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<blockquote data-quote="Bawylie" data-source="post: 6315830" data-attributes="member: 6776133">I wasn't saying anything about &quot;the play style.&quot; I was talking about games I played in while growing up - so I'm not wrong about my own experiences. As for the rest:1.) A lot of published works give advice to DMs that they shouldn't look at their relationship to players as adversarial. You're right: It's not supposed to be. But that advice didn't just spring up out of a vacuum. 2.) Surprises aren't gotchas. Gotchas are when the DM looks for any chinks in your plan or SOP and then exploits that, regardless of whatever has already been established. Or modifies his challenge to circumvent your plan altogether. You've got a fighter with high AC fighting a troll while a rogue stands by with a torch. The troll can't hit the fighter - until the DM says he pulls out a Wand of True Strike &amp; a potion of fire resistance. Nevermind he's only wearing a loincloth. That's a gotcha. 3.) I was talking about how I changed my approach to the game - not criticising the old school approach for lack of emotional connection. I'm talking about shifting my personal focus. 4.) I got &quot;called&quot; for meta-gaming whenever I made intelligent decisions so the DM could make my character do something stupid, instead. &quot;How do you KNOW trolls are vulnerable to fire?&quot; &quot;Why would you search for a trap here?&quot; I don't know - maybe trolls are common enough to know something about and maybe every time I don't search for a trap, you hit me with one. Then complain how I'm meta gaming because I've been conditioned to fear abuse. Jaysus! 4b.) So now I give my players all the relevant information so they can make informed decisions. Fear of actual consequences instead of the unknown. Maybe fear of the unknown is better for you. I get plenty of mileage doing what I'm doing. So meta-game. Think. Plan. Do whatever you can to win. This IS a game - and we're playing in it. D&amp;D is that for me, too. And being honest about what the players see &amp; setting expectations fairly doesn't detract from that. Conniving, withholding, gotchas, these break trust.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Bawylie, post: 6315830, member: 6776133"] I wasn't saying anything about "the play style." I was talking about games I played in while growing up - so I'm not wrong about my own experiences. As for the rest: 1.) A lot of published works give advice to DMs that they shouldn't look at their relationship to players as adversarial. You're right: It's not supposed to be. But that advice didn't just spring up out of a vacuum. 2.) Surprises aren't gotchas. Gotchas are when the DM looks for any chinks in your plan or SOP and then exploits that, regardless of whatever has already been established. Or modifies his challenge to circumvent your plan altogether. You've got a fighter with high AC fighting a troll while a rogue stands by with a torch. The troll can't hit the fighter - until the DM says he pulls out a Wand of True Strike & a potion of fire resistance. Nevermind he's only wearing a loincloth. That's a gotcha. 3.) I was talking about how I changed my approach to the game - not criticising the old school approach for lack of emotional connection. I'm talking about shifting my personal focus. 4.) I got "called" for meta-gaming whenever I made intelligent decisions so the DM could make my character do something stupid, instead. "How do you KNOW trolls are vulnerable to fire?" "Why would you search for a trap here?" I don't know - maybe trolls are common enough to know something about and maybe every time I don't search for a trap, you hit me with one. Then complain how I'm meta gaming because I've been conditioned to fear abuse. Jaysus! 4b.) So now I give my players all the relevant information so they can make informed decisions. Fear of actual consequences instead of the unknown. Maybe fear of the unknown is better for you. I get plenty of mileage doing what I'm doing. So meta-game. Think. Plan. Do whatever you can to win. This IS a game - and we're playing in it. D&D is that for me, too. And being honest about what the players see & setting expectations fairly doesn't detract from that. Conniving, withholding, gotchas, these break trust. [/QUOTE]

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