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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 4868637" data-attributes="member: 18280">Having used the same scenarios with multiple play groups, I have to disagree.  The result was not all but certain in advance.To take two simple cases from Keep on the Borderlands (and, if you don't want spoilers don't read on), which I have run in Holmes Basic, 1e, 2e, and 3.x:  [spolier]In KotB, there is an evil temple in one of the caves.  That temple contains a chamber where acolytes can be found.  Depending upon the approach of the players, I have had this scenario turn into a general melee, a chase, a running battle, and a religious debate.  Even when the encounter turned into a combat, there can be tremendous variations in how that combat occurs simply because it isn't predetermined.Likewise, in one cave there is an owlbear.  The odds are pretty good that this is going to be a "combat encounter", but what type of combat it is depends very much on the group.  I've even run this module where the owlbear was used by players to take out another monster.  Because the surrounding humanoids know that the owlbear is there, the PCs can learn this too.....some groups wait for it to leave the cave to hunt, choosing to avoid the encounter altogether.  Others devise ambushes or traps to lead the critter into, knowing that it is too tough to take on in a straight fight.  When I ran it in 3.x, the party stumbled into the owlbear while fleeing the grey oozes in a related cave, which created a very different encounter than would have occurred had I planned a "scene" or a "combat encounter" beforehand.[/spoiler]The more you envision what will happen beforehand, the more you limit what can actually happen in game play.  RC</blockquote>

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