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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 5654147" data-attributes="member: 8835">As another chap said, The Lich decided to screw the players (not that they did not have it coming).The GM is the playing the lich.  and the dungeon, and the other NPCs.  While he's making decisions that hopefully make sense and are in character (can't argue with the Lich example making sense and being in character), what was the GM's motivation for putting it there?In the hands of a good GM, these decisions all seem logical outcomes of the NPCs.  However, as GMs we're the only party at a table playing both sides of conflict (the helpful and harmful NPCs).  Whereas, the players are generally just control of themselves as individuals and have no conflict.If the PCs make a mistake outside of combat, who decides on the severity of the outcome?Are you sure you're roleplaying the NPC or maneuvering toward an objective outcome?How do you know that what you've decided to make happen next is a fair selection, out of all the possible ways to handle it.It's pretty easy to say, well if the PC kills an NPC, the cops'll show up and try to arrest him, and if that works, off to jail, and then the block.But as the real world shows, people get murdered all the time without any suspects arrested, or worse arrested and the trial fails to find the party everybody "knows" is guilty.So, with any 1 outcome the GM thinks is the right outcome, is it really?For a good GM, this always works out fine.  for the bad GMs, this is where the problems arise.</blockquote>

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