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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Speaks With Stone" data-source="post: 1188206" data-attributes="member: 375">Since Rel pointed me to his question, I figured I'd reply and give the perspective of one of the aforementioned "foolish" players.  I don't think that Rel's handling was wrong - but I will suggest that on night one with lots of new characters that a chance to work out some kinks would have been nice.  We were still operating in that "honeymoon" stage where we have new characters, new abilities and new players.  I don't think night one of a campaign is a great time to start handing out lessons.Surely, no guard posted is a bad call.  At the same time, this was not land we "heard" was cleared of bad things - it was land we had previously cleared of the bad things.  We were following a burgeoning trade path that we had opened and one of our party members had just walked it by himself the week before.  The druid sleeps in the more hostile woods north of this place all the time - it's home.   I won't argue that "anything can happen in the D&D world."  I just have a problem with acting military in peaceful conditions.  I find it detracts from the roleplaying to focus so heavily on the tactics.  When in a hostile situation, guards and tactics are clearly a must.  But at what point can a character just be himself - apparently only in exposition.We were going to "learn the lesson" about guarding one way or the other - whether they attacked us the way they did or attacked us at breakfast.  Just "at breakfast" would have been more fun for the group and given us a chance to learn the characters.Clearly, this encounter doesn't say much for my tactics as I'm the one with the most background in the game and in this campaign, but I frequently act in ways that are more picturesque.  That is how I enjoy playing - I'm watching the movie in my mind - and that's not to say I don't enjoy the tactics, but I also don't like acting paranoid about everything, which is exactly where I seem to be heading.  The only way not to get punished is to anticipate and prepare against foes who scry, shapeshift and apparently have 9 levels more experience.  Sorry - some of that goes into my followup concern.  I've just been "taught a lesson" about not being smart and prepared, and yet clearly all of our character backgrounds were set up and the story is designed around us going up against druids that can cast shambling mounds- a 9th level spell.  I can't hide my actions from them as they can follow us and scry on us at will.  There are no resources for anti-scrying magic available.  Clearly, we are supposed to go against the will of these 17th level druids.  The only smart thing to do is to do what they said to do leave.  And yet, the entire story is pointed at going up against them.  Normally I wouldn't sweat this so much.  I trust the story to go on and I love playing my part.  But if I have to assume that every poor choice will be punished severely and I know that there is no way for me to protect against my adversary, then the only smart option is to abandon the story.  As mentioned above - sometimes the party is supposed to be smart enough to run away.  That is the lesson I seem to be getting from all of this, that we should run away.And yet Rel assures me strongly that that is not the lesson I am to get from this.  So the reality becomes - the foolish things the GM doesn't expect you to do will be punished and the foolish things the GM does expect you to do will be rewarded.I seem to be venting a bit and I apologize.  I don't mind being punished for foolish actions, I have committed many and have received my reward.  I find myself just frustrated by the situation.  Perhaps I have learned a lesson about posting guards, but at the same time I hate having to play my character as a paranoid freak who basically will never be able to rest.  Some of this spills over from a recent character who was assasinated in his sleep at the inn.  Apparently, there is no place that a character can relax and be himself and that is a bit depressing.Oh well.  I'll stop complaining.  As I said before, I don't think anything was wrong with how things were handled- just an unfortunate turn of events (and dice).  Guards have been assigned.  We can all go to sleep now.</blockquote>

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