I’ve found this trope works best when all players know the secret, but the characters don’t. If it’s a cool, interesting secret, everyone can play into it and enjoy the dramatic irony.

I agree, this reads like a reporter interviewing someone to get them to define terms they made up. This didn’t sell me on why I should want to use one style of play over another, just wistful “torturing” themself wondering if anyone still uses this mysterious style of play. It’s not mysterious. As you said, it’s just Play to Find Out.

I think it would be more useful to show the strengths and weaknesses of PtFO and as well as more scripted gameplay, because each has a place in RPGs, and knowing when to use one over another is a great skill for GMs to practice.

Path Hider

I would avoid running any combat where the party is forced to lose. That would make any time spent on it feel like a waste. A short narrated vision would be fine, but if you want to make this a bigger encounter, you should give the party a goal that they can actually accomplish. I can think of a few ways you could do this:

• The party could locate survivors among the dead to gain information about what happened.
• Survey the wreckage, the party could use investigation skills to look at debris and piece together what happened. Think, crime scene investigation on a grand scale.
• The BBEG may be showing a true vision of the future, but not a complete vision. Perhaps there is something that the BBEG is trying to hide, such as a clue to how to defeat them. For example, the party could use some kind of magic detection to see through an illususory water fountain and reveal a magic MacGuffin or a person who knows the BBEG’s weakness.