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GMing: Transparency and Immersion
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<blockquote data-quote="gizmo33" data-source="post: 4627138" data-attributes="member: 30001"><p>I understand DMs not wanting to tell players how many hitpoints the monsters have left. And in general, I understand not wanting to give players more information that their characters would have.</p><p> </p><p>But the first issue to settle is whether or not a 4E Shield spell, for example, was balanced with the other powers assuming that the player had the information or didn't. Shield is more effective with information than without. This is irrespective of any "immersion" issues and just has to do with balancing powers.</p><p> </p><p>On the subject of immersion, IMO there's a question here as to whether telling players what AC a monster hits (for example) or telling them when a monster is "bloodied" really is substantially different than the tons of mechanical information available to the PCs. Heck, they can see *exactly* how far away a monster is when they use ranged spells. They know how many hitpoints they have, and they know what AC their own attack hits, etc. etc. etc.</p><p> </p><p>A picture is worth a thousand words (ie. an inordinately long time spent describing petty details), as they say, and I think sometimes the mechanics of the situation are a necessary shorthand for giving players the information that they're character would have. Take the Shield example again: wouldn't an experienced adventurer gain some instinct for when they are facing a threatening attack (ex. a roll that will easily hit) from a one that would just barely hit? A shield spell is an immediate reaction - so you're actually already breaking immersion by allowing the player to retrogame anyway. And as a DM, I don't want to sit there with a thesaurus and try to pick different words for each kind of hit or miss in order to approximate what the numbers would tell them anyway.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="gizmo33, post: 4627138, member: 30001"] I understand DMs not wanting to tell players how many hitpoints the monsters have left. And in general, I understand not wanting to give players more information that their characters would have. But the first issue to settle is whether or not a 4E Shield spell, for example, was balanced with the other powers assuming that the player had the information or didn't. Shield is more effective with information than without. This is irrespective of any "immersion" issues and just has to do with balancing powers. On the subject of immersion, IMO there's a question here as to whether telling players what AC a monster hits (for example) or telling them when a monster is "bloodied" really is substantially different than the tons of mechanical information available to the PCs. Heck, they can see *exactly* how far away a monster is when they use ranged spells. They know how many hitpoints they have, and they know what AC their own attack hits, etc. etc. etc. A picture is worth a thousand words (ie. an inordinately long time spent describing petty details), as they say, and I think sometimes the mechanics of the situation are a necessary shorthand for giving players the information that they're character would have. Take the Shield example again: wouldn't an experienced adventurer gain some instinct for when they are facing a threatening attack (ex. a roll that will easily hit) from a one that would just barely hit? A shield spell is an immediate reaction - so you're actually already breaking immersion by allowing the player to retrogame anyway. And as a DM, I don't want to sit there with a thesaurus and try to pick different words for each kind of hit or miss in order to approximate what the numbers would tell them anyway. [/QUOTE]
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