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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 3240608" data-attributes="member: 18280">IME, the difference between "encounter" and "threat" is just a shade less likely to be PC action than DM action.  I have no problem whatsoever with a threat to which the response is either "run away" or "ignore it" (although those are not always successful solutions!).As a DM, I present environment and situation, then allow the players to create story through their interactions with the same.  Some threats exist as part of the campaign world simply because they are necessary to make the campaign world feel like it should.  For example, the multiple collapses that occurred in Selby-by-the-Water make people lock their doors at night and draw circles of salt around their beds in the inn.  They fear undead, and with fairly good reason.  This is a threat that the PCs might explore, might not explore, might overcome, or might be overcome by.There are many, many threats of various natures in my world.  No one is expected to deal with them all....or even know that they all exist.This is a different playstyle, of course, than the one you are espousing.  I would suggest that it was the playstyle 1e and earlier D&D catered to, whereas what you are describing really began with the Dragonlance modules, was momentarily derailed by the 2e modules (many of which were so focused on the world that they constrained the PCs too much, IMHO), and is currently alive and well in 3e.(This is pretty far from the artwork discussion now, though.)I think that, for the most part, illustrations can be said to snapshot discrete encounters, rather than huge campaign arcs.  There are a few exceptions, such as the border illustrations in the 1e DMG that show characters meeting various monsters from kobolds through trolls and to the big haul at the end.Again, what I question is what happens when the players are thinking of Tordek whacking the dragon in the head with his axe while standing unscathed in its mouth, and the DM is thinking of the illustration where the whole party is hiding because the dragon's breath weapon is too daunting.RC</blockquote>

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