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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7408129" data-attributes="member: 29398">Perfect!  And either you met one or you didn't.  Cool.But - and this might seem a minor twinge but it's relevant - there's a difference at the table between the two systems.  Compare the following:1. The PC doesn't know if the map is in the study or if there's a secret door in the wall, but searches in hopes that there is.  The player declares the search action with those same hopes but knows the outcome is out of her hands just the same as it is out of the PC's hands in the fiction.  PC knowledge and player knowledge are the same.2. The PC doesn't know if the map is in the study or if there's a secret door in the wall, but searches in hopes that there is.  The player declares the search action with full knowledge that a good roll WILL bring success even though the outcome is out of the PC's hands in the fiction.  PC knowledge and player knowledge are systemically not the same.Which means that no matter how hard the player in (2) tries to immerse herself there's always that meta-game tickle in her mind telling her that she'll always succeed on a good roll so why not try it; where in (1) the resolution is out of her hands and thus those meta-considerations somewhat disappear.As for the forcefield across the ditch, that could be as simple as some invisible trickster in the next field seeing someone running toward a ditch and whipping up a Wall of Force there just for kicks. <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=":)" />Perhaps, but a more usual approach (and one that's worked for ages) is to simply have combat use different mechanics from everything else.I'm not saying this is the perfect answer by any means - combat as a system still has truck-size holes in it and pretty much always has - but to try and shoehorn everything else into using the same mechanics as combat is not going to fix anything, nor is trying to force combat to use mechanics usually applied to something else.Yeah, stuff like that happens - but as in this particular case it was completely 100% preventable* I have no sympathy. <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=":)" />* - non-negotiable rule: character sheets stay with the DM between sessions; except if you want to take one home to update it during the week the DM is left with a full and accurate copy - and for exactly the reason you noted, that being if a player doesn't show up the PC can still be played.In general, though, while stuff like this does happen and is sometimes unavoidable there's still some easy ways to minimize it: - if the party splits up - e.g. one PC goes ahead scouting - then the players split up: the DM and the scout's player retreat to another room to play through the scouting (unless the scout and main party have long-range communication such that the scout can give regular updates).- if a PC is doing something she doesn't want the others to notice - e.g. quietly leave a donation at a roadside shrine some other PC just spat on in passing - she passes the DM a note to that effect rather than say it out loud; and the DM replies by note if necessary.Well, see points 1 and 2 above for one clear disparity in meta-knowledge.It's not like he had any choice - this was clearly a table accommodation for what was clearly a table problem for that one session: fair enough.  It happens now and then.Where I find such things helpful, as parameters and guidelines I can then interact with in a manner of my choosing (once I know the local customs, for example, I-as-player can decide whether I-as-character follow them, ignore them, actively rebel against them, or whatever; and factor that into how I think and what I say/do).Which as GM you also do.  Whenever you frame a scene you kind of have to narrate the PCs' surroundings - a dark room in a tower, an entrance to a fire giants' cavern, a dusty study on the ground floor of a castle - don't you?  Where do those surroundings come from?  Who authors them?  And - again important! - how clearly and precisely do you describe these surroundings so as to fully inform any subsequent actions the PCs may take there?Lanefan</blockquote>

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