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The Neutral Referee, Monty Haul, and the Killer DM: History of the GM and Application to 5e
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<blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 8707707" data-attributes="member: 93670"><p>I'm going to disagree with the 3.x not trusting the gm while 5e does claim. People have regularly have pointed at the 5e dmg suggesting it solves all gm problems if people would actually read it for several years now but unlike the 5e dmg the 3.x one actually had stuff in it & some of it was implicitly or explicitly things that armed the gm.</p><p></p><p>[spoiler="why you should sometimes improv"]</p><p>METAGAME THINKING</p><p>“I figure there’ll be a lever on the other side of the pit that deactivates the trap,” a player says to the others, “because the DM wouldnever create a trap that we couldn’t deactivate somehow.” That’s an example of metagame thinking. Any time the players base their characters’ actions on logic that depends on the fact that they’re playing a game; they’re using metagame thinking. This behavior should always be discouraged, because it detracts from real role-playing and spoils the suspension of disbelief.</p><p></p><p>Surprise your players by foiling metagame thinking. Suppose the other side of the pit has a lever, for example, but it’s rusted and</p><p>useless. Keep your players on their toes, and don’t let them second-guess you. Tell them to think in terms of the game world, not in terms of you as the DM. In the game world, someone made the trap in the dungeon for a purpose. You have figured out the reason</p><p>why the trap exists, and the PCs will need to do the same.</p><p></p><p>In short, when possible you should encourage the players to employ in-game logic. Confronted with the situation given above,</p><p>an appropriate response from a clever character is “I figure there’ll be a lever on the other side of the pit that deactivates the trap,</p><p>because the gnomes who constructed the trap must have a means to deactivate it.” In fact, this is wonderful—it shows smart thinking as well as respect for the verisimilitude of the game world.[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>It all but explicitly tells the gm that changing the world on the fly to thwart certain types of gameplay is good on page 11/12. Then later with <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/giving-an-ad-d-feel-to-5e.679228/post-8241363" target="_blank">gm's best friend & stacking bonuses</a> on 21/30 it provides a toolset that can be used to neutrally stack the odds & guidance on using it. There are countless other examples buried among the various "behind the curtain" sidebars that give tools & understanding to a gm wanting to use the trust they have with minimized frustrating trial & error that might erode it. You can see another example on 3.5mm pg300 in the SR & DR behind the curtain sidebar where it explains their value & how to set them responsibly to get the results you want for monsters your group will be facing.</p><p></p><p>3.x was <em>less</em> deadly than earlier versions given certain conditions like unlimited CLW wands but it could still be played in a manner where danger was still a thing if those were more limited & that was largely up to the GM. 5e by comparison is full on cheat code levels of survival with a lot of player facing tools with no purpose other than invalidating the GM's tools like powerful build & near universal darkvision among others. Powerful build is useless for conveying strength in a PC & the giff switching to advantage on strength checks proves it but PB still does exactly what it was designed to do by ensuring any player can simply say "nope" & opt out of any meaningful results from the gm tightening carrying capacities</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="tetrasodium, post: 8707707, member: 93670"] I'm going to disagree with the 3.x not trusting the gm while 5e does claim. People have regularly have pointed at the 5e dmg suggesting it solves all gm problems if people would actually read it for several years now but unlike the 5e dmg the 3.x one actually had stuff in it & some of it was implicitly or explicitly things that armed the gm. [spoiler="why you should sometimes improv"] METAGAME THINKING “I figure there’ll be a lever on the other side of the pit that deactivates the trap,” a player says to the others, “because the DM wouldnever create a trap that we couldn’t deactivate somehow.” That’s an example of metagame thinking. Any time the players base their characters’ actions on logic that depends on the fact that they’re playing a game; they’re using metagame thinking. This behavior should always be discouraged, because it detracts from real role-playing and spoils the suspension of disbelief. Surprise your players by foiling metagame thinking. Suppose the other side of the pit has a lever, for example, but it’s rusted and useless. Keep your players on their toes, and don’t let them second-guess you. Tell them to think in terms of the game world, not in terms of you as the DM. In the game world, someone made the trap in the dungeon for a purpose. You have figured out the reason why the trap exists, and the PCs will need to do the same. In short, when possible you should encourage the players to employ in-game logic. Confronted with the situation given above, an appropriate response from a clever character is “I figure there’ll be a lever on the other side of the pit that deactivates the trap, because the gnomes who constructed the trap must have a means to deactivate it.” In fact, this is wonderful—it shows smart thinking as well as respect for the verisimilitude of the game world.[/spoiler] It all but explicitly tells the gm that changing the world on the fly to thwart certain types of gameplay is good on page 11/12. Then later with [URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/giving-an-ad-d-feel-to-5e.679228/post-8241363']gm's best friend & stacking bonuses[/URL] on 21/30 it provides a toolset that can be used to neutrally stack the odds & guidance on using it. There are countless other examples buried among the various "behind the curtain" sidebars that give tools & understanding to a gm wanting to use the trust they have with minimized frustrating trial & error that might erode it. You can see another example on 3.5mm pg300 in the SR & DR behind the curtain sidebar where it explains their value & how to set them responsibly to get the results you want for monsters your group will be facing. 3.x was [I]less[/I] deadly than earlier versions given certain conditions like unlimited CLW wands but it could still be played in a manner where danger was still a thing if those were more limited & that was largely up to the GM. 5e by comparison is full on cheat code levels of survival with a lot of player facing tools with no purpose other than invalidating the GM's tools like powerful build & near universal darkvision among others. Powerful build is useless for conveying strength in a PC & the giff switching to advantage on strength checks proves it but PB still does exactly what it was designed to do by ensuring any player can simply say "nope" & opt out of any meaningful results from the gm tightening carrying capacities [/QUOTE]
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