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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haltherrion" data-source="post: 5215506" data-attributes="member: 18253">As a player had a game once where the ref really wanted to try a gritty, low magic, post-apocalyptic sort of D&D game where healing magic no longer worked and magic was mostly broken. It was a setting that really did not appeal to most of the player's aesthetic senses and while we gave it ago, it kind of just petered out due to lack of interest. In the campaign you described, I saw a number of warning flags. Spelljammer for starters is a "non-classic" D&D setting which can certainly work but also strikes many players as not really D&D and therefore not really their cup of tea. Meaning, as excited as you have may been about the setting, they might have been lukewarm about it (similarly to our low magic failed setting above). Not to say you can't engage them but suggests going to extraordinary effort in game to get them excited about the setting. Second, in the tactical situation you described, you implied there was only one way out. That's usually a mistake in any encounter because the players often don't see things the way you do and it is better to be more flexible, design an encounter where you the ref forsee several solutions and then be flexible if they take approaches you did not think of. This allows the players to solve the problem their way (within reason). The alternative has the players casting around for "the right way that the referee thought of" which can be quite frustrating. Finally, on the character concept, despite not knowing you or your players, the fact that one player wanted a new character because he didn't get the concept despite your earlier guidance I'm inclined to side with the player, not the ref on this. It may seem perfectly clear in your own head but from brain to paper (or email <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ) it is easy to leave out key details without realizing it. I don't fault the ref for this; happens to me all the time but I don't blame the player for not quite getting what I had in mind. So... dicey setting, maybe a over-constrained first encounter, character requirements a little unclear to the players, definitely have the ingredients for a short campaign...</blockquote>

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