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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7162757" data-attributes="member: 97077">In this context, a gotcha would be as I defined it in my last post. A surprise happens when the players are given the clues and either dismiss them as irrelevant or make erroneous conclusions about them and come to find out they were wrong. What differentiates a gotcha from a surprise comes down to whether the DM telegraphed the reveal sometime earlier.I'm not sure if you're a fan of Game of Thrones (the show in this case), but I think the plot twists there are a good example of this. Something stunning happens and you're surprised. (Maybe a friend even posted a video of you crying and cursing at the TV because your favorite character just got butchered.) But then you start to think back about any clues that were dropped in previous episodes - and you will find them. You kick yourself for not seeing it sooner yet you can't be mad at the writers because it makes total sense in hindsight. In other cases, something stunning happens and you saw it coming because you were paying attention and made some good deductions. That's also very satisfying, to be proven right. It's win-win either way from the audience's perspective because the plot twist was telegraphed. If something crazy happens and there were no clues whatsoever that it would occur, that's often seen as a plot hole which for many isn't very satisfying.Use of gotchas by the DM will tend to cause players to increase their defenses against them and that usually means pumping Perception and sometimes Insight maybe (or being extra paranoid and thorough). So if that is not something the DM wants to see, then getting away from using gotchas will definitely help. This is pretty tangential to the thread topic if we delve much further into the subject of gotchas, but if anyone wants to start a thread on it I will participate. We've definitely had those discussions before but it's been a while.</blockquote>

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