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<blockquote data-quote="JonWake" data-source="post: 5823353" data-attributes="member: 95255">Yup. It frees me to think only as the NPCs might.Being caught off-guard is the point.&nbsp; And the players do know the difference: if you hit them with a dozen encounters to wear them down, they know that there's a narrative reason for it. Or you're just a dick. If they'd stuck trekking through the Marsh of Nasty Spanky Doom, and they are getting spanked with doom, well, there's an element of impartiality for the DM.Nonsense. That might be how some people use them. Some people treat them as actual events in a consistent game world.Why would I want to be predictable to myself?&nbsp; I'm not writing a novel here.&nbsp; I like unpredictability. Keeps me on my toes.It's only backwards if you think the point of being a DM is to let the players unfold a plot. That's only one way to play. I like to let the PCs break the story and see what happens.&nbsp; And I'm not just talking about random encounters, but more randomness. Or to use a more common term, 'swingyness'. If the PCs one shot the big bad guy, oh well.&nbsp; If I know there's a chance that this will happen, I won't play a game of Frustrated Fantasy Writer theater and get all butt-hurt when the players break my plot. I don't do plot.&nbsp; My day job is doing plot.&nbsp; I run DnD to be surprised. Randomness facilitates this.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="JonWake, post: 5823353, member: 95255"] Yup. It frees me to think only as the NPCs might. Being caught off-guard is the point. And the players do know the difference: if you hit them with a dozen encounters to wear them down, they know that there's a narrative reason for it. Or you're just a dick. If they'd stuck trekking through the Marsh of Nasty Spanky Doom, and they are getting spanked with doom, well, there's an element of impartiality for the DM. Nonsense. That might be how some people use them. Some people treat them as actual events in a consistent game world. Why would I want to be predictable to myself? I'm not writing a novel here. I like unpredictability. Keeps me on my toes. It's only backwards if you think the point of being a DM is to let the players unfold a plot. That's only one way to play. I like to let the PCs break the story and see what happens. And I'm not just talking about random encounters, but more randomness. Or to use a more common term, 'swingyness'. If the PCs one shot the big bad guy, oh well. If I know there's a chance that this will happen, I won't play a game of Frustrated Fantasy Writer theater and get all butt-hurt when the players break my plot. I don't do plot. My day job is doing plot. I run DnD to be surprised. Randomness facilitates this. [/QUOTE]

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