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Message: <blockquote data-quote="5ekyu" data-source="post: 7310121" data-attributes="member: 6919838">Again, to be clear, in the case in point that sparked me to create this thread... the party was on the trial of some bad guys. they had opportunities to gain more info along the way including the likely location of and existence of the ambushes.the module provided in other bullet points some specific "if they know this then assume they get that..." advantages already - it basically assumed the characters would competently be using their info gained, would be remembering the info on their quarry (gained a little while ago on the hunt) etc... and provided hard coded cases of easier DCs, longer spotting ranges etc for those gains without requiring any PC magic words or stated precautions.then it added the magic word "looking for ambush" to give advantage on those checks whose DC was lowered already (or not) by the info gained.i agree absolutely that the character can forget important stuff... but rather than invest that "forgetfullness" in the player's memory (of events which in real life may have occurred weeks ago when in game it is days ago, when in real life the pursuit is taking up a part of a two-four hours play in a week while in the game the character is living it on the road right now hour after hour) i prefer to invest it into the character's skills and a difficulty based off the circumstances of the character itself who very well may not be dealing with two sick kids at home, a grocery list for tomorrow or even chemo-brain.Players are rewarded for paying attention at my table by the fun it brings them and their ability to help steer and control the events, which are typically fun to engage in. I do not need to bypass their characters skills and weaknesses to put more weight on their attentiveness to keep their attention. In the past, the more i have seen Gms set the character aside and put the players on test, the more it led to less engagement by the players in terms of a far more cautious approach focusing more heavily on the "what i say to the GM" instead of "what my character is doing." A related kind of thing is how players approach wishes... where they tend to wish defensively to avoid having their wording or lack of wording turn into a problem as opposed to looking as a wish as a boon.This is in fact a sort of key point - players (IMO) tend to focus on what matters to success or achieving their goals... if that is the interchange between them and the GM... what they say more than what their characters can do, then that gets their attention to that part of the gameplay. if they see their character and what it can do is more often the focus of the events than their interaction with the GM - they get more focused on their character and what it is doing. obviously not always the case and not always the case for everyone.i guess i am saying "engaging in the in-game elements" and "engaging with the GM" are two very distinctive things that i see producing very different results.</blockquote>

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