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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lin_fusan" data-source="post: 4696124" data-attributes="member: 37085">I have a concrete example from my own game that I want people to comment on so I can better understand the arguments presented:I'd like CharlesRyan, Cadfan, and others who believe in the entertain-first camp to comment specifically, but of course anyone can contribute...In this 3.5 scenario, my PCs were exploring a partly sunken ship and encountered a giant living mass of seaweed. I described the creature as vaguely anthropomorphic including a gaping maw where a person's mouth would be.The halfling wizard player glomped onto the idea of the gaping maw and on his initiative said, "I throw myself into the gaping maw!"(I knew he was going to do the "activate a Swan Boat inside a monster" and instantly kill it cheese...)Now, I knew the creature didn't really have a mouth. It was a detail to create an image of horror. Since it's a plant, it simply absorbs, not chews.Here were the issues I had:1) The player was expecting that the Swan Boat trick would instantly kill the creature.2) The player didn't know know that the gaping maw wouldn't lead into the stomach of the creature. 3) By all rights, I should have gotten a free attack on him, and I think the creature's Grapple check was so high against the weak, small halfling wizard he would be toast. In essence, the player was unwittingly going to kill himself.4) The player was getting frustrated because he thought he was not be effective. (I don't know where this was coming from. I think he prepared all utility spells or something.)Now, I fully understand how Chekhov's Gun worked here. The player heard a detail, thought it significant, then acted on that knowledge.The dilemma I had was that I wanted this to be entertaining to the player, but the monster, by the combat rules, would have ripped him a new one.What should I have done? Ignore the combat rules to allow him to do something suicidal? Please note that all of the other players were trying to talk him out of it.Allow him to do this impossible maneuver ( since he had no Tumble skills or even spells to ease this maneuver he would fail)?Lastly, since he was expecting the Swan Boat to instantly kill the creature, do I give in to that expectation?From the discussion with Varis, it sounds like some of you would, as DMs, allow this maneuver to automatically succeed because the "Chekhov's Gun" of the gaping maw was such an important detail that it must be the monster's weakness. And because the player thought it was true, then it must be true.</blockquote>

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