D&D General Should you clarify information to the detriment of the players?

[Oofta]

Same here, but once in a while I'll bust out the legendary line "Are you sure?" as a hint they might have overlooked or ignored something.

Occasionally I'll bust out the "Are you sure" just to make them paranoid.

 

[Clint_L]

Same here, but once in a while I'll bust out the legendary line "Are you sure?" as a hint they might have overlooked or ignored something.

I like Matt Mercer's "you can certainly try..."

 

[FrozenNorth]

I think it’s absolutely fair game to give more weight to information that is readily available to the characters but not obvious to the players.

“There is a window halfway up the tower” may mean there is a window on the 2nd floor of a 4-story structure. The party may consider this an acceptable risk.

“There is a window about halfway up the tower. Tough to tell from the outside, but you figure it is about 3 stories up of a 6-story structure.” puts the emphasis that the person going through the window may have to fight through a floor on their own to open the door for the party, which would be pretty obvious to someone standing outside the building.

Also, I would have thought the wizard would have gone through the window, then opened/broke the window to lower a ladder to the others.

In most cases, assume that your players (if not their characters) are reasonably intelligent beings. If they are about to engage in something that seems particularly stupid or foolhardy, ask yourself “is it possible that they misunderstood something I said?”

And if in doubt, ask the reasoning behind their plan.

 

[payn]

This topic has reminded me of one of my favorite bad GM stories.

The party had entered a maze they had to navigate to get to the other side. The players spent two entire sessions blowing wisdom checks and fighting random encounters, etc.. They finally reach the end of the maze when the GM triumphantly declares, "you dummies never asked about the walls. They were only 3 feet high and you could have just climbed over them..." Needless to say the group disbanded after that session.

 

[Velderan]

This topic has reminded me of one of my favorite bad GM stories.

The party had entered a maze they had to navigate to get to the other side. The players spent two entire sessions blowing wisdom checks and fighting random encounters, etc.. They finally reach the end of the maze when the GM triumphantly declares, "you dummies never asked about the walls. They were only 3 feet high and you could have just climbed over them..." Needless to say the group disbanded after that session.

Was it a party of halflings? That might be valid in that case.

 

[Lanefan]

I think it’s absolutely fair game to give more weight to information that is readily available to the characters but not obvious to the players.

“There is a window halfway up the tower” may mean there is a window on the 2nd floor of a 4-story structure. The party may consider this an acceptable risk.

“There is a window about halfway up the tower. Tough to tell from the outside, but you figure it is about 3 stories up of a 6-story structure.” puts the emphasis that the person going through the window may have to fight through a floor on their own to open the door for the party, which would be pretty obvious to someone standing outside the building.

Unless there were architectural clues on the outside that might indicate number of stories/floors, I'd have stuck to simple distances in this narration; as in: "The tower's about 60 feet tall, including a short peak at the top. There's a ground-level door on the east side, and there's a single window - probably glass - on the south side about 30-35 feet up." I'd then go on to describe lighting and-or sounds, if any.

Also, I would have thought the wizard would have gone through the window, then opened/broke the window to lower a ladder to the others.

Lowering a rope seems far more likely as I don't know many parties who carry ladders while adventuring.

More relevant, perhaps: we're not told how big the window is, i.e. whether the armour-clad tank types could fit through it; we have to assume this would be asked and answered during this process.

In most cases, assume that your players (if not their characters) are reasonably intelligent beings. If they are about to engage in something that seems particularly stupid or foolhardy, ask yourself “is it possible that they misunderstood something I said?”

And if in doubt, ask the reasoning behind their plan.

Even the most intelligent people can talk themselves into doing stupid things. I just give them the information their characters would have; what they do with that info is entirely up to them.

 

[el-remmen]

the GM triumphantly declares, "you dummies never asked about the walls. They were only 3 feet high and you could have just climbed over them..." Needless to say the group disbanded after that session.

As someone who frequently scrunches up his face in confusion when other people on these boards describe what they think of as "terrible DM gotchas," this is definitely a terrible (and stupid) "DM gotcha."

 

[Li Shenron]

so my question os in situations where doing so will likely lead to character/party death do you reiterate/remind players about information that will make it easier for them to proceed with a bad plan or keep quiet?

Usually I do neither of those, and instead I tell them openly that what they're about to do is significantly higher than what they can handle at their level.

 

[Clint_L]

This topic has reminded me of one of my favorite bad GM stories.

The party had entered a maze they had to navigate to get to the other side. The players spent two entire sessions blowing wisdom checks and fighting random encounters, etc.. They finally reach the end of the maze when the GM triumphantly declares, "you dummies never asked about the walls. They were only 3 feet high and you could have just climbed over them..." Needless to say the group disbanded after that session.

This story seems apocryphal.

 

[payn]

This story seems apocryphal.

Could be, I heard it online. Though I’ve known a GM or two that would pull something like this.