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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7374142" data-attributes="member: 29398">It has to be obvious that any player is going to meta-know that you've framed that scene and that pedlar for a reason: because that's where they'll get to determine ultimate success or failure on this part of their journey.  In story terms, you've jumped straight to the climax of this chapter without any real buildup.How does the PC even know whether confronting a balrog requires an angel feather or an enchanted herb or a Johnson outboard motor...as in at what point did the player/PC glean this information?  You framed him straight into the bazaar in front of the feather merchant, and in so doing might as well have said out loud "don't bother looking anywhere else, this is where to go".  That's as much lead-'em-by-the-nose as the worst of railroads.That he then turned around and promptly failed the check, saddling himself with a cursed feather, is sucky for him; but also kind of irrelevant here.No, the DM is increasing agency by saying that while you've got this dramatic thing you care about there's other things going on around your PC as well - you're not in a bubble - so let's test how much you really care about your thing and what other opportunities you're willing to give up in order to pursue it, and while we're at it let's put your character's morals and ethics (a.k.a. alignment) under a lens for a moment via your reaction on seeing a slave being beaten.Where my table now knows a lot more about the city in general, and can worry about Jabal's tower next session if they want to.Leaving the game world as little more than a Hollywood-style facade where you don't dare look behind the walls of the constructed set.  I prefer a bit more depth and solidity than that.The bit I've bolded just sounds like fancy words for "the PC has been railroaded to where I think it needs to go to further its story".The player(s) is(are) contributing to the shared fiction in that their decisions determine what that fiction will end up being.If the PCs decide go south along the coast to battle some troglodytes rather than go inland to explore Archmage Donalt's ruined tower then guess what: the shared fiction isn't going to say much about Donalt's tower!  It almost certainly will, however, end up with lots of reference to troglodytes.I'm beginning to draw a comparitive analogy between your game and mine (and I dare say most others) in a sports-TV format: your game is the 10-minute highlight show where you see just the goals and key plays while everything in between gets skipped; where mine is the whole 90-minute match including all the buildup and stoppages and everything else, and the viewer doesn't miss anything.Lan-"plus five minutes stoppage time"-efan</blockquote>

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