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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8038869" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>This has some truth to it... but I will add that I think a &quot;level up&quot; on DM skill is when the DM is able to run their story prep in the background and give hints at what the world is doing while the players are off doing other things.&nbsp; So if a DM has the idea that the main thrust of this tale they are putting together is the summoning of a demon lord and the players don't take the bait to follow it... the DM doesn't need to railroad the players into following the plot they've prepped, but instead just keeps dropping breadcrumbs about this story into whatever else the group wants to pursue.&nbsp; The DM never has to force the players to pick them up, but at some point.... the players will either decide on their own &quot;You know, we've been hearing a lot about this thing happening up in the mountains, maybe we should check it out&quot;... or they completely ignore it, and then the DM just gets to have the demon lord get summoned and then start rampaging across the land (at which point the players either get drawn into a much worse situation, or get the hell out of dodge.)&nbsp; Which then allows the DM to play out the scenario which was always a possibility, which was the PCs failing to stop the summoning had they actually taken the bait in the first place.&nbsp; Plus you as the DM get to have the fun after the fact of pointing out all the hints of the greater story the players all chose to ignore when they ask &quot;What the hell, why has Juiblex showed up?!?&quot;&nbsp; <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&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 8038869, member: 7006"] This has some truth to it... but I will add that I think a "level up" on DM skill is when the DM is able to run their story prep in the background and give hints at what the world is doing while the players are off doing other things. So if a DM has the idea that the main thrust of this tale they are putting together is the summoning of a demon lord and the players don't take the bait to follow it... the DM doesn't need to railroad the players into following the plot they've prepped, but instead just keeps dropping breadcrumbs about this story into whatever else the group wants to pursue. The DM never has to force the players to pick them up, but at some point.... the players will either decide on their own "You know, we've been hearing a lot about this thing happening up in the mountains, maybe we should check it out"... or they completely ignore it, and then the DM just gets to have the demon lord get summoned and then start rampaging across the land (at which point the players either get drawn into a much worse situation, or get the hell out of dodge.) Which then allows the DM to play out the scenario which was always a possibility, which was the PCs failing to stop the summoning had they actually taken the bait in the first place. Plus you as the DM get to have the fun after the fact of pointing out all the hints of the greater story the players all chose to ignore when they ask "What the hell, why has Juiblex showed up?!?" ;) [/QUOTE]

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