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<blockquote data-quote="Maxperson" data-source="post: 8241425" data-attributes="member: 23751">To me offscreen/off-line things are those that are never intended to be seen onscreen.&nbsp; That isn't what we are doing when we set things in motion around the world.&nbsp; We do these things fully intending for the PCs to find out about it one way or another.&nbsp; Whether it happens or not depends on how things play out.&nbsp; We don't force the issue, but the creation and time spent isn't for the sake of the DM.&nbsp; It's for the sake of the players and that doesn't happen if they never find out about it.You absolutely can keep them in stasis and I've played with Sandbox DMs who do just that.&nbsp; It alters the feel of the game, though.&nbsp; Imagine that during gameplay one of the PCs in your game was accidentally responsible for the death of a man's wife.&nbsp; 12 sessions later due to a roll(or however your game does it),&nbsp; you are allowed to bring in a complication and it makes sense for the circumstances for you to bring back the man's wife who is after revenge on the PCs.&nbsp; That's pretty cool.&nbsp; You bring back something that happened in a great way and everyone has fun.Now imagine that on of the PCs in our game was accidentally responsible for the death of a man's wife.&nbsp; We would think about the man's reaction, and there could be many different ways it could reasonably go, but due to what we know of the man and the circumstances around the death, we determine that he is out for revenge.&nbsp; We figure out a timeline for him to get training, arm himself and plan out his revenge, and 12 sessions later he shows up for revenge.In both cases past play informed the DM on how he was going to go about things.&nbsp; Both resulted in a really cool experience.&nbsp; However, in my opinion, only one of those methods makes it feel like the world is still going about things even when the players aren't around.&nbsp; The other way, while still cool, feels different.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Maxperson, post: 8241425, member: 23751"] To me offscreen/off-line things are those that are never intended to be seen onscreen. That isn't what we are doing when we set things in motion around the world. We do these things fully intending for the PCs to find out about it one way or another. Whether it happens or not depends on how things play out. We don't force the issue, but the creation and time spent isn't for the sake of the DM. It's for the sake of the players and that doesn't happen if they never find out about it. You absolutely can keep them in stasis and I've played with Sandbox DMs who do just that. It alters the feel of the game, though. Imagine that during gameplay one of the PCs in your game was accidentally responsible for the death of a man's wife. 12 sessions later due to a roll(or however your game does it), you are allowed to bring in a complication and it makes sense for the circumstances for you to bring back the man's wife who is after revenge on the PCs. That's pretty cool. You bring back something that happened in a great way and everyone has fun. Now imagine that on of the PCs in our game was accidentally responsible for the death of a man's wife. We would think about the man's reaction, and there could be many different ways it could reasonably go, but due to what we know of the man and the circumstances around the death, we determine that he is out for revenge. We figure out a timeline for him to get training, arm himself and plan out his revenge, and 12 sessions later he shows up for revenge. In both cases past play informed the DM on how he was going to go about things. Both resulted in a really cool experience. However, in my opinion, only one of those methods makes it feel like the world is still going about things even when the players aren't around. The other way, while still cool, feels different. [/QUOTE]

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