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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 8993709" data-attributes="member: 7035894">I think you will probably strongly disagree with my approach to this situation, but I would handle it by trying to balance (i.e. do the design work) so that getting through the tower with some difficulty is the most likely and intended outcome...but not the only acceptable one. Where the story might just be tragic, and failure to even reach the BBEG is a possible outcome. Especially if the players make bad choices, but possibly if they are just very unlucky. And I roll in front of the players all the time, unless there is some narrative reason why they could not know whether a roll was successful or not, so they know that jeopardy is real.This is a philosophy that I emphasize with my players at session 0, if it is a new group. It also allows for the possibility that the players could turn back and find a new strategy. Sometimes I will set up situations that are very unlikely to be beatable by a direct approach, and a party that insists on forging ahead despite all the evidence suggesting they should find another way could well suffer a TPK.If they are simply trying to subdue the opponent, RAW already allows players to stipulate non-lethal damage. If they were just "feeling each other out," I would apply my own hack and keep track of damage, but simply rule that none of it counted once the combat was over (i.e. instead of actually following through with a strike, spell, or whatever, they were aborting the damaging part by pulling a punch or whatever). This is not a situation that I find hard to handle in D&D. It would be a really hard one to handle in Dread unless I had a second tower handy (I do).Edit: Linking back to my OP, I think one reason that I like having less narrative control is because it makes the game more fun for me. Prepping a game is like writing a story without knowing for sure how it will come out. I generally have an idea where I think it will come out, and where I initially intend for it to come out, but the possibility that something completely unexpected might happen is very exciting for me.</blockquote>

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