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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7732301" data-attributes="member: 6775031">The state of the sky is an observable fact within the game world, which the characters can observe, and which the players can observe second-hand through descriptions from the GM. If the GM is doing their job, then the players will know whether there are clouds before they decide whether the character will attempt the plan.Exactly. It only matters to the GM when it comes time to resolve the action. Before they decide to do the thing, the possibilities of how the environment might influence that thing are irrelevant to the GM.The vast majority of the time, the player will ask you to describe the wall before they commit to the plan of climbing it. They won't even attempt to climb a wall if they don't think they have a chance to succeed, or if the consequences for failure seem especially dire. (If you describe that most of the wall is covered with razorthorns, or the wall is above a pit of acid while acid is also streaming down it in an irregular pattern.)You must determine the nature of the wall before the attempt is made, or else the player is incapable of taking its nature into consideration before choosing to make the attempt. Your method violates the basic process of play, by describing the environment after adjudicating the resolution of uncertain actions.I was assuming that you were playing an RPG, with role-players, who would rightfully kick you out of the game if they discovered you were cheating in such a malicious manner. If you aren't playing an RPG, with role-players, then you may not have to hide your true motive... but neither would that be relevant in any way to a discussion of role-playing games.Both.Yes, if the GM tailors the play experience to what the players think is interesting, then they can collaborate together to tell a story instead of role-playing at all. While true, it also has nothing to do with role-playing or role-playing games.It can't possibly be a railroad if the GM doesn't plan for the actions of the PCs, or enforce them. Whatever the GM may expect the PCs to do, they will probably do something else, and thus the "story" will go in a different direction; which is why it's beneficial to not expect them to do anything in particular.If you're afraid that the game might be boring, then that's something to address during setting creation. As long as the players have their characters, and the GM isn't going out of their way to mess with them, things generally turn out okay.</blockquote>

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