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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JamesonCourage" data-source="post: 6109536" data-attributes="member: 6668292">The desert can add a time pressure, and can help add opportunities to achieve your goals. I can't comment on what you find contrived, but it seems like a siege could be just as contrived, especially the more closely it relates directly to your goal (the more relevant it becomes).Right, which is why you'd skip through the bits of desert where nothing happens until you've met the nomads.Now, the examples are "nomads in the desert" and "siege". Both can be related or unrelated. We can make either one relevant or irrelevant.Well, the nomads can, too. We're just missing context on them. But the siege could be there for a reason entirely separate from your goal. It's just a roadblock, like the context-less desert is. That is, they both are irrelevant, until we make either one relevant.In play, I'd say all complications are completely different. That's why I like playing them all out; I like seeing how they'll affect play, what we'll learn about characters, how NPCs respond and interact with PCs, etc. I know that doesn't interest you as much, but we do agree that in play they're probably completely different.Disagree. Let's say your goal in the city is to get to a certain temple to attune a certain tune to your fork for Plane Shift (Celebrim's example, I think, and I'm guessing from the module). Okay, so, this siege is here because they want the mayor to turn himself over as a traitor, and he's not willing to.Okay, that's not related to your goal. At all. All it does is close the gates -it's a roadblock. Just like the desert can be. The only difference is backdrop.Yes, that'd make it relevant. But, that's you making it relevant. My context makes the siege irrelevant. It's merely a roadblock. The desert can be made relevant in the same way that you made your siege relevant, or made irrelevant in the same way I made the siege irrelevant.Well, you have no way of knowing that the siege is relevant until you interact with it. It's the same thing. You need context before you know whether or not something is relevant.What? I don't get this; the siege is a complication, whether or not it's relevant. The desert can be, too. Your character would want to deal with either one, if they are getting in his way, since he wants to get to the city. I wouldn't be asking you to step outside your character at all.Well, don't worry, I have no doubts about my skill as a GM. However, I can't see the difference, inherently, between the complications. I see how they can affect things differently (nomads will resolve differently than interacting with a siege), but not how one is inherently related and relevant, and the other isn't. That depends entirely on context.I do accept the difference is real to you. I'm trying to understand it. I am objecting the reasoning given thus far, but I am trying to get where you're coming from.I've said I accept there is a difference. I've just said I can't see what it is.You're replying to my post, right? Go back and find a post where I called you whiny or disruptive. I didn't. Please, don't project the entire thread onto me, or my posts onto other posters in this thread. It's not productive, it needlessly muddies the conversation, and it fosters ill will. Thank you. As always, play what you like <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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