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<blockquote data-quote="twofalls" data-source="post: 7585187" data-attributes="member: 23718">No, you are not catching what I am trying to say, and that may be my not saying it well. Randomness in and of itself is not bad, but to my way of playing, story is everything. I'm first and foremost telling a story with my players. Story that out of necessity involves system because we are playing a game, but with regards to how I present the world I want the system to be as innocuous as possible. I want the focus to be the setting, the immediate surroundings, and the story that flows through both of those. So when my players are rooting around in the cellar of a tower and one of them pours water onto the floor (to borrow our earlier example) I don't want it in the players minds that if they score the needed 15 suddenly treasure &quot;appears&quot;. I want them to be excited that they discovered something that might possibly have a treasure hidden in a poorly sealed floorboard with a space beneath it. I don't often use random wandering monsters. I do when having one will add to the story I'm telling, but I don't announce to the party that I'm now rolling one of the two wandering monster checks the game calls for every day in the jungle. It just happens, like it would if you were living the story in the heat of the jungle where visibility is poor and the heat of the day is causing sweat to blur your vision. Is there an understanding that there is a system underneath it all, sure, but I want that meta to be as seamless and invisible as possible. In my games, I aim for suspension of disbelief. Verisimilitude. You are right when you say that this isn't for everyone. I've played in groups before where the game was really just a tabletop wargame, and they loved it. I was bored out of my mind and never returned, but that didn't mean those guys played wrong. A good DM knows his players and provides a game that they will most enjoy, and vice versa.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="twofalls, post: 7585187, member: 23718"] No, you are not catching what I am trying to say, and that may be my not saying it well. Randomness in and of itself is not bad, but to my way of playing, story is everything. I'm first and foremost telling a story with my players. Story that out of necessity involves system because we are playing a game, but with regards to how I present the world I want the system to be as innocuous as possible. I want the focus to be the setting, the immediate surroundings, and the story that flows through both of those. So when my players are rooting around in the cellar of a tower and one of them pours water onto the floor (to borrow our earlier example) I don't want it in the players minds that if they score the needed 15 suddenly treasure "appears". I want them to be excited that they discovered something that might possibly have a treasure hidden in a poorly sealed floorboard with a space beneath it. I don't often use random wandering monsters. I do when having one will add to the story I'm telling, but I don't announce to the party that I'm now rolling one of the two wandering monster checks the game calls for every day in the jungle. It just happens, like it would if you were living the story in the heat of the jungle where visibility is poor and the heat of the day is causing sweat to blur your vision. Is there an understanding that there is a system underneath it all, sure, but I want that meta to be as seamless and invisible as possible. In my games, I aim for suspension of disbelief. Verisimilitude. You are right when you say that this isn't for everyone. I've played in groups before where the game was really just a tabletop wargame, and they loved it. I was bored out of my mind and never returned, but that didn't mean those guys played wrong. A good DM knows his players and provides a game that they will most enjoy, and vice versa. [/QUOTE]

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