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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Grendel_Khan" data-source="post: 8601553" data-attributes="member: 7028554">I know this is a tangent, but I feel like it's at least a little related. The idea of players having a "seemingly good plan" or their PCs otherwise not deserving to die only makes sense in a certain, old-fashioned play style. It implies that there's always a "right" or "smart" thing to do, meaning something that impresses the GM or solves the written module. But a lot of games don't really care about that approach now. They prioritize doing what seems interesting, doing what lines up with specific RP-based XP triggers (like in Forged in the Dark or PbtA games), doing what advances an individual agenda (like in Alien's cinematic mode of play), etc. And when you think about any other narrative, if they're only about people making the "right" decisions at all times, meaning the most coldly rational and calculating, does that generally make for a good story?I'm bringing this up because I think this notion that players are constantly working to impress the GM with their player-based smarts, and "win" the situation put in front of them, is another factor encouraging GM dice-fudging. The GM looks down from on high, approves of the intellectual prowess of their players, and then determines what outcome is fair or unfair.Wouldn't it be more interesting if there wasn't a "correct" thing for the story's protagonists to do, or any prescribed expectation for how the story should go, and therefore no reason to even consider fudging any dice? And, more to the point, do people not realize that a lot of modern games have really left that whole framing behind?</blockquote>

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