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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chiaroscuro23" data-source="post: 3526703" data-attributes="member: 15371">I'll try to explain: the conflict web is a set up where the DM establishes multiple factions that oppose each other and want the PCs to do something about it. It isn't a plot as such, because the GM doesn't know what'll happen. He just starts the ball rolling and improvises in response to the PC actions based on what the NPCs would do in that situation.I'm calling that "exploring a social situation" as opposed to exploring a physical situation, because there's a lot of the latter in the D&D tradition. A lot of early modules, for example, were of the "sandbox" variety, where they just laid out a bunch of monsters living in an area and let the players go to town. The game was about exploring the physical location and interacting with the residents in a physical way (mostly killing them). It wasn't a railroad because the players could interact with the location any way they wanted.But it mostly wasn't a social interaction, and there mostly weren't sides of a conflict already in play before the players joined in.A third option is a plotted game, which we had a fair amount of in 2e and now in 3e (most of playing the game is here). In these the GM expects the PCs to do specific things--go here, save the princess, get the mcguffin, go there, fight the dragon--in that order.One thing about D&D as a system is that PCs increase in power quickly, so to the extent that you need to prep the antagonists ahead of time, you need to guess the appropriate CR. This is easy to do in a plotted game. The PCs start out meeting minions, dragon hatchlings and the like, and don't get around to fighting Momma until later in the game. It can be more problematic in a physical exploration game: if the players fight the ogres before the kobolds, they might not be able to win. And if they go back and fight the kobolds later, they'll wipe the floor with them. And if you as DM know they'll probably fight Baron von Puffenstuff sooner or later because he's a baddie in their environment, you have the option of just giving him a power level (he's aristocrat 5/fighter 6/blackgaurd 5, or something) and letting it ride, or trying to make him the right CR to be a "fair challenge" to the PCs. But this is hard because if they wait a few sessions to fight him, his stats need to be re-done.The conflict web is about making interacting with the Baron and his court mostly about who's on which side, and how the PCs upset the balance of power (for a simple set up: the PCs are sent by the king to investigate the Baron's loyalty. He is loyal, but doesn't want to kowtow to them, and wants to destroy them within the law. Another noble family wants him removed so they can take his seat of power. The church doesn't care who's in charge of the barony so long as they have the ear of that person. All sides are willing to play the PCs so that they get who they want in charge of the barony.) Flag framing is about making sure that stuff the players are interested in shows up in that conflict web.The conflict web I laid out above doesn't say anything about physical fighting. If the PCs fight the rival noble family's assassins (cat's paws made to look hired by the Baron, of course), it says nothing about what level those assassins are. Since the GM is improvising as they go, and following the famous maxim "when stuck, just have two men with guns come through the door" it's hard to have assassin stats ahead of time. What I do is just use the NPC chart in the 3.0 DMG.Any clearer?</blockquote>

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