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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Varis" data-source="post: 4695057" data-attributes="member: 82427">*Bordrins Watch Spoilers*Ok, lets address this.  If, in your mind, my DMing style equates to my personality, then I'm guilty. Using the term 'personality' also implies that I was doing things on a whim,..however, there is a reason why the pipes are as they are. THAT was a determining factor, and of course, as a game mechanic.   Please read: "Bordrins Watch is a fortification and wall which spans the length of a pass in the middle of a snow capped mountain range (think, Lord of the Ring in terms of scale of this Mountain range).On one side, is a lush firtile valley and river, the city of Overlook, half a dozen townships and serveral Dwarven structures built high in the mountains,..one of which, the PC's are investigating.The other side is Orc territory. Bordrins Watch has never fallen to an orc attack, although its walls are now almost completely black as a result of the blood of eons of orc assults.Bordrins Watch is the main defensive structure for the region. The pipes are on the 'safe' side of the mountain range.Furthermore, the citadel was built in an era when the dwarves first cast aside the chains of slavery and forged their first mighty dwarven nation,..which spanned BOTH sides of the mountain range. At the time, the pipes were built without an emphasis of defence against a serious seige (their ememies were broken, there lands vast, and the mountain range was in the center of their territory).As time went on, the orcs began to rise in numbers and slowly pushed the dwarves back towards the mountain range. Bordrins Watch was built as a means to defend the remaing half of the dwarves territory.The citadel served as a place of training for (mainly) dwarven paladins, who servered at Bordrins Watch. The city of Overlook supplies all of the merchantile needs of this ancient defensive fortification.So,..to answer your question, the pipes were not created with an empahsis on defence. It was sufficient if they denied access to the average NPC." I.E. THATS HOW IT WAS BUILT.The players are responsible for their own decisions. If the players climb up that mountain, they will find whats there,..no more,..no less. It's not because of my personality, or fickle nature, or because I think the party needs a cull, or because I wouldnt mind seeing a half orc fly. Its because its there. The consequences of that are dependant on player actions.  I gave them the observable facts, no more no less.  Things exist in the world where they exist, and I certainly won't 'change' that part of the world just because the PC's are stomping through it. The pipes serve a simple purpose as game mechanic - that purpose was a secondary design consideration when it was built. It was a pipe, they decided to take a closer look, I gave feedback, two of them decided it was important to proceed up 3-5 hours up a pipe (did they consider water trapping them and drowning? It was never mentioned, but I'm betting the other three that didnt go, were certainly thinking about it). I gave feedback, they decided to committ more time to it, I gave feedback.  Thats my job.  The PC's are free to draw there own conclusions, and I facilitate/co-ordinate their observable world and actions, even then the PC's are in error. Its not about Punishment, personality, blame, ego, malice, vengence, angry tomatoes, power tripping, favouratism, Chekhov's gun, or whatever. They split up and paid a time/risk cost for it. Two players are too new at the game to have known about the implied costs listed above (btw 1 chose to go up the pipe, 1 chose to stay on the road), the other three are seasoned players - they knew the inherent price, and they paid it. Cool,..they are free to do that. They are not kids, they are in the real world now,..(well,..the real 'fantasy' world,..err,..you know what I mean)<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />. It cost them 15 minutes of their time and it exposed half the party to a greater risk of being killed. If they want to do it again,..they can.</blockquote>

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