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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9182849" data-attributes="member: 6790260">As I believe I've said before, for me, there's some pretty important limits on this kind of power for a DM. That is, if the DM is constantly rewriting things whenever they feel like it, even if they feel it's extremely important that they do this and believe they never do it unless they have extremely good reasons, it just...I mean is it even really a game, a challenge, anymore? It's one thing to say, &quot;Well, you waited, and the situation changed.&quot; It's quite another to rewrite monsters on the fly, add new monsters simply because the party's plan was out of step with what you expected (whether weakening the monsters because their plan sucked or strengthening them because the plan was too awesome, doesn't matter.)But let's talk limits first.I wrote a lot more about this, but for once I'll try to be brief. Early on, fresh campaign or fresh new arc or whatever, the world's your oyster. You've got the freedom to do most anything--everything lies Beyond The Horizon. But every question you answer pushes the horizon back.Six sessions deep in the kobold-centric Seven Warrens for Seven Bothers arc, just tossing goblins in 'cause you're absolutely sure they're needed? Not kosher anymore. You gotta explain why now. Player questions and your answers have pushed the horizon too far away. The goblins had to affect the world to get there so fast, in secret, etc. Early days, players have plenty of chance to find out in advance--and it's on them to do that work. Decided six weeks later, after the party has done its due diligence? No, doesn't fly unless you at least give the players a chance to find out first.This is of course separate from my &quot;rewriting monsters on the fly without justifying it is blatantly cheating&quot; issues, but that's a whole different can of worms.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 9182849, member: 6790260"] As I believe I've said before, for me, there's some pretty important limits on this kind of power for a DM. That is, if the DM is constantly rewriting things whenever they feel like it, [I]even if[/I] they feel it's extremely important that they do this and believe they never do it unless they have extremely good reasons, it just...I mean is it even really a game, a [I]challenge[/I], anymore? It's one thing to say, "Well, you waited, and the situation changed." It's quite another to rewrite monsters on the fly, add new monsters simply because the party's plan was out of step with what you expected (whether weakening the monsters because their plan sucked or strengthening them because the plan was too awesome, doesn't matter.) But let's talk limits first. I wrote a lot more about this, but for once I'll try to be brief. Early on, fresh campaign or fresh new arc or whatever, the world's your oyster. You've got the freedom to do most anything--everything lies Beyond The Horizon. But every question you answer [I]pushes the horizon back.[/I] Six sessions deep in the kobold-centric Seven Warrens for Seven Bothers arc, just tossing goblins in 'cause you're [I]absolutely sure[/I] they're needed? Not kosher anymore. You gotta explain why now. Player questions and your answers have pushed the horizon [I]too far away[/I]. The goblins had to affect the world to get there so fast, in secret, etc. Early days, players have plenty of chance to find out in advance--and it's on them to do that work. Decided six weeks later, [I]after[/I] the party has done its due diligence? No, doesn't fly unless you [I]at least[/I] give the players a chance to find out first. This is of course separate from my "rewriting monsters on the fly without justifying it is [I]blatantly cheating[/I]" issues, but that's a whole different can of worms. [/QUOTE]

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