Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5423587" data-attributes="member: 7006">The big question you needed to ask yourself Az005 is this..."When the PCs bring the refugees to the gate of the city and the guards don't let them in, what should the PCs do?"Because unless I've missed your explanation in some of your reply posts (which is quite possible) I have not seen what you had in mind for the answer to this dilemma.  Did you have one?  Did you have in mind at least one "right action" the PCs should have taken?  Because if you didn't... then you can't blame the PCs for not thinking of one either, nor question their actions for all the ideas they came up with.Bringing the refugees into the city was not an option in your mind, turning around and going back the way they came was not an option, abandoning the refugees outside the city walls was not an option, and disregarding the guard's commands by sneaking them into the city was not an option.Now I understand completely why these were not valid options in your mind (NPC guards were controlled; army was advancing; goes against alignment of good; goes against alignment of lawful-- respectively) but at some point if these were not being allowed on the table without grave consequences for doing so, then you as a fellow improviser need to offer up some other 'Yes' options to them to possibly take that doesn't result in these grave consequences.Now some DMs would be quite happy with presenting this "no-win" Kobayashi Maru scenario and then letting the scene play out. The PCs hang themselves with whatever option they take and the DM accepts and smiles happily while the PCs chew him out for screwing with them (some DMs actually get off on that, believe it or not)... but it sounds like this was not something you really wanted to get into.  As you say, you were going to be yelled at regardless.  So the question becomes what are you going to give them that gives you what you both want-- the PCs depositing the refugees safely and completing their task; you throwing up a dramatic conflict that the PCs solve.  And for that... something in your mind and your plot has to give.  It's hard as hell to allow yourself to do that when nothing the PCs do seem to make "sense"... but if your optimal result is the PCs solving the problem without you getting yelled at... either you give them the breadcrumb clue to solve the problem your way (if you have one), or you allow this one time of breaking what "makes sense".******And BTW - as one final caveat and recommendation... never use game mechanics as a decision point when it comes to roleplaying.  Just because the game mechanics say that the Trip action is much more deadly (tactically speaking) than hitting someone with a sword... this is in no way true from a roleplaying perspective.  The reaction a town guardsman would have to seeing someone stick their foot out and trip somebody would be much, much less than seeing that same person draw a weapon and take a swing at them.  So don't let the game mechanics color the reactions of the NPCs.</blockquote>

Verification