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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nagol" data-source="post: 7322745" data-attributes="member: 23935">The players only learn about the default trajectory if they do nothing to affect it.  Its primary purpose is to make scene-framing on the fly easier.  That and the game system in play has mechanics for a type of divination all PCs can attempt that can gather information up to a week in the future so having a base understanding of how things are likely to unfold without interference can be valuable when the player avail themselves of the option.Hmm.  This is harder to answer.  I manage it... because I always have.  One of the tools I use is a campaign project timeline which contains the start, end, and pivotal times of different plots/events.  Those in the past are set.  Those i the future are the current expectation barring player interference.  As time passes, expectations turn into history and may become known to the group.  As the players attempt to influence the world, the expectations may change.  If a question pops for which I do not have a concrete answer, I typically turn to dice to resolve the issue.  I make note of the result (and any new world-building decisions required to determine the probability distribution) and that becomes the game reality.  The players may or may not realize I've used dice for the purpose, but they know the result is now concrete in the game world.I narrate the scene as the PCs experience it.  Mostly, the stuff I include must need be somewhat relevant -- things the PCs will notice, things the players have indicated they are specifically looking for, or things the PC abilities suggest are incongruous.  The players decide how to react to the situation described, the environment reacts to the PC actions and that back and forth continues until the situation is exhausted (and I frame a new starting situation), the players change the scene (by leaving or explicitly waiting until something new happens), or something untoward happens (like the default trajectory of the situation indicates something should happen).The players heard of the fire and the PCs rushed to the barn.  They considered it a destruction of potential evidence; I think they concluded some conspiracists destroyed the barn to protect themselves and their plot.In this case, when the situation was being developed, Harry was placed at the scene investigating.  I built an arc for Harry's investigation, pre-rolled his abilities, and worked out where and when his confrontation would take place.  The PCs could have interfered at any point -- by helping Harry, by kicking him off the property until their investigation was complete, by exploring that site themselves when or before Harry does, by inviting Harry to dinner, by giving him a new story to pursue, or any other gambit the players decided to pursue.The players prioritized their investigation in a way that placed the barn further in the future than Harry's event.  They chose to avoid Harry and minimize their interactions with him (they were trying to be discreet and didn't want to draw the attention of a reporter) so his trajectory continued unchanged.  Their choice had consequence.  In this case, it was a consequence that was unexpected with limited foreshadowing, but not all things that can happen are well known to the people they happen to beforehand.</blockquote>

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