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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sialia" data-source="post: 632419" data-attributes="member: 1025">Listen to the Sialia, for she is wise:A persistent campaign of "nuisance" tricks should help to slowly ratchet up your group's paranoia without having to kill them. Some plot convenience or minor and expendable villian can be used for this purpose.But hold something Dangerous, Important and Flexible in store. The kind of foe you could throw at them almost anywhere or anytime without upsetting your plot. Especially good if it is something that will advance your plot. And then wait for the moment.At some point they should start to respond to the nuisance pattern: that imp always steals our socks at night. Let's post a guard. And when they get that, when the lesson is actually starting to grip them at least a little, hit them with the Big Dangerous Thing and ensure that it is at least partially foiled by their preparations for dealing with the little thing.So they can have a moment of wonder: gee, we'd have been COMPLETELY screwed if we hadn't set up a guard in advance.This is a big, big reward players can appreciate. Even if they got it right only by mistake, getting it right should feel good, and be something they want to do again.Getting killed feels awful, and players ought to work to avoid that. (Stick) Feeling pleased with yourself for doing something right feels good, and almost no one can resist that (Carrot), even if you really know you mostly got lucky. Spoonfuls of sugar will help the medicine go down. Success is a better sugar than treasure.Pulling punches once the combat has begun is pulling punches too late. The PCs gain confidence that you're not really going to hurt them. Pull the punches earlier when you let them get away with preventing or evading a difficult situation and still reward them for it. Not that you want them to refuse the dungeon altogheter. But if there is a choice of two ways and they pick the better one, they deserve points for choosing well.Always reward positive behavior.</blockquote>

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