Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr. Strangemonkey" data-source="post: 913932" data-attributes="member: 6533">The Rhetorical Side of the SituationFirst of all, allow me to say that this is one of the most interesting  of these troublesome player dilemmas I've seen in some time.  There's crunchy bits, metagame thinking, guest-host relationship ethical questions, and Hong.   What more can a thread ask for?Second, for the Ethical bit, I have to agree that a DnD game is more like a team sport or boardgame session than a dinner party.  People are going to be upset when they come to play 'their' game with 'the' rules and can't.  So, you're probably not to justified in claiming he violated guest-host relationship and shooting arrows through with mad Odysseus flava.  From a within the game standpoint you are near totally in the right.Third, I was in a situation like this, and what finally calmed the player down in that circumstance was time and explaining to the player that the situation happened the way it did not because of the way I designed the situation as a DM but because of the way the enemy had designed the situation as intelligent villains.  I explained that it was never meant to cripple him or the rest of the party just move the story along.It seems clear that the player does feel you are preventing him from playing the game as he plays it.  By explaining to him that this is still his game, just an upsetting part of it that works to reinforce his playing style later, you validate the player's decision to act as he did, and, honestly, that's the one thing that hasn't been considered in this situation.    No offense, Fusangite, but your plan for the vampires was pretty brilliant thinking in their interests, and you should have planned for the event that it had a chance of working based on the good strategy rather than assuming it would fail by bad tactics.  If the players want to be the ones to take the fight to the vampires and not have the fight taken them, that's legitimate.  They do seem a little foolish, but they certainly aren't morally defecient*.  Just shift the center piece to a fully armored player lead assault on the tower with the new vampires acting as a fresh and interesting challenge.*I could be wrong there but I've been reading Mary Gentle's excellent Ash books and thus the importance that medieval fighters put on heavy armor is still fresh in my head.  When the main character is without it she longs for it as I would a lover who paid all of my bills.</blockquote>

Verification