How much should the players know?

[awayfarer]

It looks like I'll be DM'ing a game in Eberron after our WLD group is over and I got to thinking; should you let your players know what beasties they're likely to encounter? On the one hand you might not want to give too much away. On the other hand, you don't want to gimp a ranger by not letting him know his favored enemy won't be featured, or a rogue by only using undead. My gut instinct on this is to say "yes, they should know." but I'd like to hear what others have to say.

Note: I've DM'ed several adventures for another group but have never actually started a campaign before. Anything else you might think to include?

 

[xrpsuzi]

As a player, I almost always want to know what's coming, but I almost always have more fun when I don't know before hand.

If the party is fighting something that has a particular way to kill it (silver weapons, immune to certain spells, etc.) you could give an in-game elements that tip them off, or at very least a "run away!" option, so they can regroup and get properly prepared for a second attempt.

-Suzi

 

[DragonShadow]

Well, since it's my opinion that they should be dictating where they go and what they face, not you as the DM, they would therefore know exactly what they'll be facing.

That being said, not everybody can shine all the time.

If a ranger from the Eldeen Reaches has aberration as his favored enemy, it makes perfect sense to me. If he then leaves his natural element, he shouldn't expect to be constantly fighting aberrations.

Similarly for rogues, not everything is subject to critical hits, and therefore sneak attack damage. That doesn't make the rogue useless, it just means that while fighting undead he won't be well served by sneaking about and trying to stab that wight in the back. Take him somewhere like Darguun, though, and he'll be mopping the floor with Orc-kin and goblinoids.

In otherwords...don't worry about it so much.

 

[brehobit]

I've done some high-level things like "the party shouldn't suck at range" (which I did for the thing I'm currently running). But more than that? Na. If it is going to be VERY undead heavy, I might warn off a rogue. And I might suggest a background to a ranger that would lean toward a non-sucky favored enemy. But past that, not so much.

Mark

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For the rangers in my Midwood campaign, I made sure to look at their favored enemy choices and tell them if they were picking something they were unlikely to meet. Likewise, I warned players if they picked languages they didn't realistically have much chance to learn. Beyond that, I'm all for surprises.

 

[Celebrim]

It looks like I'll be DM'ing a game in Eberron after our WLD group is over and I got to thinking; should you let your players know what beasties they're likely to encounter? On the one hand you might not want to give too much away. On the other hand, you don't want to gimp a ranger by not letting him know his favored enemy won't be featured, or a rogue by only using undead. My gut instinct on this is to say "yes, they should know." but I'd like to hear what others have to say.

You should first ask your players what characters that they wish to play. If you can't accomodate your choices you should voice your concerns. If you can, then its best not to spoil thier fun by giving them information that they wouldn't know IC.

Note: I've DM'ed several adventures for another group but have never actually started a campaign before. Anything else you might think to include?

If the players aren't familiar with the setting you should give them an overview of what any character of average intelligence would be able to know about the setting. This will help them integrate thier character concepts into the campaign world. It's a bigger issue with home brews than published settings. With a published setting you probably should only tell them any changes to the published canon that are particular to your campaign and which would be known to a character of average intelligence. You should probably also at least warn them if you plan to depart signficantly from published canon but don't want to reveal just yet how because some setting fans are as bad as rules lawyers.

 

[Shadowslayer]

On the one hand you might not want to give too much away. On the other hand, you don't want to gimp a ranger by not letting him know his favored enemy won't be featured, or a rogue by only using undead.

My instinct is to look at it this way: Never decide what's going to happen before you look at the PCs that will be involved.

In your ranger example, you can say "OK there's no Aberrations in the setting" and hope the ranger doesn't pick them. You could even try and sway him to something else.
OR
You could let him pick whatever favored enemy suits him, and build adventures that include some of them for him to fight with. (This would be the option I picked).

Build your adventures with the PCs in mind.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

OR
You could let him pick whatever favored enemy suits him, and build adventures that include some of them for him to fight with. (This would be the option I picked).

Build your adventures with the PCs in mind.

OTOH, I find a lot of DMs get tired of kitchen sink settings and want to do something based around a particular vision. At that point, if the DM is in that mode, it's got to be a compromise. A dragon-hunter in a campaign where the DM wants to focus on the undead isn't a problem so much as a conversation -- maybe there will be some select undead dragons (they make good boss types), but the player should know that, much of the time, dragons won't be the most rewarding category of monster to choose.

I go through phases, myself. Sometimes, anything goes settings are a lot of fun. Other times, I just want to narrow the focus some.

 

[Glyfair]

I think this varies from group to group. Some want to know, some don't. Some want a middle group ("You probably don't want to take dragons as your favored enemy, you'll see little use of it.") Others want some input into the setting (find a way to introduce ways for the player in the last example to use his favored enemy - dragon).

I recommend discussing it with your group.

 

[Shadowslayer]

Whizbang, I get what you're saying, but I'm not 100 percent sure I understand how basing my adventures around the PCs results in this so-called "kitchen sink" setting.

I mean, if I had 8 PCs and they all played rangers and they all had a different favored enemy, then maybe. But I usually play with 3-4 PCs. Even if I'm lenient with them, I don't end up with a hodgepodge setting. Just means my setting is not set in stone before I know what's being played.