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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7361125" data-attributes="member: 29398">Not everyone has Passwall as a field-castable spell, particularly at low level; but most parties have someone capable of a competent secret door search.It'd be situationally dependent, of course.  And AD&D's pursuit rules aren't much use. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Either way, the players are being denied the opportunity to make a choice.  There might be nothing but empty passages...but unless you narrate them the players don't know they exist and thus don't get to choose whether to explore them or not.Why is it so important that we do Y right now rather than next session or the session after that?  You're not running to a time limit.If the players (in and-or out of character) are dead set on getting to the reliquary they'll choose to bypass whatever distractions may appear...and that's fine.  They had the choice, and they made it: all is good.  But for them to have made this choice they have to know it exists.But maybe the players (in and-or out of character) will find one or more of the distractions more immediately interesting than the reliquary*, and divert course to follow up on that while leaving the reliquary for later.  Neither you nor they will ever know if they're not given the chance; and you-as-DM can't just assume they'll choose to ignore everything else they might stumble across en route to where the were originally going.* - for these purposes I'm arbitrarily authoring that the guiding angels are exceptionally patient and tolerant and won't mind if the PCs take some detours en route to the reliquary. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Where I posit that there is a difference, unless you're referring to someone simply stating the orc is now dead while bypassing the combat mechanics usually required to get it there.A better comparison might be authoring that an orc appears in a (previously mentioned) room vs. authoring that a (previously mentioned) wall contains a secret door.  For me, the option to do either of these would be only open to the DM: she'd have pre-determined the secret door bit, and would have a rationale for the sudden appearance of an orc; and note that said rationale could be a PC having just cast a summoning spell.Count me as one such. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />They're not abandoning the idea of interacting with the fiction but the fiction being interacted with is - or certainly seems to be - a lot more fluid, which makes those interactions more difficult both to initiate and to pin down.Lanefan</blockquote>

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