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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 3513475" data-attributes="member: 18280">If you took a writing class (or read some good books on writing), you would know that stories are composed of setting, plot, theme, style, and character.  While our modern take on this seems to focus on plot, plot hasn't always been the most important part of all fiction.  There is much of Dickens, for instance, that focuses on setting, and while most people can tell you something of the theme of Uncle Tom's Cabin, few know the plot.  Virginia Woolf focused largely on character.The best stories, I would argue, are not the page-turners, but the ones that balance these elements well.  Where plot, setting, theme, style, and character all become melded to the point where you cannot easily remove bits of one without unravelling bits of the others.  This is very similar to the LotR movies, where every change made by PJ required more changes down the road, altering plot, theme, and character -- and, ultimately, style and setting as well -- in order to accomodate them.I would argue that the same is true for D&D games.In one session, my players decided to wait three months so that the paladin could get a custom suit of armour made.  I gave them a quick summary of what occurred during that time, including news of the death of a distant prince and mention that a chess-like game played with carved dragons on a circular board had become a local fad.  The players appreciated the last detail (even though it was irrelevant to anything) and had their PCs spend time learning the game.  They even bought an expensive board.Things become relevant because the players and/or the DM make them so.This wasn't part of an adventure, and didn't need to impact the players directly at all.  They chose to make it impact them.  It is my job to be the facilitator of opportunities to make the adventure matter, the world matter, and the characters matter.Doing less is.....well, it results in less.RC</blockquote>

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