point. However, I feel he overstepped the line when he told people -new players in particular, so I'm told- that talking to the gate guards when it's not an encounter isn't fun. He seemed to imply that most things that weren't an encounter aren't fun ("Move the PCs quickly from encounter to encounter, and on to the fun!").With the given definition of encounter (challenges that usually involve a lot of die rolling), I find this exceptionally bad advice. His definition of "fun" does not hold true for my group, and judging by many posts here (both 4e supporters and detractors alike), I'd say I'm not alone.And, while I have a chance to reply to you, I'd like to take a moment to mention your "parsing" of the word "an" in regards to context. You said:That's not how the context of "an" or "a" is usually used. I could say, "man, a steak dinner sounds really good right now." That does not imply that I generally might not like steak, but right now it sounds good. The implication is that I like steak, and that it sounds good right now. I've made a declaration of something (the steak; guard encounters) and my favorability towards it (I like it; it's not fun).While "an" certainly does only refer to a single instance, I think it's pretty intellectually misleading to interpret that as not representative of what someone thinks. That's not what context has taught us in standard use of language. I can say, "an outing to go hiking isn't fun." That implies that the activity, in general, is not fun for me. It's not, "a particular outing to go hiking isn't fun" within the regular context of language.And, just to clarify on the "not fun for me" part, I was speaking in regards to myself. Mr. Wyatt, however, was speaking about Fun in general, and made an objective value judgement of it. That was a mistake, and was, in my opinion, terrible advice to give to new players.Thanks for asking my opinion, though. I see where you're coming from, but I really don't agree with it. As always, play what you like <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Edit (and disclaimer: Mercutio01 XP'd me before I wrote this, so he may not feel this is fair enough <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />):Well, he said:Not my cup of tea, but he qualified it with a "usually". It's the little things where he doesn't objectively and unilaterally define what is and is not fun for everyone. He's wrong for my group, but probably right for most groups.This is the same as his first example. Objective value judgments on fun are mistake. He made one here, too. Just my thoughts on these two sentences, though. For the record, my group does keep track of food supplies, ammo, encumbrance, etc. And, every once in a while, when the players are somewhere with hallways, rooms, and the like, and they're exploring, I'll let them know when they come up on a fork, see more doors, break-offs passageways, or the like. I do, however, let their characters keep track of the details (or leave markings on the ground or walls), and make attribute checks to remember ways out (or figure it out). As always, play what you like <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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