DMs do you trust your PCs?

[Creamsteak]

By his own words he lies to his players every session and by his own words he enjoys it since he bragged that they have yet to figure it out. That or he is insulting his players for being dumb and unable to figure he has been running this way for so long.

If it is insulting to state the obvious then I guess my post was an insult.

I will admit that Plot Nazi would be a better description of him though. He has arbitrarily decided what can happen and when and the rules be damned if they are going to interfere with his vision.

You completely misinterpret. I give my players unlimited plot freedom, I only adjust encounters and such to counter any overly unbalanced situations. I can give a player a +5 vorpal sword at level 1, and maintain the complete control over challenge. I really do take a lot of insult at what you say, and I feel you are trying to relate me to something outside of my statement.

I do not control the plot, I do not railroad (at all, in any way, ever), and I allow unlimited creativity. I simply state that I make some changes to the rules in order to maintain a clean game, rather than trying to adjust encounters by raising thier difficulty and such (because it isn't an exact science, and leaves too much room for error). I try and control the flavor myself, and many people respect it.

 

[Creamsteak]

Quite a bit agrivated with the above quote. You made me feel bad, so I posted twice.

 

[maddman75]

quote:Originally posted by Fictionaut
There's one guy who always HAS to roll his stats, even though I use a very generous point-buy, and always comes in with multiple 18s.

I think I game with his brother...

I once had a player, after hearing that everyone had to roll stats in from of the DM, say "Aw, man! I always roll better when no one is looking." This was in the 2e days, and the number of fighters with 18/00 strength that everyone had defied all reason.

 

[CrazyMage]

Yep. I'm playing one on one with a guy I've been friends with since gradeschool. First session of our game, he finds a cart with several thousand gps. Keeps a few (poor 1st level ranger) for himself, but turns over the rest to the authorities. All on his own. In line with his character and alignment. I'm so proud. (It was money to be used to help a rebellion in a neighboring country, so major plot point--though he doesn't really know that yet)

Plus he's too new to 3rd edition to work the loopholes!

 

[Lela]

I once had a player, after hearing that everyone had to roll stats in from of the DM, say "Aw, man! I always roll better when no one is looking." This was in the 2e days, and the number of fighters with 18/00 strength that everyone had defied all reason.

It's really amazing how many 18s pop up.

Anyway, I must admit that I do have one player who loves Hack'n Slash. He can always find a way to make a Fighter who is dang good at what he does. But, as a DM, I just have to throw the occational Will save his way to make a challange. Those Charm spells can be murder on a party.

 

[Roland Delacroix]

Yes, I trust my players. I know them so I trust them to take advantage of any rules holes I open up. Luckily I am an incredible min/maxer myself so I see every attempt miles before it happens. I'm still not used to the regular stuff though.

I trust one player in particular to do a decent job of exploiting rules, his wife as well though i'm still not sure if she walks beside him or merely follows his lead (BTW Hi there! See ya next sunday?) Two more players balance RP with min/maxing pretty well. Another two would be happy if their charaters were as useless as a sock puppet as long as their characters interact good and follow their concepts.

I don't care what they do as long as they have fun. I'm not one of these DM's who think the players 'owe' him something or need to act in a certain way. I'M here to make THEM have fun whatever that takes, not dictate my own play universe. I arbitrate the rules, they run the game. Yeah I 'cheat' Doc Moriarity, if it makes you feel better to condescend to me as well. My players want a challenge and unlike the great and all knowing God, Jehova, Oz, Vecna, or whomever, I don't know everything and so can't plan everything perfectly in advance.

If my min/maxing players ever make the RPers feel useless, or the RPers drag the game on for the min/maxers we will talk and come to some compromise. So far it has worked out pretty well. I think they are enjoying themselves.

 

[jollyninja]

if someone wants to cheat, i'll let them. if they feel a sense of accomplishment having their character allways critically hit, having all 18's for stats having more skill points then they should, that's fine. however every time there is going to be one character singled out as getting an extra opponent (ie 10 to 3 odds) he gets the extra one and spellcasters will randomly target him 9 out of 10 times. magical items will be tailored to other pc's making them as effective while he gets to sift through the magical sap/club/dagger collection for a weapon. also if the enemy cleric has a harm, he gets it every time until he gets the point.

if someone wants to play evil, they will have to deal with paladins, clerics and other do gooders and i will not save him from them. if they kill a man, bounty hunters may be called in depending on who he was and if you screw over an assassins guild, you are a dead man.

in short do what you want in my games, but beware, i'm not stupid and i do not like it when you act like i am. nobody rolls 3 18's, nobody.

 

[BBrendolfus]

My players don't cheat but they do make mistakes, that is why I double check stuff, especially the newbie.

A deliberate cheater would not be invited back.

 

[Mobius]

I took the tack that as long as character creation was taken care of fairly, everything else seemed to fall in line. So, I was more than a bit draconian when my players rolled up their PCs. I had them roll MY dice - and each of them used the same set. I randomized their ability scores on a sheet of paper I kept behind the screen because some of my players have mastered the art of the 'quick grab' of the dice:

"Yeah, it was a 16."

Knowing full well that the roll I was waiting for was STR ... If they didn't know what they were rolling for, they were loathe to try and slip one past me.

Once the rolls were done, I had them roll up their family histories, their parent's occupations, etc. before handing them back their sheets. What a look of dismay! It disappeared after a while to be replaced by new visions of what the character as it sat could do, but for that first bit, boy were they bitching.

My second draconian move was to restrict their choice of class (I use a classless system that uses professions, but the point is the same) to classes they would reasonably find in the area *or* supply me a reasonable back story to explain how the PC entered into the strange profession.

Pretty soon, the storyline started coming together around the back stories they were creating, and the germ of the campaign was created. So, in a way, forcing the players to be creative around their characters actually helped the campaign, plot wise.

 

[King_Stannis]

i'm in the old ronald reagan school:

trust but verify certain things.