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DM advice: How do you NOT kill your party?
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<blockquote data-quote="TheSword" data-source="post: 7398369" data-attributes="member: 6879661"><p>You’re answer is disingenuous because it portrays the DM as a passive neutral observer/adjudicator. That just isn’t the case. The DM is a writer, storyteller, actor, reactor, tactician, coach and artist (depending on how good your map drawing skills are). Meta gaming is just a jargon way of describing a player using information they wouldn’t have. The DM isn’t a player. As the storyteller/game master/dungeon master they metagame by definition because they are outside the game itself.</p><p></p><p>The first rule is definitely have fun as Ranthalan says. </p><p></p><p>You can try and divest the element of choice from the way a DM acts and reacts by claiming they should be neutral, but the reality is I think the DM is constantly making decisions about what the party faces on a session by session basis. If you knowingly put players up against things that are irrelevent, or unachievable then your players will get bored. If one player is less confident or able to articulate their choices you may need to work a bit harder to give their character chance to shine.</p><p></p><p>Not every player is a twenty year veteran and I think some of the posts on here, particularly advocating the old skool/come what may/killer DM approach ignore that. </p><p></p><p>I’ve just finished the first section of Phandelver. I upped the number of foes and made them hobgoblins because the party despite being brand new players could take it. I added a worg because I knew it would engage the Druid player and portrayed it as an abomination. I expanded the scale of the tunnels to allow the drow fighters better darkvision to come in to play.</p><p></p><p>In short rather than invalidating the players choices, I made them relevant by incorporating them into the story. I didn’t make it easy the opposite rather - but I did make it bespoke. They seemed to love it. That’s not a 90’s style of playing - that’s a modern approach, that requires a bit more prep and a bit more imagination/judgement.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheSword, post: 7398369, member: 6879661"] You’re answer is disingenuous because it portrays the DM as a passive neutral observer/adjudicator. That just isn’t the case. The DM is a writer, storyteller, actor, reactor, tactician, coach and artist (depending on how good your map drawing skills are). Meta gaming is just a jargon way of describing a player using information they wouldn’t have. The DM isn’t a player. As the storyteller/game master/dungeon master they metagame by definition because they are outside the game itself. The first rule is definitely have fun as Ranthalan says. You can try and divest the element of choice from the way a DM acts and reacts by claiming they should be neutral, but the reality is I think the DM is constantly making decisions about what the party faces on a session by session basis. If you knowingly put players up against things that are irrelevent, or unachievable then your players will get bored. If one player is less confident or able to articulate their choices you may need to work a bit harder to give their character chance to shine. Not every player is a twenty year veteran and I think some of the posts on here, particularly advocating the old skool/come what may/killer DM approach ignore that. I’ve just finished the first section of Phandelver. I upped the number of foes and made them hobgoblins because the party despite being brand new players could take it. I added a worg because I knew it would engage the Druid player and portrayed it as an abomination. I expanded the scale of the tunnels to allow the drow fighters better darkvision to come in to play. In short rather than invalidating the players choices, I made them relevant by incorporating them into the story. I didn’t make it easy the opposite rather - but I did make it bespoke. They seemed to love it. That’s not a 90’s style of playing - that’s a modern approach, that requires a bit more prep and a bit more imagination/judgement. [/QUOTE]
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