Save My Game - Goes off like a bomb!

[Hussar]

From Here

My professional field is education, and one of the most maddening things for a student is when they feel that they have to play "guess what the teacher is thinking" when responding to a task, be it test, paper, homework, or whatever. What you are asking your players to do in this situation is the same thing, to come up with some strange and outlandish idea of how to open a door.

Why in the Seven Heavens would you expect your players to guess that opening a locked door could be accomplished by moving random pieces of furniture? The cliché of torch sconces and random books on bookshelves serving as door-opening triggers is a cliché that applies to hidden doorways, secret doors, sliding walls, rotating bookcases. In short, it applies to doors that you don't know (though you might suspect) are there. There is no apparent door, and the protagonist, quite by accident, happens to bump something that makes a door open. The mystery deepens as our hero ventures deeper into the heart of the haunted house or creepy castle. If you are hoping to use this example as evidence that your players are uncreative (because they didn't guess that a door could be opened with a random method such as manipulating a brazier or book or torch), I think that's a stretch.

So, whatcha think of this bit of advice?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think "guess what I'm thinking" DMing is the worst DMing mistake possible. Unfortunately, it seems to also be the most widespread.

 

[Ender_rpm]

Agree. Watched a game meltdon in one session over this issue. GM wanted to play CSI-Forgotten Realms, but didn't give us a reason to care. We walked on the plot hook, and bailed on the campaign. True story.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

On the money.

Expecting your players to figure out your exact solution to something, without there being a good way to determine it, is foolish. The person says they "hinted" at it, but the while the hint may have seemed good to the DM, he already knew the answer. Perhaps it makes less sense to the players, who were probably already frustrated. I would have allowed a Search or Open Locks check to discover that "there appears to be some kind of cable leading towards the corner of the room." and then further searche checks in that corner to discover that the cable connects to the brazier.

I suppose the players might be uncreative in that they didn't find another way around the locked door, but perhaps the DM has actually squelched creativity in the group because they have been taught that only the "correct" solution, as predetermined by the DM, will work.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Particularly frustrating for anyone who played earlier editions, where an "adventurer" being so foolishly daring to touch a torch on a wall was just as equally likely to result in you dying without a save. Whats sad is so many think this is a GOOD method of play (recall the long thread on pushing a button in a dungeon).

It all boils down the the "You IDIOTS!" style of DM'ing that was popular in the 70's/80's. Where you were an "idiot" for not probing with a 10 foot pole. You were an "idiot" if you probed with a 10 foot pole, as you set off a trap centered 10 feet away from the trigger. You were an idiot if you didnt listen at the door, but if you did you got those little ear bugs. If you used a glass to prevent that, the door had a shatter cast on it.

 

[Kestrel]

Also makes a horrible riddle. Just ask Gollum.

"Whats its gots in its pocketess? How does Precious know what it has in its stinking pocketeses?"

(With apologies to Tolkien for memory-based quoting)

 

[Festivus]

In the example given, wouldn't a search have possibly turned up the fact that the brazier was attached to the ground and seemed to swivvel? That is the sort of hint I would offer up.

The creativity part comes in when the players state what they do with this newfound
information "Hey, check this out rogue, could it be a trap?"

It always bothered my that adventures include these sorts of puzzles that require out of character knowledge to bypass (e.g. White Plume Mountain and the riddle posed by the Sphinx). In the case of puzzles, my players tend to not like them so I permit INT checks for the characters to figure out the problem.

 

[Shade]

I think "guess what I'm thinking" DMing is the worst DMing mistake possible. Unfortunately, it seems to also be the most widespread.

So very, very true.

 

[Mark CMG]

Just ask Gollum.

Just ask him to guess what you think about it, that is.

 

[molonel]

Puzzles require rules, and a reason to exist. Arbitrarily placing a room where you have to move furniture to open a door with nothing more than "hints" is a recipe for players giving you the middle finger.

Others have already said it better than myself. I call this sort of gaming the "Stop hitting yourself!" style of play. It's fun once in a while, but not something I'm going to drag myself out of be on a Saturday morning to play.