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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Admiral Caine" data-source="post: 4513412" data-attributes="member: 60438">I just wanted to rephrase what I said earlier. I don't want to come across as advocating "metagaming" to save players from using common sense and sparing them the consequences of poor judgment. (..and thus creating a precedent of happening over and over again, as one poster predicted) No, no, no. I guess a better way to say it is, make sure you're not playing Let's Make A Deal in how you present the situation. If you smile and say, "What's going to be, press on and see if you get to another area..? Or- are you going to settle for what you got, go back to relative safety with your NPC? What's gonna be fellas, Door Number One or Door Number Two?" Because, when presented with that sort of choice they almost always pick Door Number One, to press on. Now, that is not what the Original Poster described. Only he knows how he might have come across.. but his players reported back to him that they found the clues to be vague. The Original Poster has to do self-reflection and decide for himself how much he may or may not have 'dangled a carrot' by how straight faced and neutral he presented the choice. I don't presume to judge the OP, I'm just pointing out that it's easy to send mixed unspoken signals, or to withold them. The situation is not unlike the famous Sphere of Annilihation in the Devil's Mouth in the Tomb of Horrors. You step through the Devil's Mouth? Okay, you're dead. Going to swim down the passage? Sorry, nothing up ahead and you're too far extended to get back- you've drowned. Its all in how the actual choice was presented. <shrug> Now some people love the Tomb of Horrors. Some people love it, but only in a particular context, like a one-off challenge. Some people wouldn't consider it a good module for their ongoing campaign. Your mileage may vary. Final note: I would caution the Original Poster against thinking that he needs to "teach people a lesson". That's an invitation to adverserial GMing as opposed to seeing it as the GM's responsibility to present a fair challenge with consequences.</blockquote>

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