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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 1878865" data-attributes="member: 18280">Pretty Big Points Left OutWell, then, these are some very important points that we were not apprised of in the initial description of the events in question.The Geas, of course, is a pretty significant problem for the group.  I am not certain how the Geas occurred, though, so I won't address it.  It might have been fair; it might have been railroading.  Geas is a tough tool for a DM to use without ticking players off.Opposed checks in Sense Motive/Bluff do mean that a very high Sense Motive check can be overcome by an even better Bluff check.  But, clearly you had reason to believe that (1) you could win the gnomes over, and (2) that you could get some idea of what the gnomes were planning.  After all, you have one of those rare groups smart enough to pump up Charisma and buy ranks in the social interaction skills.  Although it is metagaming, it also seems likely that you might have concluded that the DM put the gnomes there as a means to get you onto the next part of the quest (i.e., they provided passage out of the city), especially considering the obstacles that you had to overcome.Personally, I don't think any player should ever come to the conclusion that all NPCs are out to get the PCs.  If that's the conclusion you've drawn, then either your DM has created a world in which only fools play the roles of heroes, or he hasn't really thought this through.As I said earlier, this was a problem in early modules, where the NPCs would always be ready to backstab the PCs.  It was supposed to be a surprise.  However, when it happens over and over, the element of surprise is lost.  It's like the adventure where players are supposed to believe that a bunny on a stump isn't really a monster, despite the fact that normal animals never, ever appeared in adventures....unless they were there to attack PCs.In my campaigns, I try to go with a "Most people are worthy of your trust and protection, but some are obviously not, and some are tricksy" approach.  The PCs know that farmers will regularly grant them shelter in return for news.  In the wilds, travellers' caches along the roads store needed supplies (replenish what you take, leave what you can spare is the general rule).  People are generally honest, and dishonesty is not something you want to get a reputation for.RC</blockquote>

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