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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cadfan" data-source="post: 4208367" data-attributes="member: 40961">The fundamental secret to my l33t ninj4 DM skillz- the lines are where they've already painted.  I provide the hooks, and color in the details.I find it hilarious as well.  But you know what?  Its hilarious because its a comic strip about conflict between a DM and his players.  Its NOT a comic strip about conflict between player characters and a gameworld.  I strive to play the latter type of game, not the former.  At the end of a KoDT plotline, the players have typically defeated the dungeon master, not the big bad guy or the plotline.  Its funny because its an archetypal example of a completely dysfunctional gaming group.No.  Never.Reason 1: Suppose the player is doing it to look cool for having thought of a surprise plan.  That player is an absolute moron.  I don't game with morons.  He's a moron because, if you think about that course of action for two lousy seconds, its obvious that it won't work.Blindsiding me with unlikely, unexpected plans doesn't make it more likely that your plans will go in your favor because, instead of me working out logical and plausible ways for the world to react to your characters, I'm ad libbing.So when I've prepped with the assumption that the players will reason with the Duke, and instead they shoot him in the knee with a crossbow, it doesn't mean that things will work out the way they hope.  Instead, it means things will work out the way they pop into my head at that exact moment.  God only knows what will happen then.Meanwhile, if the player comes up with a creative plan and telegraphs it to me in advance, I can make sure that the creative plan is matched with a logical outcome.  That's... kind of my job.Reason 2: As for the players who do it purely to see "how well the DM can cope," I find it best to kill their characters in the resulting chaos.  Then not game with them anymore.Reason 3: Take the player who's doing it because he's afraid I will "cheat" by prepping the outcome of his plan.  If one of my players feels this way, somewhere there is a total breakdown of the group going on.  Maybe its him, maybe its me.  But someone has utterly failed.I work to establish trust with my players so that they learn that by telegraphing their actions to me, I will make sure that a richer game is achieved.  Instead of, you know, screwing them over by laying down rails that lead them back to where I want them to go.When I wrote that, I cringed a bit because I just knew someone was going to try to "beat" me by pointing out the wonderful game he played in where he was a pirate.  I'm referring to a trope.  The trope where there's a disjoint between the DM and the players, and the players respond by completely kicking over the apple cart of the gameworld.  Maybe its because the DM is railroading them and they respond by metaphorically disrailing the train in as spectacular a crash as they can engineer.  Maybe its because they're just punks and want to run amuck.  In either case, I think I'll start calling it a "Screw this, lets become pirates!" moment.</blockquote>

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