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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 8640730" data-attributes="member: 467">Presenting appropriate but worthwhile challenges is one of the hardest parts about GMing. 5E doesn't help much with its near useless CR system, so experience is all GMs have to fall back on. For new GMs, that is obviously an issue. It feeds into the debate over GM fudging, too. I am a roll-in-the-open, dice-fall-where-they-may GM by and large. Once I decide it is time to start rolling dice, I accept their results and expect players to do the same. That said, it can be a problem when things go sideways because I miscalculated an encounter. Most recently it happened in Deadlands using SWADE because I did not realize just how powerful small size was in that system: plus or minus 4 in a system where 4 is the target number is huge. In those cases I pause the game, point out my error, and ask the players if they want to retcon or just play it out and see what happens.Note that this is different than if an encounter goes sideways because of either bad luck (stuff happens) or bad choices by players (it's a dangerous world out there). That is, IMO, where it is extra important to let the dice fall where they may. I know some folks won't see a distinction, or don't like the idea of a TPK happening just because of bad die rolls, or think it is putative to let players reap the consequences of their suspect choices, but that's just how I run my games.</blockquote>