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DMing philosophy, from Lewis Pulsipher
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<blockquote data-quote="Nagol" data-source="post: 6312993" data-attributes="member: 23935"><p>In my experience, players rarely do what I expect them to do and the chances of them acting consistently is inversely proportional to the value consistency would provide them.</p><p></p><p>There are a couple of ways of resolving that and minimising DM bias. </p><p></p><p>The first way is of course be prepared. You don't necessarily need to know every potential detail of every location, but having a good grounding in the town demographics and security arrangements can give you a strong starting position to extrapolate should the players decide to go in an unexpected direction in the town whether that is an impulsive crime or off-the-wall information-gathering tactic or whatever. </p><p></p><p>Second, consult the dice. If there is a range available in what the PCs may encounter, announce it and then roll to determine where in the range the current situation falls. If the roll determines a persistent fact in the universe, make a note in case it comes up again. If the roll is to determine a current situation, make a note of the probabilities used in case the situation comes up again. I'm also a big fan of announcing/recording the probabilities prior to rolling the dice to avoid the whole "I rolled a 10 that means what I want it to mean" syndrome. </p><p></p><p>I hear a voice cry in my brain: "Aha, but your probability range will be based on your biases!" Yes to a point. It will be based on whatever notes exist for the situation at hand (Hmm the area the PCs are in is the middle-upper-class section of the town. The average wealth is 800 gp / household, this area has about double that say 1000 + 100 x1d10 gp, What's the chance of the house belonging to a special NPC who hasn't had living arrangement detailed? M / N where M is the number of special NPCs likely to lodge in this area of town and N is the number of households of this type) and whatever precedent has been set in the past (a month ago the PCs found the town patrol does sweeps up the street every 20 minutes). Anything completely not covered (what are the chances people are home at 2130 on a normal Saturday night? Umm 45%! How much of the household wealth is easily portable? 2d10%) needs to be made up on the spot -- but it informs the rest of the campaign.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nagol, post: 6312993, member: 23935"] In my experience, players rarely do what I expect them to do and the chances of them acting consistently is inversely proportional to the value consistency would provide them. There are a couple of ways of resolving that and minimising DM bias. The first way is of course be prepared. You don't necessarily need to know every potential detail of every location, but having a good grounding in the town demographics and security arrangements can give you a strong starting position to extrapolate should the players decide to go in an unexpected direction in the town whether that is an impulsive crime or off-the-wall information-gathering tactic or whatever. Second, consult the dice. If there is a range available in what the PCs may encounter, announce it and then roll to determine where in the range the current situation falls. If the roll determines a persistent fact in the universe, make a note in case it comes up again. If the roll is to determine a current situation, make a note of the probabilities used in case the situation comes up again. I'm also a big fan of announcing/recording the probabilities prior to rolling the dice to avoid the whole "I rolled a 10 that means what I want it to mean" syndrome. I hear a voice cry in my brain: "Aha, but your probability range will be based on your biases!" Yes to a point. It will be based on whatever notes exist for the situation at hand (Hmm the area the PCs are in is the middle-upper-class section of the town. The average wealth is 800 gp / household, this area has about double that say 1000 + 100 x1d10 gp, What's the chance of the house belonging to a special NPC who hasn't had living arrangement detailed? M / N where M is the number of special NPCs likely to lodge in this area of town and N is the number of households of this type) and whatever precedent has been set in the past (a month ago the PCs found the town patrol does sweeps up the street every 20 minutes). Anything completely not covered (what are the chances people are home at 2130 on a normal Saturday night? Umm 45%! How much of the household wealth is easily portable? 2d10%) needs to be made up on the spot -- but it informs the rest of the campaign. [/QUOTE]
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