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Attacking defenseless NPCs
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<blockquote data-quote="JiffyPopTart" data-source="post: 7627036" data-attributes="member: 4881"><p>Your response made me think a little bit more about how I go about using "GM fiat" of which I do very liberally in my games to keep them moving. If I had to put a number on it i'd guess that the "GM fiat" call is made in the players favor 95%+ of the time in order to keep a pace. Examples include....</p><p></p><p>1. The players defeat the BBEG vampire, all his lieutenants, and most of his minions except some scattered rabble. I am going to immediately end round-by-round combat and move on to the "What do you want to do with all these dead bodies?" segment of the game. I'm not going to enforce playing an extra few rounds killing a few guards (maybe getting hit a time or two but not really challenged) because the tension of the scene is gone with the defeat of the main villain and his powerful underlings.</p><p></p><p>2. If they have a home-base cottage or similar and it has a nonmagical secret door (or maybe even a magical one that is obvious when detect magic is used) i'm not going to wait for a player to say "I make a Search roll on this 10' section of basement wall to check for secret doors." to just allow them to roll to see if they find the door. Once the players actually start using the basement area regularly i'm going to just tell them....."One day Razmodius (the wizard) is farting around in the basement working on his spellbook when he happenened to notice a weird magical glow on the wall. When he inspects it closer he finds that something looked odd. He went upstairs and grabbed Rabbit (the rogue) and the two of you figured out there was a HIDDEN CHAMBER in your basement with....".</p><p></p><p>If one of the players thought to check the whole building for secret doors (because it was an old pirate cabin and there might be buried treasure) i'm going to give it to them.</p><p></p><p>If they walk down to the basement for the first time and its full of giant spiders who try to eat them, i'm NOT going to give it to them unless they actually use their action during a turn to "Check this section of wall here." because that's an entirely different setup than those above.</p><p></p><p>3. If they are walking down a forest path and a 20th level invisible hidden drow assassin tries to take a PC out, i'm going to use the standard combat rules because to do otherwise is "unfun" and not in the players favor.</p><p></p><p>The only time I make calls AGAINST them is if they are trying to stretch the power of something beyond its design "Can I cast Plant Growth on the salad the paladin just ate so that it explodes in his stomach ignoring his armor and killing him instantly?" or if my initial description is too short and they try to do something based on an incorrect assumption "You can't take a bow shot at the sentry you saw walking along the castle wall because you only caught a glimpse of his head for a half second before he went in the doorway. He isn't just standing there. You can WAIT for him to pop back out and shoot him then if you like."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JiffyPopTart, post: 7627036, member: 4881"] Your response made me think a little bit more about how I go about using "GM fiat" of which I do very liberally in my games to keep them moving. If I had to put a number on it i'd guess that the "GM fiat" call is made in the players favor 95%+ of the time in order to keep a pace. Examples include.... 1. The players defeat the BBEG vampire, all his lieutenants, and most of his minions except some scattered rabble. I am going to immediately end round-by-round combat and move on to the "What do you want to do with all these dead bodies?" segment of the game. I'm not going to enforce playing an extra few rounds killing a few guards (maybe getting hit a time or two but not really challenged) because the tension of the scene is gone with the defeat of the main villain and his powerful underlings. 2. If they have a home-base cottage or similar and it has a nonmagical secret door (or maybe even a magical one that is obvious when detect magic is used) i'm not going to wait for a player to say "I make a Search roll on this 10' section of basement wall to check for secret doors." to just allow them to roll to see if they find the door. Once the players actually start using the basement area regularly i'm going to just tell them....."One day Razmodius (the wizard) is farting around in the basement working on his spellbook when he happenened to notice a weird magical glow on the wall. When he inspects it closer he finds that something looked odd. He went upstairs and grabbed Rabbit (the rogue) and the two of you figured out there was a HIDDEN CHAMBER in your basement with....". If one of the players thought to check the whole building for secret doors (because it was an old pirate cabin and there might be buried treasure) i'm going to give it to them. If they walk down to the basement for the first time and its full of giant spiders who try to eat them, i'm NOT going to give it to them unless they actually use their action during a turn to "Check this section of wall here." because that's an entirely different setup than those above. 3. If they are walking down a forest path and a 20th level invisible hidden drow assassin tries to take a PC out, i'm going to use the standard combat rules because to do otherwise is "unfun" and not in the players favor. The only time I make calls AGAINST them is if they are trying to stretch the power of something beyond its design "Can I cast Plant Growth on the salad the paladin just ate so that it explodes in his stomach ignoring his armor and killing him instantly?" or if my initial description is too short and they try to do something based on an incorrect assumption "You can't take a bow shot at the sentry you saw walking along the castle wall because you only caught a glimpse of his head for a half second before he went in the doorway. He isn't just standing there. You can WAIT for him to pop back out and shoot him then if you like." [/QUOTE]
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