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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AaronOfBarbaria" data-source="post: 6938332" data-attributes="member: 6701872">Since I don't have the players' impressions of what happened during the session, I have to assume I don't actually have all the details that matter for determining exactly what it was that went wrong - though it is clear that something indeed went wrong.It seems like the most likely culprit here is communication. Often times as a DM one things they have made something clear, but the players do not see things the same way. The only fix for this, in my experience, is to learn how to be clearer to your players - learn what they take from different words so that you can use the words that give them the impression you mean for them to have, without hoping they will take the meaning you would take from your words which doesn't always work out. And when it becomes clear that they aren't on the same page with you, correct that rather than leave them with the consequences of thinking they knew what you meant when they didn't.I find the easiest way to be sure my players are on the same page as me is to be explicit. In this example, that would mean asking them right before they attempt to take a long rest "So you are going to hide in the basement for hours, knowing that someone lives here and is at home, upstairs, and will be able to find that their lock was broken and some of their belongings are missing?" because what might be clear to you (that the witch is going to realize the intrusion, and then investigate to determine the extent of the obvious theft) isn't necessarily clear to the players (who might be, like a player of mine often does, thinking their options are limited in ways that they really aren't such as "We can't leave because there are scarecrows outside, so we have to stay here." and "Whoever is upstairs is likely in control of those scare crows outside, and since those attacked us so will they." Which are entirely reasonable thoughts, they just aren't the only possible reasonable thoughts given the circumstances).</blockquote>

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