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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8575448" data-attributes="member: 6877472">I was once inspired by a Dungeon adventure where it went to great lengths to hide what the monster the players fighting even was, taking cues from the original Alien.&nbsp; I did something similar- the party was forced to travel overland during inclement weather- it was stormy and misty.&nbsp; They came a merchant wagon, stuck in the mud, and the signs of a massacre.&nbsp; I described strange clawed tracks, but not having a ranger, they didn't know what it was, and soon lost the trail in the forest.I kept using hit and run attacks against the party, as something green and fast moving would come out of the woods, attack a player, and then dash back into them.&nbsp; Or when a player on watch went to investigate some noise, they got attacked in the dim light.Eventually the players were looking annoyed and definitely weren't having fun, so I let them get a good look at the thing.&nbsp; It was a troll, of course.&nbsp; They then found it's lair, and turned it into so much flaming goo.That was the moment when I realized denying players information without good reason was a jerk move.&nbsp; As the DM, I am the one who describes the game world to them.&nbsp; If I don't mention something, they don't know it's there.&nbsp; If I vaguely describe an enemy, they don't know what to expect.This can turn an encounter they can defeat easily into a nightmare.&nbsp; I can always use stronger or more monsters when designing encounters.&nbsp; It's trivial for me, as a DM, to trample all over the party.&nbsp; So making a lesser threat more deadly by depriving them of information just feels cheap to me.Sure, it builds tension, and -can- lead to a fun experience.&nbsp; But &quot;gotcha&quot; monsters are the gaming equivalent to a jump scare to me.&nbsp; There has to be a better way to make encounters more memorable than this.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8575448, member: 6877472"] I was once inspired by a Dungeon adventure where it went to great lengths to hide what the monster the players fighting even was, taking cues from the original Alien. I did something similar- the party was forced to travel overland during inclement weather- it was stormy and misty. They came a merchant wagon, stuck in the mud, and the signs of a massacre. I described strange clawed tracks, but not having a ranger, they didn't know what it was, and soon lost the trail in the forest. I kept using hit and run attacks against the party, as something green and fast moving would come out of the woods, attack a player, and then dash back into them. Or when a player on watch went to investigate some noise, they got attacked in the dim light. Eventually the players were looking annoyed and definitely weren't having fun, so I let them get a good look at the thing. It was a troll, of course. They then found it's lair, and turned it into so much flaming goo. That was the moment when I realized denying players information without good reason was a jerk move. As the DM, I am the one who describes the game world to them. If I don't mention something, they don't know it's there. If I vaguely describe an enemy, they don't know what to expect. This can turn an encounter they can defeat easily into a nightmare. I can always use stronger or more monsters when designing encounters. It's trivial for me, as a DM, to trample all over the party. So making a lesser threat more deadly by depriving them of information just feels cheap to me. Sure, it builds tension, and -can- lead to a fun experience. But "gotcha" monsters are the gaming equivalent to a jump scare to me. There has to be a better way to make encounters more memorable than this. [/QUOTE]

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