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<blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 4706030" data-attributes="member: 18280">Full stop.(1)&nbsp; What's &quot;realistic&quot; should happen even if its not pleasant from the perspective of the player characters.&nbsp; Please note the distinction.(2)&nbsp; What's &quot;realistic&quot; nearly always includes events that are not level-appropriate (what you herein refer to as &quot;unfair&quot;).&nbsp; Getting hit by a car is &quot;unfair&quot;, as is getting mauled by a polar bear, or getting an incurable disease.(3)&nbsp; What's &quot;realistic&quot; refers to the &quot;reality&quot; of the game world, wherein some things are possible that are not possible in the real world, such as (a) curing an incurable disease, and (b) knowing absolutely whether or not pulling a lever is a good idea.(4)&nbsp; In both the game world and the real world, what's &quot;realistic&quot; is that, despite the potential for a lot of &quot;unfair&quot; outcomes, some level of prudence can strongly modify the actual potential for said outcomes to occur.&nbsp; It is unlikely that I will get mauled by a polar bear in Florida, for example, and looking both ways before crossing the road (rather than, say, throwing myself in front of cars) modifies the chances of getting an &quot;unfair&quot; outcome.(5)&nbsp; It is therefore both true that (a) &quot;unfair&quot; events can (and should) happen in a &quot;realistic&quot; game world, and (b) people (PCs included) can (and should) have opportunities to modify the chance and/or outcome of these &quot;unfair&quot; events.&nbsp;&nbsp; Which might mean jumping out the way of a car instead of fighting it.(6)&nbsp; Within this context, no matter how you try to conflate the terms, what you call &quot;unfair&quot; =/= &quot;unfun&quot;.(7)&nbsp; While claims that &quot;not every realistic thing is actually avoidable&quot; are true, the method by which you then extrapolate to Mallus' dragon (and similar) does not follow.&nbsp; While &quot;not every realistic thing is actually avoidable&quot;, it does not therefore follow that &quot;every realistic thing is actually unavoidable&quot;.&nbsp; The chances of running into a realistic, unavoidable thing within the game world which also cannot be modified after being encountered is smaller for the PCs than for you or I simply because the PC's world includes magical means to modify the results of said thing that do not exist IRL.I have yet to hear one realistic possibility.But, to answer your question:&nbsp; If there are eight villages roughly equidistant from the dragon's lair, and the PCs are in one, I would roll 1d8, with the PCs' village being &quot;1&quot; and the other villages radiating clockwise from the lair to determine which is attacked first.Which, I believe, Celebrim and Imaro have said in other words several times before.RC</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Raven Crowking, post: 4706030, member: 18280"] Full stop. (1) What's "realistic" should happen even if its not pleasant from the perspective of the [B]player characters[/B]. Please note the distinction. (2) What's "realistic" nearly always includes events that are not level-appropriate (what you herein refer to as "unfair"). Getting hit by a car is "unfair", as is getting mauled by a polar bear, or getting an incurable disease. (3) What's "realistic" refers to the "reality" of the game world, wherein some things are possible that are not possible in the real world, such as (a) curing an incurable disease, and (b) knowing absolutely whether or not pulling a lever is a good idea. (4) In both the game world and the real world, what's "realistic" is that, despite the potential for a lot of "unfair" outcomes, some level of prudence can strongly modify the actual potential for said outcomes to occur. It is unlikely that I will get mauled by a polar bear in Florida, for example, and looking both ways before crossing the road (rather than, say, throwing myself in front of cars) modifies the chances of getting an "unfair" outcome. (5) It is therefore both true that (a) "unfair" events can (and should) happen in a "realistic" game world, and (b) people (PCs included) can (and should) have opportunities to modify the chance and/or outcome of these "unfair" events. Which might mean jumping out the way of a car instead of fighting it. (6) Within this context, no matter how you try to conflate the terms, what you call "unfair" =/= "unfun". (7) While claims that "not every realistic thing is actually avoidable" are true, the method by which you then extrapolate to Mallus' dragon (and similar) does not follow. While "not every realistic thing is actually avoidable", it does not therefore follow that "every realistic thing is actually unavoidable". The chances of running into a realistic, unavoidable thing within the game world [i][b]which also cannot be modified after being encountered[/b][/i][b][/b] is smaller for the PCs than for you or I simply because the PC's world includes magical means to modify the results of said thing that do not exist IRL. I have yet to hear one realistic possibility. But, to answer your question: If there are eight villages roughly equidistant from the dragon's lair, and the PCs are in one, I would roll 1d8, with the PCs' village being "1" and the other villages radiating clockwise from the lair to determine which is attacked first. Which, I believe, Celebrim and Imaro have said in other words several times before. RC [/QUOTE]

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