Stop being so paranoid

[knifie_sp00nie]

This is inspired by another thread, but is really about a larger issue-- Player paranoia. I'm sick and tired of dealing with it. It's a tradition that gets carrie over to every DnD edition and other RPGs.

In the inspiring thread, the players wouldn't open a door that could provide an escape and save their lives because something might jump out at them. Every square inch of a dungeon has to be meticulously searched for traps or secret doors. Every door is potentially trapped, every goblet of wine is poisoned.

How do other DMs deal with this legacy of arbitrary death? I can't always blame the players. Sometimes there is a trap or a monster waiting in ambush, but most of the time they're just slowing things down or acting paranoid because there's too many stories or past experiences that say death is a giggle and a die roll away. Another related aspect is when a fight does occur, retreat is almost nonexistent. A party will fight to nearly the last man rather than retreat and regroup.

I suppose they're all artifacts of the game. It is a game after all. There's supposed to be challenges and pitfalls, but also some story and drama. Is it just a particular style of adventure design? I'm currently running KotS, but have been playing for years and always see the same issues. Are there any adventure design tips to avoid this?

Do other groups have this paranoia problem? And what have you tired to keep it from interfering with the game? I often just chuckle and tell them the door is fine before they can even finish asking about traps. I like the passive perception idea, but it's not enough to keep the party from searching everything. I've promised not to punish creative movement in a combat area. Still, if it has an element of the unknown, it's avoided.

 

[Crothian]

My group is not paraniod enough. Not about door and traps and that sort of silly thing but about the real evils of the campaign and the threat they pose.

 

[FalcWP]

You don't want me to be paranoid so I'll fall for those dastardly DM traps! You and every DM! I'm on to you! I'm on to ALL OF YOU!!!

Seriously, though. If my players insist on always being paranoid about stuff, I'll toss them a bone every now and then and have that paranoia pay off. Most of the time, however, it'll cost em.

Sort of like being paranoid in real life.

 

[Desdichado]

My players aren't paranoid of that kind of thing. They're only paranoid of NPC betrayal. They don't trust anyone.

I don't blame them, but still.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

With our group(s), we go from "a stranger's just a friend we haven't met" to "everyone is out to get us". We'll walk through a corridor riddled with crushed bones but refuse to drink from the village fountain where the kids are playing. We get fits of extreme, usually misdirected paranoïa.

Players... who knows what they're thinking...

AR

 

[Pbartender]

You see, my problem isn't that my players are too paranoid or aren't paranoid enough. It's that my players are paranoid when they shouldn't be, and aren't paranoid when they should, despite the blatant clues I give one way or another.

When the local priest gives them a tip and offers a sizable reward to recover an relic form the church, the first thing they ask is, "Hey, wait a minute... Where did a village priest get so much money for the reward? Is he hiding something? Is this illegal money? What's he gain from acquiring the artifact? why don't we just go straight to the high priest and turn this guy in?" and Sense Motive checks start flying left and right. Even if I have the priest explain, "I've been saving away this small fortune for years, and this is my chance. If I'm the one who's responsible for retrieving the relic, the High Priest will look favorably on me and it may be my ticket out of this backwater parish." Still, the players don't get the hint, until I flat out say, "Guys, there's nothing going on here, he's playing church politics. Help him out, and you'll have a friendly contact in a position of modest power within the church."

On the other hand, if they're wandering through the dungeon, and they run across a heavy door, barred, locked, and with a big sign that says, "DANGER! Do not open." You can bet your boots, that they'll be kicking it in within seconds.

 

[malraux]

One thing that might help is established rules to cover such things. ie Every door you open, you listen, check for traps, then unlock, then let the fighter step through. I'll tell you if anything comes up before the fighter steps through. Similarly with walking down a hall, camping and setting watch for the night (and you should probably get a default night watch list in advance), etc. That said, some groups just like being paranoid, others like pushing buttons to see what happens.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

I'm sick and tired of dealing with it.

What the hell are you talking about?

Have you actually read the DMG? Have you read any of the columns going up at Wizards? Hell, in the last column by Shelly, the Wizards people flat out said it was just the job of the DM to kill the PCs.

It is all about doing anything, everything and whatever it takes to torment and kill the PCs. If the players are not deeply paranoid, then they deserve it when their characters die.

Further, in a game where they player begin to get a visceral sense of how the DM operates, then this kind of paranoid does not come out of the blue and it is not undeserved – it comes as a response to how the DM runs the game.

Stop whining to us, kill the PCs and be done with it.

 

[cougent]

The first 8 posts of this thread all brought memory flashbacks of something my group has done in the past, because yes all groups do suffer this disease and almost all suffer it in the same way at some point in time.

My group routinely told me that I was trying to kill them... so finally I just agreed with them. So the time that they came across a giant stone door, barred and locked, they just had to open it. In their efforts to open it, they removed the hinges (visible on their side) and then decided to "push" the door open. [some of you may already see the flaw here] The door became unstable and fell... on them! [because yes it opens towards them, not the other way] This was treated as yet another one of *MY* DM tricks to kill them, and it did crush one of them, not as the player stupidity it really was. That is just par for the course though, put on your DM Dragon Skin coat and just wade into the fray. Actually embrace the evil DM role and proclaim it to them, make them fear you, confirm their worst nightmares, teach them what REAL paranoia is all about, MUWAHAHAHAHA!

Because that is far easier than getting them to admit it is their own mistakes that usually gets them killed.

 

[The_Gneech]

You see, my problem isn't that my players are too paranoid or aren't paranoid enough. It's that my players are paranoid when they shouldn't be, and aren't paranoid when they should, despite the blatant clues I give one way or another.

When the local priest gives them a tip and offers a sizable reward to recover an relic form the church, the first thing they ask is, "Hey, wait a minute... Where did a village priest get so much money for the reward? Is he hiding something? Is this illegal money? What's he gain from acquiring the artifact? why don't we just go straight to the high priest and turn this guy in?" and Sense Motive checks start flying left and right. Even if I have the priest explain, "I've been saving away this small fortune for years, and this is my chance. If I'm the one who's responsible for retrieving the relic, the High Priest will look favorably on me and it may be my ticket out of this backwater parish." Still, the players don't get the hint, until I flat out say, "Guys, there's nothing going on here, he's playing church politics. Help him out, and you'll have a friendly contact in a position of modest power within the church."

On the other hand, if they're wandering through the dungeon, and they run across a heavy door, barred, locked, and with a big sign that says, "DANGER! Do not open." You can bet your boots, that they'll be kicking it in within seconds.

Yes, this.

"Wait ... the creepy guy hanging around the dark alley holding a bloody knife was the murderer? I never saw that coming! I was sure it was the little old lady running the pie shop."

-The Gneech