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<blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 3526563" data-attributes="member: 18280">My point in the above, re: &quot;mentioning that the players see bunnies while their travelling in the hills, right? Or mentioning the goatherds along the road way, or the milling sheep, or mice....things like that?&quot; is that, unless the DM does mention things that are extraneous to the plot, the players are going to know that anything he mentions is part of the plot.For example, how many people ever fell for the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing (originally Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, later 1e Monster Manual 2)?&nbsp; Suddenly the DM is interested in telling us about rabbits?&nbsp; Clearly it's a trap.&nbsp; Likewise, if the players never encounter normal (non life-threatening) animals, the first toad they see is obviously a familiar spying on them.&nbsp; If you ever read mystery novels, you will know that extraneous details can be used as a kind of literary sleight-of-hand, to heighten the sense of the unknown and to make the relevant bits a little less obvious.&nbsp; People claim that you can't run a murder mystery in D&amp;D because divination spells make it too easy, but divination can only be used when you know the right questions to ask.&nbsp; Details can make it more difficult to know the right questions to ask.&nbsp; In effect, they help to preserve sense of wonder (you knew that was coming, didn't you?&nbsp; <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"&nbsp; class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing&nbsp; &nbsp; :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /> ).BTW, Hamlet in the Forgotten Realms works like this:&nbsp; Hamlet's father is said to be slain by bandits, and his body hasn't been recovered.&nbsp; A ghost appears to Hamlet to tell him that his uncle, who has married his mother, was actually behind the bandits.&nbsp; Hillarity ensues.&nbsp; Worlds don't get in the way of basic story ideas; lack of imagination does.&nbsp; Just for the record.RC</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Raven Crowking, post: 3526563, member: 18280"] My point in the above, re: "mentioning that the players see bunnies while their travelling in the hills, right? Or mentioning the goatherds along the road way, or the milling sheep, or mice....things like that?" is that, unless the DM [i]does[/i] mention things that are extraneous to the plot, the players are going to know that anything he mentions [i]is part of the plot[/i]. For example, how many people ever fell for the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing (originally Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, later 1e Monster Manual 2)? Suddenly the DM is interested in telling us about rabbits? Clearly it's a trap. Likewise, if the players never encounter normal (non life-threatening) animals, the first toad they see is obviously a familiar spying on them. If you ever read mystery novels, you will know that extraneous details can be used as a kind of literary sleight-of-hand, to heighten the sense of the unknown and to make the relevant bits a little less obvious. People claim that you can't run a murder mystery in D&D because divination spells make it too easy, but divination can only be used when you know the right questions to ask. Details can make it more difficult to know the right questions to ask. In effect, they help to preserve sense of wonder (you knew that was coming, didn't you? :lol: ). BTW, Hamlet in the Forgotten Realms works like this: Hamlet's father is said to be slain by bandits, and his body hasn't been recovered. A ghost appears to Hamlet to tell him that his uncle, who has married his mother, was actually behind the bandits. Hillarity ensues. Worlds don't get in the way of basic story ideas; lack of imagination does. Just for the record. RC [/QUOTE]

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