Curmudjinn
Explorer
I don't understand the DM did something wrong to constitute a fudge mindset. Generally, it has nothing at all to do with the DM.
If a DM has a long, fun 0-session(of course beers) with your party, planning characters out, tying together backgrounds and future goals, and your first conflict is 3 goblins who should be dead immediately. However everyone constantly rolls failures or botches, while the goblins either constantly hit and or crit. TPK, session 1.
There is no way I, as a DM, can say whelp tough luck. That is not fun. The end does not justify the means.
Those that think THIS IS THE WAY have such an alien mindset to what constitutes a fun RPG session, compared to my own mindset. Luckily in all of my years, I've only ran into a few like this and only a single person in my own games.
I'll just ask my group in similar game-changing situations if they want to restart before the combat, restart the combat, or start completely over. They never, ever have chosen to start completely over. In my 20+ years of offering. This isn't real life and decisions shouldn't, in my opinion, suffer such callous finality.
I do agree that sometimes you need to be rigid and other times flexible.
If a DM has a long, fun 0-session(of course beers) with your party, planning characters out, tying together backgrounds and future goals, and your first conflict is 3 goblins who should be dead immediately. However everyone constantly rolls failures or botches, while the goblins either constantly hit and or crit. TPK, session 1.
There is no way I, as a DM, can say whelp tough luck. That is not fun. The end does not justify the means.
Those that think THIS IS THE WAY have such an alien mindset to what constitutes a fun RPG session, compared to my own mindset. Luckily in all of my years, I've only ran into a few like this and only a single person in my own games.
I'll just ask my group in similar game-changing situations if they want to restart before the combat, restart the combat, or start completely over. They never, ever have chosen to start completely over. In my 20+ years of offering. This isn't real life and decisions shouldn't, in my opinion, suffer such callous finality.
I do agree that sometimes you need to be rigid and other times flexible.