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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7403261" data-attributes="member: 42582">Putting theological conundrums to one side, the real world is not a game, and the causal forces in the real world are actual causal forces, not imagined proxies for someone's authorial decisions.Being captured by pursuers because one reached a dead end is something that sometimes happens in the real world, due to the way the world is.Being captured by pursuers because one reached a dead end might also be something that happens in a RPG. But that is not because of "objective" causal forces. It's because someone, via some process, established that there is no secret door in the blank stone wall. We're discussing different forms that process might take.3 can happen.Possible failure narrations could include, in no particular order, any of the following (depending on what the GM thinks up and how it seems to fit the unfolding situation):(A) You start to search for a door - but then it finds you before you find it! A secret door opens and a squad of guards comes through it. It's the pursuers on one side and this squad on the other! - what do you do? (B) You search for a door, but there seems to be nothing there. Or, at least, nothing you find before you hear the sounds of closing pursuers. What do you do? (C) As you search desperately for a door, your pursuers catch up to you. The one in the lead mocks you: "If you'd done your homework, you'd know there are no secret ways in or out of this fortress!" What do you do?(B) and (C) are both consistent with your (3) as well as your (2), and (C) makes (3) more likely than (2), assuming the lead pursuer is a reliable source of information about the fortress.Why wouldn't it make sense that a bare stone wall in a D&D-type building has a secret door in it. They're pretty standard architectural features!As for too many - I just don't think it's going to come up that often. Unless you're playing Gosford Park - the RPG, and then secret doors/passages/priest holes/maid creeps should be pretty common, shouldn't they?This is the first time I've heard player success in action resolution described as "railroading the GM". So when the players kill all the orcs you put into your dungeon, they're railroading you? Because you have to accept the outcome of the combat mechanics?</blockquote>

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