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<blockquote data-quote="Windrunner" data-source="post: 8842409" data-attributes="member: 7019965">Another thought occurred to me:&nbsp; I am NOT my character!&nbsp; My character has worldviews, skills, and knowledge I lack.&nbsp; I don't always know to ask all the right questions and miss things in the environment that my character would not.&nbsp; And that is what makes fantasy great!&nbsp; We can play is someone completely different from ourselves. I was talking to a fellow player yesterday that quit the group I am a player in about his frustration with the DM and it was not worth his limited time to play in the group.&nbsp; It highlighted a frustration I had with an adventure in a tunnel.&nbsp; The story-driven arc resulted in a major negative impact on the party and we were told that &quot;we simply did not notice anything&quot;.&nbsp; The description at the table was &quot;you walk down this long tunnel to the end.&quot;&nbsp; As I was thinking about how I could have DM'ed differently, I quickly realized the dwarf with stone cunning, would have had a chance to notice something that would have changed the play.&nbsp; It's his nature, not the player's knowledge base that is important.&nbsp; As a DM, I would have changed the wording I used to describe the situation and used the rules to give him a skill check to notice something the players at the table did not notice.&nbsp; Instead, the dwarf player in our group felt frustrated that he had chosen to play a dwarf and then the DM ignored the rules and didn't let his character use his skills and knowledge to figure out a problem.&nbsp; Finally, my fellow player said lack of consistency annoyed him.&nbsp; He wasn't saying the exact letter of every rule must be followed.&nbsp; Every table has house rulings.&nbsp; But once we understand the rules, they are applied consistently and fairly.&nbsp; When those are not, we no longer try to figure out what we want our players to do, we simply guess what the DM would accept best fits the story.&nbsp; Sorry to helicopter in;&nbsp; I still am in finals mode.&nbsp; But I wanted to share this thought with you.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Windrunner, post: 8842409, member: 7019965"] Another thought occurred to me: I am NOT my character! My character has worldviews, skills, and knowledge I lack. I don't always know to ask all the right questions and miss things in the environment that my character would not. And that is what makes fantasy great! We can play is someone completely different from ourselves. I was talking to a fellow player yesterday that quit the group I am a player in about his frustration with the DM and it was not worth his limited time to play in the group. It highlighted a frustration I had with an adventure in a tunnel. The story-driven arc resulted in a major negative impact on the party and we were told that "we simply did not notice anything". The description at the table was "you walk down this long tunnel to the end." As I was thinking about how I could have DM'ed differently, I quickly realized the dwarf with stone cunning, would have had a chance to notice something that would have changed the play. It's his nature, not the player's knowledge base that is important. As a DM, I would have changed the wording I used to describe the situation and used the rules to give him a skill check to notice something the players at the table did not notice. Instead, the dwarf player in our group felt frustrated that he had chosen to play a dwarf and then the DM ignored the rules and didn't let his character use his skills and knowledge to figure out a problem. Finally, my fellow player said lack of consistency annoyed him. He wasn't saying the exact letter of every rule must be followed. Every table has house rulings. But once we understand the rules, they are applied consistently and fairly. When those are not, we no longer try to figure out what we want our players to do, we simply guess what the DM would accept best fits the story. Sorry to helicopter in; I still am in finals mode. But I wanted to share this thought with you. [/QUOTE]

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