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<blockquote data-quote="SableWyvern" data-source="post: 39188" data-attributes="member: 1008">I agree that in an ideal world, player knowledge shouldn't effect character actions...But,I think that even with great roleplayers, DM rolls have two important benefits.First is added enjoyment for the players. I still recall fondly the reactions of surprise, shock, dismay and mirth when, during a tense negotiation with a sphinx, the character downing his supposed potion of glibness suddenly assumed gaseous form. The player involved may well have made the same decision for his character if he had known the potion was misidentified, but the situation would have been&nbsp; far less enjoyable if an alternate effect was expected.Second is the fact that it can be hard, if not impossible, to determine how much player knowledge has subconsciously affected character decisions. The more a player knows that his character doesn't, the harder he has to work to roleplay well. In some cases, a good roleplayer will be tempted to err on the side of PC-detriment, just to ensure that he isn't using his player knowledge (eg - I think my character would do this; hmm... but maybe I wouldn't have even thought of that if I didn't already know this... etc...). That IMO, is no better in effect than bad roleplayers utilising every scrap of player info that they can.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="SableWyvern, post: 39188, member: 1008"] I agree that in an ideal world, player knowledge shouldn't effect character actions... But, I think that even with great roleplayers, DM rolls have two important benefits. First is added enjoyment for the players. I still recall fondly the reactions of surprise, shock, dismay and mirth when, during a tense negotiation with a sphinx, the character downing his supposed potion of glibness suddenly assumed gaseous form. The player involved may well have made the same decision for his character if he had known the potion was misidentified, but the situation would have been far less enjoyable if an alternate effect was expected. Second is the fact that it can be hard, if not impossible, to determine how much player knowledge has subconsciously affected character decisions. The more a player knows that his character doesn't, the harder he has to work to roleplay well. In some cases, a good roleplayer will be tempted to err on the side of PC-detriment, just to ensure that he isn't using his player knowledge (eg - I think my character would do this; hmm... but maybe I wouldn't have even thought of that if I didn't already know this... etc...). That IMO, is no better in effect than bad roleplayers utilising every scrap of player info that they can. [/QUOTE]

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