Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8765489" data-attributes="member: 7016699">What setting stuff I come up with, I come up with specifically so the players/characters can find it, learn it, interact with it. I very rarely lie to the players--or even have NPCs lie to the PCs--because ... well, Sam Clemens is quoted as having said, &quot;If you always tell the truth, you never have to remember anything.&quot; There's a similar conservation of bandwidth at play for me.That said, I think there is sometimes value in finding a way to ... surprise the players/characters, while staying consistent with established facts and events and suchlike, if it can be managed honestly. I have had NPCs be honest but wrong before, when I knew I wasn't going to have to remember it for long. I have managed big reveals tens of sessions after planting something, while remaining consistent and even giving the PCs some clues.There are other facets to my thinking, of course--not because I think more complexly than anyone else, but because it's a pretty complex subject. There's the thought that the players should trust the GM about the setting; the thought that if the PCs are being heroic (or heroic-ish) then most NPCs should want to help them; the thought that--as I'm sure the OP got at--the players/characters should have a sense of how the world and the people in it work, so they can make sensible choices for sensible reasons (to the extent those kinds of choices are compatible with the kinds of things PCs get up to).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8765489, member: 7016699"] What setting stuff I come up with, I come up with specifically so the players/characters can find it, learn it, interact with it. I very rarely lie to the players--or even have NPCs lie to the PCs--because ... well, Sam Clemens is quoted as having said, "If you always tell the truth, you never have to remember anything." There's a similar conservation of bandwidth at play for me. That said, I think there is sometimes value in finding a way to ... surprise the players/characters, while staying consistent with established facts and events and suchlike, if it can be managed honestly. I have had NPCs be honest but [B]wrong[/B] before, when I knew I wasn't going to have to remember it for long. I have managed big reveals tens of sessions after planting something, while remaining consistent and even giving the PCs some clues. There are other facets to my thinking, of course--not because I think more complexly than anyone else, but because it's a pretty complex subject. There's the thought that the players should trust the GM about the setting; the thought that if the PCs are being heroic (or heroic-ish) then most NPCs should want to help them; the thought that--as I'm sure the OP got at--the players/characters should have a sense of how the world and the people in it work, so they can make sensible choices for sensible reasons (to the extent those kinds of choices are compatible with the kinds of things PCs get up to). [/QUOTE]

Verification