Secrecy

[Darth Ultron]

I'd be rather interested in getting a real example of how you deal with players who want to do something different than what you've planned, as right now I imagine that your games must go something like this:

Oh, well, I would never ''plan" any "one" event or action or encounter, but more just ''plan" to ''have something happen", but it does not matter what that ''something" is.

So, again, if the plot plot point / element of conflict in the larger plot was "save the town of Highrock from the orcs of Thung", and, instead of (collecting the seven super special secret McGuffins and) fighting the orcs as the plot calls for, the party saved the town, by starting a week-long forest fire between the town and Thung, and evacuating to Gondor in the interim, why do you consider this a pebble?

Well, I would not all the two above actions a ''pebble", as they (might) end/solve/take care of the plot.

Understand, I ask in small part because you claim to be a huge fan of railroading. I can see many possible horrible answers - many of them involving railroading - and many possible good answers to the question. Let alone the many answers that i wouldn't consider merely ripples, that perhaps we are calibrated to describe differently.

Well, admittedly everyone things Railroading is One Thing as they don't like it. If the plot is to save the town, it does not matter ''how'' the town is saved.

So, would you consider this course of action jumping the rails? Ripples? Disruptive players? But, most of all, why? What happens to the rest of the plot if Thung isn't dead, and, in fact, now occupies the village? Where do you go from there with the plot once one element of conflict is resolved in an unconventional fashion?

Well, it would not even get close to a ''unconventional" blip on my radar.