I've been posting on EnWorld for more than 10 years now, and I could probably count on one hand the number of times I posted a thread asking for help or information and actually got a useful response.
Maybe so, but over 10 years ago, if someone posted a "share your cool/funny/interesting experiences" thread, they could be reasonably certain to garner a few. Without drawing unrelated criticism. I went away for a few years (because life) and came back to this. (Thankfully, I missed the worst of the edition wars.)
I admire the fairy tale feel. It's the verisimilitude I'm questioning because you have unreflected on D&Dism ('It's a monster, kill and loot it!') mixed in with your fairy tale. I'm also skeptical under the circumstances of describing the actions as 'dumb'.
It was dumb, precisely because the players knew it
wasn't a "kill and loot" kind of game. In the first place, there was no loot to be gained (and very little XP from monsters back then, none nowadays). In the second, because the players knew that gathering intelligence when possible was always the best course of action (followed by a quick retreat, if necessary). It was quite uncharacteristic of them to attack without intel.
It was dumb and they knew it (there wasn't even agreement in the party that they should kill the twigs), but they wanted to do something impulsive and they had fun with. And they've thanked me many times for making sure it came back to haunt them, because
that's the kind of verisimilitude that they really appreciate.
I'm gathering at the time that wasn't clear to the players.
Well, of course not. They didn't bother to find out.
For my part, it's because first, while experience is a good teacher, sometimes having someone more experienced lead you through it is an even better teacher. And secondly, because my observation of the EnWorld boards is that many young DMs are seldom aware that they've made a mistake or a potential mistake. Often I see posts on the boards by young DMs complaining of table problems that have arisen or difficulties that they find themselves in, and they don't see how they got where they got to. My purpose in this thread was less to correct you, than it was to reinforce the warning to younger readers who might come upon this thread and think, "Cool!" (which it is), "I'm going to do something like that!", without realizing how IMO you only avoided disaster by a bit of luck and the grace of some rather understanding players.
Here's the thing, though. I did not provide details that would explain or justify my DMing decisions in that story
because they were not relevant. For some reason, you have been filling in those gaps with fairly inaccurate assumptions based on some unfounded perception that that story should be taken as some sort of treatise on how to DM. It was neither intended, nor implied to be.
I already have a thread to point to for that, when I feel someone actually could use my veteran advice.
Also, I don't know what catastrophe you think I narrowly avoided through "a bit of luck and the grace of some rather understanding players." At worst, they would say, "this makes no sense," which an experienced DM (which I was, even back then) would not need luck to allieviate. Hell, a simple "You're right. Maybe you'd better find out what happened to leave them so defenseless" leads to more adventure. Which is a win.
hopefully we chilled out some, but as Umbran said, we've side tracked. Sorry about that.
Thank you, and no worries.
The only reason I commented, because as the 2nd poster, then myself and then Celebrim commented, the original story had some warning signs for a new GM.
that should hold significance, because at least 3 different people read the OT, and realized there could be some problems with that encounter setup that wouldn't be the players' fault.
My reply to Celebrim applies here, as well, so I'll repost it:
Here's the thing, though. I did not provide details that would explain or justify my DMing decisions in that story
because they were not relevant. For some reason, you have been filling in those gaps with fairly inaccurate assumptions based on some unfounded perception that that story should be taken as some sort of treatise on how to DM. It was neither intended, nor implied to be.
I already have a thread to point to for that, when I feel someone actually could use my veteran advice.
with that, let's just let the thread get back on course and maybe start a different thread on the other matter.
So, do you have any somewhat related stories to tell?
