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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 6114812" data-attributes="member: 22779">Remember though, the issue isn't that there are encounters in the desert.  The issue is that the players CANNOT choose those encounters.  There is nothing the players can pro-actively do until the DM allows them to do so.  The players cannot go looking for nomads that they have no idea exist.  The players cannot go looking for anything.  It's a desert.  A wasteland where virtually nothing lives.  Isn't that generally the definition of a desert or waste?And, you keep talking about how interesting the desert is.  That's besides the point though.  The ONLY reason we have to be in the desert is because we lack a plot coupon that allows us to skip the desert.  If we have the plot coupon, then we skip the desert and no one minds.  The only reason that we have to face DM initiated encounters in the desert is because the DM has enforced a level of simulation that I expressly did not want to engage.  I want the centipede travel to be treated the same as teleport.  That's what I want.  I want this because I want to get to the city and push towards our goal and I don't want to spend time screwing around in the desert.  If we had a teleport scroll, I'd use that right away.  We don't have that, but, could we please just pretend that using the centipede effectively works the same?It has nothing to do with how interesting or boring the desert is.  The basic issue here isn't about skipping the DM's interesting stuff, because you don't mind if the group does that.  Doesn't bother you in the slightest if the group skips the desert.  What bothers you is that the player wants to get the same effect, even though, at this time, he doesn't have the proper plot coupon for doing so.  It's a cheat code.  This bothers you far more than it does me.  Really?  I cannot assume inhabitants in the city?  I cannot assume basic elements that the DMG tells us to presume that are in a city of a given size?  Again, presuming that those guidelines are being used.  If they are not, then whatever guidelines are being used should probably be known to the players as well.  Can I assume a 15th level wizard?  Ok, probably not.  That's going a bit far.  But, I probably can assume the presence of a major temple in a city - even if I cannot presume exactly who the temple is devoted to.  Which means that I can presume clerics who can cast spells.  Granted, I'll have to go to that temple, find out a bit about it and then choose an applicable approach to the priests in that temple, but, again, I can pro-actively do that as a player.Besides sand and rock, what can I pro-actively search out in a desert?Now, if the siege has absolutely no effect on the inside of the city, I really have to wonder why the DM included it in the first place?  What's the point of a siege of a city that has no effect?  Why would the DM bother doing all that work for nothing?  The siege is there because the players are going to that city.  The player's goals are in that city.  The siege bloody well better have some effect on those goals, otherwise, what's the point?  Could the DM have a completely irrelevant siege?  Sure.  But, again, what's the point?  That's just bad DMing.  But, nothing in the desert can be too terribly relevant because it's perfectly reasonable for the group to skip the desert.  My group couldn't because we lacked a specific resource, but, it's not like that's a terribly rare resource that no one would ever have.  Teleport is a pretty resource common straight out of the PHB.</blockquote>

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