Player or DM power

[LostSoul]

Who holds the power in your game? The DM or the Players?

Where the DM holds the power, he knows what magic items are available for sale in the City of Secrets (if he's prepared) when the players go shopping, or he rolls to determine the same (if he's not so prepared), or he just decides based on his own intuition. Whatever method he chooses, the end result of the PC's search belongs to the DM.

Where the Players hold the power, the PC makes a Knowledge: Streetwise check (or whatever), and his check result determines if he was able to find what he was looking for. You might have a table of DCs, modified by the size of the city (or whatever), but the end result comes down to the PC's check result. I guess this would be similar to the amount of gold a Character collects from use of the Perform skill (the DM doesn't decide if the people like his Performance; the Perform check does).

I use the first method almost all of the time, but I think it would be interesting to see the other style in play (and I have used it, to a degree, playing Star Wars).

Just thinking out loud...

 

[Mouseferatu]

I don't think this is an either/or thing. I've done both in the same campaign, as the mood struck me, or as was most appropriate for the situation.

 

[Wicht]

It really depends on the situation and what I want the players to learn and how badly I think they need to know it. If they refuse to even try to learn anything, they have the power not to learn it. If I feel they have to know something and they make a reasonable effort I will let them learn it. If they would find the information useful but its not vital, their rolls determine how much they learn. In the end though, no matter what is rolled, as DM I have the final say about what the PCs learn.

 

[Darkness]

I don't think that your example is "control in the hands of the players:" After all, it's the DM who decides that a certain issue is to be handled with a skill check - just like another DM (or the same DM in another situation) might decide to roll on a table, etc. (Unless the players decide it, of course; in that case, the game is most certainly in the players' hands... )

 

[Valicor]

In our game, we basically choose what we want and always get ti, aslogn as we can afford it.

 

[Crothian]

In your example it depnds on the City. If the magic shop is open to everyone then no big deal. Ther players find it with ease and everyone's happy. If the magic shop is more secret, then Gather Information and Role Playing is needed.

So, Both.

 

[The Onion Knight]

much to our groups occasional chagrin
the dice hold the power in our group