Ahnehnois
First Post
I struggle to imagine how the same person could fulfill both roles, though, and not have some crossover between the two. That is to say, how can you be sure that your basic extrapolation is not in some way influenced by whatever advance knowledge and opinions you may have had about this scenario?I prefer to split the role of DM into designer -- one who creates situations and referee one who arbitrates between player input and a prepared situation. When I am acting as a referee, I prefer not to try to alter the situations on-the-fly other than basic extrapolation of consequence.
That's kind of the distinction that I'm getting at though. Existing independently and interdependently are completely different things.The whole independence thing correlates to the whole published adventure eco-system; could a different DM plausibly run the same scenario? I view as more the "situation exists independently from the PCs (or in some cases, interdependently with the PCs).
All true to an extent. However, part of player skill is trying to figure out the game workings. That is to say, determining the mechanical level of challenge posed by a scenario or the probability of success of an action. Obscurity increases this element of skill.Even if skill is not reduced, such interference obscures the game workings from the player. This obfuscation gets worse if the interference is itself hidden through illusionism, fudging, etc.
Well, yes. I totally get that this kind of DM metagaming; creating an in-game scenario to serve his own ends, can be a problem. The thing is that the original quote described a situation that may or may not arise from that kind of intent. I would not assume that all attempts to steal, sunder, or otherwise remove an item from a PC's control are examples of DMs trying to remove problematic items.This part I partly disagree with. If the DM is scheming to remove a magic item because it is causing him annoyance then I get the reference. I've had that happen to me a few times when I have had the pleasure of playing. The most egregious example I can think of is we gained a very fast flying item. The DM started adding inconveniences to it (such as it slowly consuming spell books and scrolls) then having NPCs offer book value for it. But we as a group felt its value to us (strategic movement, mainly -- it was a large world) outweighed the offers and eventually it was taken from us at sword point by the local monarch -- who paid us book value for the privilege. The DM didn't seem to understand why we didn't want to accept further commissions from that king or even stay within his lands.
If on the other hand, other groups inside the game are scheming to acquire an item known to be in the PCs hands that is fair game.
This stuff just happens sometimes. In combat, removing an opponent's valuable item makes tactical sense. Out of combat, stealing valuable things makes financial sense if you can get away with it.
I do agree that if the DM has a problem with the players' capabilities, an in-game bitch slap is probably not the appropriate solution, on a variety of levels. To me, the real issue is the intent, not what is happening in the game world. Almost any action can be appropriate, or inappropriate, depending on the context.
It becomes more challenging with illusions. I distinctly recall an early scenario where we went through a chase with a villain and finally caught up with him to find out that he was a figment. It felt like all the effort and mechanical choices we'd made to get to that point were meaningless, and it seemed like the DM was jerking us around. Why play out the scenario of a chase if there was nothing to catch?Yeah and I make the distinction clear to the players; more frequently than not with some. I as referee will convey what you perceive is going on as accurately as I can What I won't do is offer advice/extra detail/vague assurances to try to entice a PC into a situation I think is interesting. I speaking as a NPC will be trying to convey what the NPC wants to convey as accurately as I can. So if the NPC wants you to believe a lie then I will try to accurately project that.
Conversely, I suspect that the DM was refereeing correctly by leading us to believe that the illusion was real. So the implications of that type of situation in this context are unclear to me.