NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 6837995" data-attributes="member: 22779">Part of it is just venting.  I'll freely admit that.  Like [MENTION=2067]I'm A Banana[/MENTION] says, not every plan succeeds.  Fair enough.  And, we have had a run of very bad luck.Part of it too is a different definition of failure.  Yup, we got to the manor, so, that was a success.  However, now, apparently in doing so, we had alerted the defenders we were coming, so, even that wasn't a complete success.  But, it's really more than that.  It's the set up of the scenarios where the plans we make realistically never have a chance of success.  Maybe I'm mistaken.  I had thought the point of our planning was to get in and get out without being seen.  To me, a mass combat with fireballs being thrown and whatnot is a failure.  I had thought that the point of the exercise was to avoid all of that.  As a question though, what would have happened had we succeeded in spotting the patrol?  It's not like it would have mattered. They were a single move away from us.  Combat still would have happened.  There's no way we were getting into that house without raising the alarm.  So, [MENTION=2067]I'm A Banana[/MENTION], yes, we managed to wade through hours of combat and come out the other side victorious.  True.  But, to me, that's a failure.  No, that's not quite right.  That's a complete and utter waste of any sort of planning that we did.  Why bother wanking around for two hours at the table if we're going to fail ten feet into the adventure?  AFAIC, that adventure didn't start until we got to the manor.  All that other stuff was fun, but, ultimately pretty pointless.  Heck, even getting into the peninsula had nothing to do with any sort of planning and was simply one character leveraging his background.  Getting a place to stay had nothing to do with planning - again, background leveraging. It is awfully frustrating when you look at a scenario and realise that no plan we could have made had any chance of success.  There was zero chance we were going to get into that house unseen.  None.  So, why did we bother pissing about for two hours?  Just start in the middle of the fight and be done with it.I mean, [MENTION=72670]Raunalyn[/MENTION], you talk about the setting not happening in a vacuum.  Ok.  We were constantly canvassing for information.  How about letting us know that they know we're coming?  How about letting us know that the manor has enough guards to wipe out a small town?  What's wrong with giving specific details?  It's not a case of being doomed.  It's a case of making any plans being a complete waste of time because any plan we make is going to fail.  [MENTION=72670]Raunalyn[/MENTION] mentioned the bard going off to talk to the giant while the monk goes and stirs up the hornets nest.  Well, there's a perfect example.  What did you expect was going to happen when you put the NPC that the player has been looking for for the entire campaign in the next room, and then have the NPC hit the PC with an ultimatum that you know he's not going to accept?  Of course it went pear shaped.  And, because we had no idea that the NPC was there, there was no way we could plan for it.  Even had that not happened, the fact that the NPC that could identify us was in the next room pretty much guaranteed that things were going to hit the windmill in short order.These are details that might be kind of useful to know and learn during information gathering.</blockquote>

Verification