Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5004859" data-attributes="member: 80487">Different groups have different customs, but in old-style play -- whether &quot;sand-box&quot; or otherwise -- &quot;fudging&quot; tends to be a means of last resort. Some DMs truly might never interfere. What if there were about to be a TPK even though the players had made all the right moves? &quot;I have not seen the case yet&quot; might be the reply. And what if the players were coasting to victory on lucky rolls? At some point, &quot;the die is cast&quot;, and one has committed to whatever fortune brings. Sometimes chance goes against the players, and sometimes it favors them. In the long run, that balances out and dealing with the vagaries is part of the game.Now, some situations can be effectively pretty linear. Tournament scenarios tend rather toward gauntlets, the Tomb of Horrors infamously so. You can basically press on or turn back. In the latter case, though, if you make it out alive in a campaign context then you should have a wide wilderness before you.The traditional, &quot;proper&quot; dungeon is quite another matter. So long as the walls in fact constrain movement, what you get is a sort of flow chart of encounters. The players themselves choose their way, and in a well-made dungeon there are a great many ways.That's basically the whole game in an easily grasped format. Prepare an environment such that there's interesting stuff down the line whichever way the players turn. With a few branches and interconnections, what could have been a line becomes a matrix of many possibilities. With the outcome of each encounter in doubt, and with the consequences informing the dynamics of the rest, you really just have to play to see what happens!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ariosto, post: 5004859, member: 80487"] Different groups have different customs, but in old-style play -- whether "sand-box" or otherwise -- "fudging" [i]tends[/i] to be a means of last resort. Some DMs truly might never interfere. What if there were about to be a TPK even though the players had made all the right moves? "I have not seen the case yet" might be the reply. And what if the players were coasting to victory on lucky rolls? At some point, "the die is cast", and one has committed to whatever fortune brings. Sometimes chance goes against the players, and sometimes it favors them. In the long run, that balances out and dealing with the vagaries is part of the game. Now, some situations can be effectively pretty linear. Tournament scenarios tend rather toward gauntlets, the Tomb of Horrors infamously so. You can basically press on or turn back. In the latter case, though, if you make it out alive in a campaign context then you should have a wide wilderness before you. The traditional, "proper" dungeon is quite another matter. So long as the walls in fact constrain movement, what you get is a sort of flow chart of encounters. The players themselves choose their way, and in a well-made dungeon there are a great many ways. That's basically the whole game in an easily grasped format. Prepare an environment such that there's interesting stuff down the line whichever way the players turn. With a few branches and interconnections, what could have been a line becomes a matrix of many possibilities. With the outcome of each encounter in doubt, and with the consequences informing the dynamics of the rest, you really just have to play to see what happens! [/QUOTE]

Verification