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Respect Mah Authoritah: Thoughts on DM and Player Authority in 5e
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8437355" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>If the DM is honest enough not to fudge the rolls it doesn't matter. Beyond that, the DM is allowed to have ideas as to what happens next just as much as the players are - she's not a robot or a CPU - and as she knows more about the unexplored setting it's juuuust possible her ideas might be worth a bit more?</p><p></p><p>I don't care what the PCs do about the Kraken or the boat occupants. My job is to throw the scene at them and stop there. Their job is to decide what to do with that scene, whereupon my job is to react accordingly to what they do and run (or adjudicate) whatever happens next.</p><p></p><p>If the combat's already in progress and the father is holding his own then yes, it's clear he's either hella lucky or he knows what he's doing. But until the combat starts and-or the PCs can see any of this, they know nothing.</p><p></p><p>How, though, if I'm expected to give out the mechanical info at scene-set?</p><p></p><p>I deliberately left off the punch line in my rowboat-and-demons example: the harmless-looking guy in the rowboat was a divine minion (equivalent of an angel) summoned by someone's prayer to - just like the PCs - size up the demons and assess their threat; and at the time would have been the single most powerful being any of those PCs had ever met. His presence was also the reason the demons were only on the far shore of the lake and hadn't advanced further.</p><p></p><p>But from the players' (and PCs') point of view he was just some random local, and an encounter that they (unintentionally) avoided.</p><p></p><p>Agreed.</p><p></p><p>Which brings us to the next obvious question: is use of force cheating?</p><p></p><p>And I'll stop there; I saw the can-DMs-cheat debate once already this year and can do without a repeat. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Game I played in, years ago. Party was in a dungeon looking for the second of a series of items needed for [reasons]; this the second adventure in a 5-adventure arc embedded within a bigger campaign. At one point our lightning-happy MU put a bolt into a creature guarding a treasure room; the bolt extended into the room and shattered the item - a crystal - we were there for!</p><p></p><p>After that adventure we were fairly-obviously railroaded to the site of the next one (I suspect in part because our drunken bunch of fools had taken so damn long to find the last one!); and doing anything else was not really an option. Further, there "just happened" to be someone there who could magically repair the shattered crystal, without which we couldn't complete the overall quest.</p><p></p><p>Result: some wonderful fun adventuring followed, none of which happens without that ride on the railroad.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 8437355, member: 29398"] If the DM is honest enough not to fudge the rolls it doesn't matter. Beyond that, the DM is allowed to have ideas as to what happens next just as much as the players are - she's not a robot or a CPU - and as she knows more about the unexplored setting it's juuuust possible her ideas might be worth a bit more? I don't care what the PCs do about the Kraken or the boat occupants. My job is to throw the scene at them and stop there. Their job is to decide what to do with that scene, whereupon my job is to react accordingly to what they do and run (or adjudicate) whatever happens next. If the combat's already in progress and the father is holding his own then yes, it's clear he's either hella lucky or he knows what he's doing. But until the combat starts and-or the PCs can see any of this, they know nothing. How, though, if I'm expected to give out the mechanical info at scene-set? I deliberately left off the punch line in my rowboat-and-demons example: the harmless-looking guy in the rowboat was a divine minion (equivalent of an angel) summoned by someone's prayer to - just like the PCs - size up the demons and assess their threat; and at the time would have been the single most powerful being any of those PCs had ever met. His presence was also the reason the demons were only on the far shore of the lake and hadn't advanced further. But from the players' (and PCs') point of view he was just some random local, and an encounter that they (unintentionally) avoided. Agreed. Which brings us to the next obvious question: is use of force cheating? And I'll stop there; I saw the can-DMs-cheat debate once already this year and can do without a repeat. :) Game I played in, years ago. Party was in a dungeon looking for the second of a series of items needed for [reasons]; this the second adventure in a 5-adventure arc embedded within a bigger campaign. At one point our lightning-happy MU put a bolt into a creature guarding a treasure room; the bolt extended into the room and shattered the item - a crystal - we were there for! After that adventure we were fairly-obviously railroaded to the site of the next one (I suspect in part because our drunken bunch of fools had taken so damn long to find the last one!); and doing anything else was not really an option. Further, there "just happened" to be someone there who could magically repair the shattered crystal, without which we couldn't complete the overall quest. Result: some wonderful fun adventuring followed, none of which happens without that ride on the railroad. [/QUOTE]
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