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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 6103249" data-attributes="member: 22779">If you are going to assassinate the Duke, what would be fairly reasonable to expect?&nbsp; Guards?&nbsp; Yup.&nbsp; Castle or some sort of stronghold where the Duke is?&nbsp; I'd think so.&nbsp; Various traps and possible secret entrances?&nbsp; I could see that.So, how is your guard irrelevant?&nbsp;&nbsp; As a player, you wouldn't find that terribly contrived?&nbsp; We just happened to meet the architect on the road to the Duke's castle?&nbsp; We weren't looking for him.&nbsp; We didn't even know he existed until the DM parachuted him in.&nbsp; That, to me, is far, far worse for the game than any amount of scene skipping.&nbsp; Deus Ex Machina at its finest.&nbsp; Earlier I called this railroading and that was a mistake.&nbsp; It's not really railroading.&nbsp; But it is terribly contrived.&nbsp; I mean, why bother actually making anything like a plan?&nbsp; The DM is just going to give us the keys to the castle anyway, so long as we follow his bread crumb trail of encounters.&nbsp; Any deviation from that trail will result in complications and bad feelings, so, might as well just go along for the ride.No, you are missing the point.&nbsp; Why did we engage those desert nomads?&nbsp; We had no interest in engaging them.&nbsp; We engaged them because the DM put them there and had them attack us.&nbsp; Again, totally contrived.&nbsp; And the prisoner just happens to have the plot keys that we need?&nbsp; If you wanted us to have that information, why not just give it to us?&nbsp; Or, better yet, let us know before hand that there is someone that would possibly be very helpful for us to get to know and then let us decide whether or not we think it's important?&nbsp; I get that you want a strongly DM presented and driven game.&nbsp; That's groovy.&nbsp; But, for some of us, we'd rather that the players drive the game to a much larger degree.&nbsp; The players decide whether it's worth it to rescue that guy from the desert nomads, not the DM.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 6103249, member: 22779"] If you are going to assassinate the Duke, what would be fairly reasonable to expect? Guards? Yup. Castle or some sort of stronghold where the Duke is? I'd think so. Various traps and possible secret entrances? I could see that. So, how is your guard irrelevant? As a player, you wouldn't find that terribly contrived? We just [i]happened[/i] to meet the architect on the road to the Duke's castle? We weren't looking for him. We didn't even know he existed until the DM parachuted him in. That, to me, is far, far worse for the game than any amount of scene skipping. Deus Ex Machina at its finest. Earlier I called this railroading and that was a mistake. It's not really railroading. But it is terribly contrived. I mean, why bother actually making anything like a plan? The DM is just going to give us the keys to the castle anyway, so long as we follow his bread crumb trail of encounters. Any deviation from that trail will result in complications and bad feelings, so, might as well just go along for the ride. No, you are missing the point. Why did we engage those desert nomads? We had no interest in engaging them. We engaged them because the DM put them there and had them attack us. Again, totally contrived. And the prisoner just happens to have the plot keys that we need? If you wanted us to have that information, why not just give it to us? Or, better yet, let us know before hand that there is someone that would possibly be very helpful for us to get to know and then let us decide whether or not we think it's important? I get that you want a strongly DM presented and driven game. That's groovy. But, for some of us, we'd rather that the players drive the game to a much larger degree. The players decide whether it's worth it to rescue that guy from the desert nomads, not the DM. [/QUOTE]

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