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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 5653741" data-attributes="member: 8835">It's about GM steering.  I say the GM is steering, conciously or unconciously, whether they claim to be or not.Remember that thread where you had the dumb party and the Lich.  They got screwed by the Lich.  Why, because you effectively steered it that way.  I might have steered it a different way (that's what I suspect was the crux of Hussar's debate on that topic).When EW made a comment about not being able to fail, that's at the crux of DM steering.Either way, DMs are steering.  So if the PCs fail, the DM is making a decision on whether to make that failure be a show stopper.While too much leniency could lead to EW's loss of sense of accomplishment, leaning the other way, is also self-defeating.  it does you no good to run a TPK every week.So, when somebody was busting CuRoi's chops over story style, maybe they haven't considered this:what if CuRoi is more than happy to TPK his party if they botch a combatwhat if he is always adjusting things so the party has another chance, with non-combat failures, unless the party takes a different direction.The result is, sure, he's trying to tell a story. So long as its the one the PCs are trying to move toward.This is all within CuRoi's right as GM to use his ability to steer.But this also means, as a player, your successes are also illusions.  Which, to an extent, they may be.In one of my thread a century back, about level-appropriate challenges, somebody implied a 1st level party could easily encounter an old Red Dragon in their game.  If that party survived, was that really a Success?  Or was it the GM steering things so the party wouldn't be dead, so they could keep playing?  Because as easy as it was for the GM to decide to not kill the party, he could have just wiped them out as an afterthought.  Which also would have been realistic.I've indicated how this principle works for story oriented GMs.  I suspect sandbox GMs may be in denial about this power they have and whether they use it.</blockquote>

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