Saying "Yes" and a fun moment to share

Phoenix8008 · Jun 19, 2008

I've skimmed through the DMG and found the section on saying "Yes" to player ideas to be a fun idea that I hadn't done enough of in the past possibly. In our game last weekend playing KotS, I got my first taste of deliberately trying this as a GM.

Spoilers
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Within the town of Winterhaven the PC's heard that Lord Padraig might have an offer for them to clear out the kobold menace in the area. Using an idea I saw in another thread here on the boards, I decided to make a Skill challenge out of getting past the gate guards to speak with the Lord about his proposal.

I informed them that they would need 4 successes before 2 failures and gave them a few acceptable skills which would be easiest along with a couple more roundabout ways which would be possible but more difficult. They managed to get 3 successes before accruing any failures when my 10 year old son nearly shouted out "I know! I'll go back out the front town gates and then come running in screaming 'the kobolds are coming! I saw kobolds! Ahhhhhhh!!' " I smiled at him and thought about the believability of this or lack thereof (did he slink off in the middle of this conversation and run out the gates only to turn around and run right back in past guards who had just seen him leave?). But I remembered that section in the DMG and thought to myself 'why not?'. Worst that happens is they get their first failure on the skill check. And that was pretty likely because the dragonborn fighter had a measly little bluff skill. I let him try it though and he rolled an 18 or 19! (Don't remember for sure which) I smiled at the kind fates and told him that he totally pulled it off! The front gates slammed shut in alarm and the inner gate guards they were trying to persuade quickly opened their gates and let the party in to see the Lord about a job to wipe out the kobolds.

I still smile when I think about it, and my son really got a huge boost from pulling off the stunt in such a fun and unique way. Just thought I'd share my tale with all of you.

Wormwood · Jun 19, 2008

Phoenix8008 said:
I still smile when I think about it, and my son really got a huge boost from pulling off the stunt in such a fun and unique way. Just thought I'd share my tale with all of you.

Great story---your game is in good hands, I'd say.

Who knew I was such a sucker for kid gamer stories? Curse you 4e for infecting me with this infernal optimism and good cheer!

Scurvy_Platypus · Jun 20, 2008

I'm glad it works for you.

Saying "Yes" is a great tool for the GM. I've been doing it for sometime.

The other one is "Yes, but..."

Yes, but... is a slightly trickier one. GMs are inclined to stack so many negatives on that it's effectively "No!". The trick is to let the player have their way, but there's some sort of drawback. The drawback shouldn't be too bad.

I go for "Yes" as often as I can.

If something doesn't set right with me for some reason, then I'll go for a Yes, but...

Only as a last resort to I go to "No."

I just finished up running my group through Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. In it, there's a Lurker Above. It dropped down, and the party managed to not be trapped by it.

I described it as looking kinda like a giant manta ray, and one of the players piped up, "Can I try and ride it? I want to steer it back around and ram it into the Displacer Beasts!"

"How do you plan on doing that?" I asked.

"I'm going to get on top of it, and then I'm going to grab it's gills in either hand and steer it around that way."

After thinking for a second I said, "Sure, you can do that. But, it's going to be a contested action. Your strength against it's Fortitude. If you win, you get to steer it that round and it'll go the direction you tug because it hurts it too much.

If it wins, it's going to do its own thing and probably spend some time trying to slam you into the ceiling."

The player shrugged and said, "Sounds fair to me." and away we went.

She managed to ride it like a Sandworm from Dune (other than a brief face scraping along the ceiling) straight into the Displacer Beasts.

The whole group enjoyed it immensely, and beat a hasty retreat while the Lurker digested his alternate meal.

CleverNickName · Jun 20, 2008

Since I rarely get a chance to say this, I'd better jump at the opportunity...

I agree with Wormwood. Great story! Your game is in good hands, I'd say also.

Treebore · Jun 20, 2008

Phoenix8008 said:
I've skimmed through the DMG and found the section on saying "Yes" to player ideas to be a fun idea that I hadn't done enough of in the past possibly. In our game last weekend playing KotS, I got my first taste of deliberately trying this as a GM.

Spoilers
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Within the town of Winterhaven the PC's heard that Lord Padraig might have an offer for them to clear out the kobold menace in the area. Using an idea I saw in another thread here on the boards, I decided to make a Skill challenge out of getting past the gate guards to speak with the Lord about his proposal.

I informed them that they would need 4 successes before 2 failures and gave them a few acceptable skills which would be easiest along with a couple more roundabout ways which would be possible but more difficult. They managed to get 3 successes before accruing any failures when my 10 year old son nearly shouted out "I know! I'll go back out the front town gates and then come running in screaming 'the kobolds are coming! I saw kobolds! Ahhhhhhh!!' " I smiled at him and thought about the believability of this or lack thereof (did he slink off in the middle of this conversation and run out the gates only to turn around and run right back in past guards who had just seen him leave?). But I remembered that section in the DMG and thought to myself 'why not?'. Worst that happens is they get their first failure on the skill check. And that was pretty likely because the dragonborn fighter had a measly little bluff skill. I let him try it though and he rolled an 18 or 19! (Don't remember for sure which) I smiled at the kind fates and told him that he totally pulled it off! The front gates slammed shut in alarm and the inner gate guards they were trying to persuade quickly opened their gates and let the party in to see the Lord about a job to wipe out the kobolds.

I still smile when I think about it, and my son really got a huge boost from pulling off the stunt in such a fun and unique way. Just thought I'd share my tale with all of you.

Very cool. One day you'll say "Yes" without rolling the dice, even though rolling such a good roll probably added a bit of adrenaline to the whole experience. Thats the biggest effect dice rolls have, that adrenaline rush. Plus whatever you get when you roll a 1. Depression?

I roll behind the screen for things like this. If I think its possible, and cool if they do it, I'll treat it as successful no matter what the die roll actually is. I'll even ham it up. Run my fingers through my hair and say, "Frig! What a good roll!"

They never know, I act the same way even when it is a good roll that I am counting.

Anyways, very cool, and something I am sure your kid will remember the rest of their life. Thats the coolest thing of all.

Wik · Jun 20, 2008

Yeah, the "yes" and "Yes, but..." approach is one I really have to consciously adopt. But, I do like throwing in some "nos", as well.

But, yeah, I'd have done the same thing. It's great when your players start thinking like that... they're involved, and that's always good.

jdrakeh · Jun 20, 2008

My experience with "Yes" and "No" is that I've only had to say "no" if people I was playing with were deliberately trying to spoil the game for other players (i.e., they were 'grief players').

Mathew_Freeman · Jun 20, 2008

That's a fantastic story, and I'm so glad that it worked, too!

Hopefully he'll go on to attempt many more crazy stunts like that one, and I hope they keep working.

Scurvy_Platypus (great name, btw!) - I'm also impressed by your decision on the Lurker. Sounds like everyone at the table enjoyed themselves, and I'll keep that sort of thing in mind for future reference.

Saying "Yes" and a fun moment to share

Phoenix8008

First Post

Wormwood

Adventurer

Scurvy_Platypus

Explorer

CleverNickName

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Treebore

First Post

Wik

First Post

jdrakeh

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Mathew_Freeman

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